Category: Poetry Translations & More

二十億光年の孤独

人類は小さな球の上で

眠り起きそして働き

ときどき火星の火星人の仲間を欲しがったりする

火星人は小さな球の上で

何をしているか　僕は知らない

（或いは　ネリリし　キルルし　ハララしているか）

しかしときどき地球に仲間を欲しがったりする

それはまったくたしかなことだ

万有引力とは

ひき合う孤独の力である

宇宙はひずんでいる

それ故みんなは求めあう

宇宙はどんどん膨らんでゆく

それ故みんなは不安である

二十億光年の孤独に

僕は思わずくしゃみをした

谷川俊太郎

Two Trillion Light Years of Solitude

Mankind slumbers, awakens, labors,

on this small sphere

Sometimes desiring to have Martians as friends

Martians on their small sphere

i do no know what they are doing

(whether they are “neriri”ing or “kiriri”ing or might they be “harara”ing, whatever their onomatopoeia, still

i do not know what they do on Mars)

but they sometimes desires earthings as their buddies

This is for absolutely certain

The Truth

Universal Gravitation is the Power of Attraction

of the lonesome

The universe is distorted

Thus everyone desires one another

The universe steadily expands

Thus we are all left to feel anxious

reveling in the loneliness beyond two trillion light years away,

i let out a sneeze

– Shuntaro Tanikawa

translated by K. Tsuyama

***

How would YOU translate this poem? Thoughts like this keep me away from feeling the profound sadness … of losing my mother as she has taken off on a journey into another universe, or is it the same universe that feels like another dimension so so SO many light years away …she desired to depart and consequently, no longer lonely – she is with all those who has passed on before us. She is home. She is immortal. She is united with the immortals.

While we are left behind on this ever expanding distorted universe.

Thus (yes, as the poet keyed in on, some three quarters of a century ago at his age of 21)

we are rather an anxious sort. Wouldn’t you agree?

Anxiously, we find ways to endure, desiring one another even humans seeking martians and likewise, martians desiring humans, as our small world expands and spirals out of entropy.

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