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Ibaragi Noriko… a feminist

Here you go – another gem translated into English for you:

”女のひとのやさしさは Women’s kindness
長く世界の潤滑油であったけれど has long lubricated the world
それがなにを生んできたというのだろう?” but what has that produced?

”女がひとり頬杖をついて A women alone resting her chin on her hands
慣れない煙草をぷかぷかふかし blowing puffs of smoke, smoking a cigarette she’s not accumstomed to
ちっぽけな自分の巣と Going between her tiny nest
蜂の巣をつついたような世界の闇を and world of darkness as though pecking a bee hive
行ったり来たりしながら
怒るときと許すときのタイミングが unable to calibrate the timing for anger and foregiveness
うまく計れないことについて
まったく途方にくれていた she is at her wit’s end
それを教えてくれるのは when to get mad and when to forgive, that timing is taught not by
物わかりのいい伯母様でも a perceptive auntie
深遠な本でも nor a profound book
黴の生えた歴史でもないnor a moldy history growing more mildrews
たったひとつわかっているのは One truth she understands is that
自分でそれを発見しなければならない she has to uncover that on her own
ということだった”

「怒るときと許すとき」より

From “to be angry to forgive” by Noriko Ibaragi

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Beautiful People

RIP one of my favorite poets

ShuntaroTanikawa … one of greatest poets from Japan passed away. He was 92. His Japanese language is so beautiful I never felt like translating his work – better learn Japanese and read and appreciate his poem in its original language I thought. But then, so many will miss out on his genius.

So I shall make an attempt out of love for his work.

宝だから

ほんとに大事なものはあるだけでいい

ほんとに大切なヒトはいるだけでいい

何でも誰でもあることいることで始まっている

朝 空がある 曇っていても晴れていても

昼 友達がいる 気が合っても合わなくても

夜 働く人がいる 君が夢を見ている間に

たまには人間やめてもいいんじゃないか

キノコになって森にいてみる

クラゲになって海にいてみる

コトバになって意味をやめてみる

声になってアンナプルナを呼んでみる

自分にもどってぼんやりしてみる

生きていれば毎日毎時が宝だから

目も耳も口も鼻も手足も忙しい

シニカルな大爆笑も宝石みたいに輝いて

谷川俊太郎

Treasure

Truly valuable things are good enough just existing

Truly precious person is good enough just being

Anything anybody starts from just being

Morning being a sky whether cloudy or sunny

Noon being friends whether we get along or not

Night someone’s working while you are dreaming

Once in a while maybe stop being a human

Be a mushroom and try being in a forest

Be a jellyfish and try being in an ocean

Be a word and quit having a definition

Be a voice and call out for Annapurna

Return to being yourself and why not space out

Every hour every day, each a treasure as long as we are alive

Being a live, our eyes, ears, mouth, nose, limbs are always busy

Alive, even a roaring laughter of cynicism

shines and sparkles like a treasured jewel

Shuntaro Tanikawa

It’s probably like reading Shakespeare translated into Japanese or Hafiz or Rumi into English… with a translator in love with Shakespeare or Hafiz, sure, it’s possible to do an adequate job but if you really really want to immerse yourself in that poetry … got to read them in the original language full of its quirks and charms. Read “Alone in Two Billion Light Years” (1952) in the original and feel the WONDER. First published when he was 21.

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Beautiful Things

That photograph

Here’s a link to information on NASA’s first photo of what the poet was referring to – the first ever photo was from 1946

https://explorer1.jpl.nasa.gov/galleries/earth-from-space/

How does it make you feel ? How do you feel seeing this photograph. How do you feel being a creature on this Star of Water as referred by the poet. Indeed our star, our planet is about 70% covered in water; and coincidently our brain and heart is also about 70% … WATER

How do I feel when I see the first ever photograph of EARTH … mindblowing? or rereading the poem – yes, this. This.

All alone, glowing blue … out in the vast darkness, our star of water is …