Poetry International Poetry International
Menu
  • Home
  • Poets & Poems
  • Poems
  • THE DITCH
    • Poem

    Yukio Tsuji

    Side by side

    THE DITCH

    With one leg in the ditch
    a kidnapper,
    too busy cleaning the ditch
    to kidnap,
    thought:
    Since I don’t kidnap
    nowadays
    I’m no longer a kidnapper
    but a true
    ditch cleaner of Edo.
    I shall clean the ditch
    tomorrow.
    © Translation: 1998, William I. Elliott and Kazuo Kawamura

    THE DITCH

    © 1990, Yukio Tsuji
    From: Uguisu-Kodomo to Samurai no 16 Hen
    Publisher: Shoshi Yamada, Tokyo
    Poems
    Poems of Yukio Tsuji
    Close

    THE DITCH

    With one leg in the ditch
    a kidnapper,
    too busy cleaning the ditch
    to kidnap,
    thought:
    Since I don’t kidnap
    nowadays
    I’m no longer a kidnapper
    but a true
    ditch cleaner of Edo.
    I shall clean the ditch
    tomorrow.
    © 1998, William I. Elliott and Kazuo Kawamura
    From: Uguisu-Kodomo to Samurai no 16 Hen

    THE DITCH

    With one leg in the ditch
    a kidnapper,
    too busy cleaning the ditch
    to kidnap,
    thought:
    Since I don’t kidnap
    nowadays
    I’m no longer a kidnapper
    but a true
    ditch cleaner of Edo.
    I shall clean the ditch
    tomorrow.
    © 1998, William I. Elliott and Kazuo Kawamura
    Sponsors
    Gemeente Rotterdam
    Nederlands Letterenfonds
    Stichting Van Beuningen Peterich-fonds
    Prins Bernhard cultuurfonds
    Lira fonds
    Versopolis
    J.E. Jurriaanse
    Gefinancierd door de Europese Unie
    Elise Mathilde Fonds
    Stichting Verzameling van Wijngaarden-Boot
    Veerhuis
    VDM
    Partners
    LantarenVenster – Verhalenhuis Belvédère