Poem
Yukio Tsuji
THE DAY I SUDDENLY LEAVE
A child I don’t knowcomes to my front door
and stands there.
My mother comes
and scolds him:
“Where\'ve you been all this time!”
I’d like to say,
“Mom, this boy isn’t me.
It’s me that\'s here.”
But at such a time
one can’t find the words.
So he and my mother
go inside.
“Have you done your homework?
Wash your hands!
Haven’t you finished eating yet?”
Words-words and more words
keep coming.
Oh, I didn’t know
that today was the very day.
I’ve got to get
out of here
and walk on to some place a long way off
where there’ll be no memories left.
And then someday I’ll be
some other child,
standing at someone else’s front door—
just like that boy,
and I’ll say, “I\'m home!”
© Translation: 1998, William I. Elliott and Kazuo Kawamura (Read by Don Mueller)
THE DAY I SUDDENLY LEAVE
© 1990, Yukio Tsuji
From: Uguisu-Kodomo to Samurai no 16 Hen
Publisher: Shoshi Yamada, Tokyo
From: Uguisu-Kodomo to Samurai no 16 Hen
Publisher: Shoshi Yamada, Tokyo
Poems
Poems of Yukio Tsuji
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THE DAY I SUDDENLY LEAVE
A child I don’t knowcomes to my front door
and stands there.
My mother comes
and scolds him:
“Where\'ve you been all this time!”
I’d like to say,
“Mom, this boy isn’t me.
It’s me that\'s here.”
But at such a time
one can’t find the words.
So he and my mother
go inside.
“Have you done your homework?
Wash your hands!
Haven’t you finished eating yet?”
Words-words and more words
keep coming.
Oh, I didn’t know
that today was the very day.
I’ve got to get
out of here
and walk on to some place a long way off
where there’ll be no memories left.
And then someday I’ll be
some other child,
standing at someone else’s front door—
just like that boy,
and I’ll say, “I\'m home!”
© 1998, William I. Elliott and Kazuo Kawamura (Read by Don Mueller)
From: Uguisu-Kodomo to Samurai no 16 Hen
From: Uguisu-Kodomo to Samurai no 16 Hen
THE DAY I SUDDENLY LEAVE
A child I don’t knowcomes to my front door
and stands there.
My mother comes
and scolds him:
“Where\'ve you been all this time!”
I’d like to say,
“Mom, this boy isn’t me.
It’s me that\'s here.”
But at such a time
one can’t find the words.
So he and my mother
go inside.
“Have you done your homework?
Wash your hands!
Haven’t you finished eating yet?”
Words-words and more words
keep coming.
Oh, I didn’t know
that today was the very day.
I’ve got to get
out of here
and walk on to some place a long way off
where there’ll be no memories left.
And then someday I’ll be
some other child,
standing at someone else’s front door—
just like that boy,
and I’ll say, “I\'m home!”
© 1998, William I. Elliott and Kazuo Kawamura (Read by Don Mueller)
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