Poem
Kiyoko Nagase
My Rival was \'Death\'
Your visage is now in ripplesmy water surface does not calm down
My mind was at peace even though we didn’t meet
because you were everywhere
Your intense gaze from the distance used to lighten my gait
and I could walk calmly even through thorns
Yet, he is no more
When I heard ‘Death’ captured and took him away
my heart whirled up into the sky like a twister
Oh, his hands that wrapped me are gone now
A path in mid-air whirls up high, winding like a string
around its invisible hollow core
soaring high, yet not on wings
it moves only as heat attached to sand
Today I walk with such a heavy gait,
yet I appear to others as simply slow and graceful — but to where?
The capture left just a momentary shining scar in mid-air
my rival was ‘death’
Absently I marvel that it’s a mere half-month since he’s been gone
My debility has already changed my shape
Just as a cloud cannot hold its shape and let it rain
I dissolve from all corners and let it rain
That nuanced and vast whole!
My attraction equaling infinity!
My sorrows raining as far as Lethe
weigh too heavy for me to support
waft low on the ground
like lead-colored fog
© Translation: 2009, Takako Lento
ライバルは「死」であった
ライバルは「死」であった
From: Zoku Nagase Kiyoko Shishuh
Publisher: Sichosha, Tokyo
Publisher: Sichosha, Tokyo
Poems
Poems of Kiyoko Nagase
Close
My Rival was \'Death\'
Your visage is now in ripplesmy water surface does not calm down
My mind was at peace even though we didn’t meet
because you were everywhere
Your intense gaze from the distance used to lighten my gait
and I could walk calmly even through thorns
Yet, he is no more
When I heard ‘Death’ captured and took him away
my heart whirled up into the sky like a twister
Oh, his hands that wrapped me are gone now
A path in mid-air whirls up high, winding like a string
around its invisible hollow core
soaring high, yet not on wings
it moves only as heat attached to sand
Today I walk with such a heavy gait,
yet I appear to others as simply slow and graceful — but to where?
The capture left just a momentary shining scar in mid-air
my rival was ‘death’
Absently I marvel that it’s a mere half-month since he’s been gone
My debility has already changed my shape
Just as a cloud cannot hold its shape and let it rain
I dissolve from all corners and let it rain
That nuanced and vast whole!
My attraction equaling infinity!
My sorrows raining as far as Lethe
weigh too heavy for me to support
waft low on the ground
like lead-colored fog
© 2009, Takako Lento
From: Zoku Nagase Kiyoko Shishuh
From: Zoku Nagase Kiyoko Shishuh
My Rival was \'Death\'
Your visage is now in ripplesmy water surface does not calm down
My mind was at peace even though we didn’t meet
because you were everywhere
Your intense gaze from the distance used to lighten my gait
and I could walk calmly even through thorns
Yet, he is no more
When I heard ‘Death’ captured and took him away
my heart whirled up into the sky like a twister
Oh, his hands that wrapped me are gone now
A path in mid-air whirls up high, winding like a string
around its invisible hollow core
soaring high, yet not on wings
it moves only as heat attached to sand
Today I walk with such a heavy gait,
yet I appear to others as simply slow and graceful — but to where?
The capture left just a momentary shining scar in mid-air
my rival was ‘death’
Absently I marvel that it’s a mere half-month since he’s been gone
My debility has already changed my shape
Just as a cloud cannot hold its shape and let it rain
I dissolve from all corners and let it rain
That nuanced and vast whole!
My attraction equaling infinity!
My sorrows raining as far as Lethe
weigh too heavy for me to support
waft low on the ground
like lead-colored fog
© 2009, Takako Lento
Sponsors
Partners
LantarenVenster – Verhalenhuis Belvédère