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Autumn 2007, vol 5 no 3
 

Tanka by Kisaburo Konoshima
newly translated by David Callner*

This is the eighth in a series of new translations of selected tanka by Kisaburo Konoshima
(1893-1984).

 
   

1964

博物館前列なす人の群を見てモナリザの展示を思ひ出す我
Crowds of people queue outside a museum
I remember the Mona Lisa
 
   
国を超え時代を超えてモナリザの微笑は人間の心を窺く
Transcending nations and generations
a smiling Mona Lisa peeks into the human heart
 
   
酒くめど今宵は酔はず秋夜深しわが想ふ事大方は非現実にて
This evening I drink without getting drunk
late into the autumn night my thoughts remain unworldly
 
   
猫が仔を産んだ噂もたつ村に珈琲飲みつつテレビジョン見る(郷里)
The talk of the town is that a cat had kittens
while I have coffee in front of the television (My native home)
 
   
たまたま巷にて遇ひし日本人も話題となりて渋茶をすする(紐育)
I happened to see a Japanese on the street
even that becomes a topic of conversation over green tea (New York)
 
   
窓に風吠え凄めども暖房に肌汗ばめり世相を思ふ
Though a menacing wind howls outside the window
I am warm enough to sweat by my heater – I ponder our times
 
   
四百哩氷閉せどもハドソンは底流恒に大洋に注ぐ
The Hudson – icebound four hundred miles
yet its undercurrent continually flows into the sea
 
   
やるせなき思さへして窓に佇つ朝のハドソン余りに清く
Wretched I linger by my window
for the morning Hudson is impossibly clear
 
   
凍土の底如何に堪へ来し生命なる大地を割きて水仙は芽ぐむ
Enduring beneath frozen soil
life cleaves the earth and sprouts a daffodil
 
   
我が室に射す夕陽は日毎伸びハドソンの渓に春は兆しぬ
The setting sun shines deeper into my room each day
spring calls in the Hudson valley
 
   
思ひつめ窓辺に佇てば川淀み野鶴陽を浴びて蒼天を舞ふ
I brood by my window – the river is sluggish
sunning cranes wheel in an azure sky
 
   
両の眉にしるけき白毛見出でたり鏡の顔に残生をちかふ
Discovering strikingly white hairs in both eyebrows
I commit my remaining days to the face in the mirror
 
   
残生は静寂になど思ひ窓に佇てば暮れなずむ春陽山の端を灼く
"Live your remaining days in tranquility" – outside my window
a setting sun illumines the mountain ridge
 
   
腹の底軽くなる程いばりして河畔の思索今朝朗なり
Having boasted away everything on my mind
I meditate by the river this morning in serenity
 
   
魚つると五時起きをして川ぶちへ急げば老の心もはずむ
I awake at five and hurry to fish by the river
this old man's spirit bounds
 
   
幅二哩の川に四五間糸投げて魚待てば死の跫音がきこゆ
I cast ten yards into the two-mile wide river
and await a fish – I can hear death approach
 
   
竿ゆれてハッとたぐれば糸の先端に忽ち魚の死闘は起る
My rod bobs and I reel with an "O!"
a fish suddenly in mortal struggle on my line
 
   
確実に然も突然襲ひ来る人の死を想ふ釣糸をたれつつ
Absolute and sudden
I reflect on death as I dangle my line
 
   
小半日川辺さまよひ釣り疲れ帰りてうまく渋茶をすする
After half a day of prowling the riverside
I come home exhausted from fishing and relish my tea
 
   
盲滅法跳ね廻りたる我なりきはねまわりつつ死なんとぞ希ふ
Once recklessly cavorting was I
hoping to cavort to death
 
   
孫を助け枯枝集め火を焚けば湖面を這うて煙たなびく
I help my grandchild gather twigs and kindle a fire
smoke crawls trailing across the lake
 
   
まだまだとつぶやきて佇つ朝の鏡ふてぶてしげに我顔写る
"Not yet – not yet" – I mutter before the mirror this morning
at my impudent face
 
   
父は祖父に子は父に似て凡庸なる家系諾ひつ今日の誌をかく
Father takes after grandfather – son after father
conceding a mediocre lineage I compose today's poem
 
   
まんまるな炎の玉となり陽は落ちぬ靄蒸す如くハドソンをこめ
The setting sun is a perfect ball of flame
a steamy haze fills the Hudson
 
   
牙の如く鋭鎌の如き三日月山の端にかかり空暮れなずむ
Fang-like and sharp as a sickle – a crescent moon
rests on the hill as night falls across the sky
 
   
逞しといふ程にはあらね四肢に残る筋を撫しつつ朝湯に浸る
"Strong" no longer – I rub what muscles remain
while soaking in my morning bath
 
   
足を没する落葉ふみわけ森ゆけば我が足音が遠くひびけり
My steps sink into the leaves
echoing far through the woods
 
   
うづたかき落葉しとねに仰臥すれば白陽燦として梢動かず
I recline on a deep cushion of leaves
the white sun resplendent – the treetops perfectly still
 
   

*Readers who have enjoyed this series of tanka translations may now add them to their personal libraries in the perfect bound, 136 page book:

Hudson: A Collection of Tanka by Kisaburo Konoshima
Translated into English by David Callner
Tokyo, Japan: Japan Times, 2005.
ISBN 4-7890-1179-8

 
   

David Callner David Callner was born in 1956. His youth was spent in France, England, Italy, and America. Since 1978 he has lived in Japan. He has written four novels. He teaches English as an adjunct at Nagano University.