Poem

Mitsuharu Kaneko

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Another Poem

My love.
In the end I’ve become
your poop.

And in the narrow shitpot
I’m being tickled
along with other poops
by the larvae the flies bore.

That I was digested very well by you,
became dregs,
and have been pushed out by you,
I don’t have a smidgen of resentment.

Floating up, sinking,
I called out to you,
my love. There was no way you’d
notice me, the one turned into poop,
you squeaked the door and were out with a bang.

This poem is included in Human Tragedy, a lengthy autobiographical account with poems and prose that, according to Kaneko, draws together pieces he wrote in the three years following Japan’s defeat, although they are not necessarily arranged chronologically. The dedication of the book is “Vanitas vanitatum, et omnia vanitas”, from “Evangeline”. Was Kaneko referring to the narrative poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow?

もう一篇の詩

恋人よ。
たうとう僕は
あなたのうんこになりました。

そして狭い糞壷のなかで
ほかのうんこといっしょに
蠅がうみつけた幼虫どもに
くすぐられてゐる。

あなたにのこりなく消化され、
あなたの滓になって
あなたからおし出されたことに
つゆほどの怨みもありません。

うきながら、しづみながら
あなたをみあげてよびかけても
恋人よ。あなたは、もはや
うんことなった僕に気づくよしなく
ぎい、ばたんと出ていってしまった。