ことしも生きて
さくらを見ています
ひとは生涯に
何回ぐらいさくらをみるのかしら
ものごごろのつくのが十歳ぐらいなら
どんなに多くても七十回ぐらい
三十回 四十回のひともざら
なんという少なさだろう
もっともっと多く見るような気がするのは
先祖の視覚もまぎれこみ重なり合い霞だつせいでしょう
あでやかとも妖しくとも不気味とも
捉えかねの花のいろ
さくらふぶきの下をふららと歩くと
一瞬
名僧のごとくわかるのです
死こそ常態
生はいとしき蜃気楼
茨木のり子
隅田川下流の月島にて＠a bridge in Moon Island
Viewing sakura
how many times in our life time may we witness sakura bloom in spring
if around age ten, we become aware of the world around us
perhaps as many as 70 times for most
30 times 40 times are not uncommon
so few so fleeting for some
yet there’s that awareness of many many more – as though we have witnessed multitudes of sakura viewing
Because
our ancestral memories floods into our consciousness, folding into a blur of a haze
What could be described as Enchanting Mystical maybe even Eerie colors of petals
ambling under the blizzard of sakura petals
INSTANTLY (“poof”)
the haze lifts, like it had for an enlightened monk
Death is the everyday common normalcy
Life is the miraculous mirage
Noriko Ibaragi “Sakura”
translated by K. Tsuyama