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Tanka by Kisaburo Konoshima
newly translated by David Callner*
This is the fifteenth in a series of new translations of selected tanka by Kisaburo Konoshima
(1893-1984).
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冬陽照り樺の群立冴え冴えと一きは白く野の涯にたつ
Beneath the winter sun - a vivid cluster of birch trees
stands remarkably white on the horizon |
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見る中に空茜増し冬枯の森をすかして朝陽はのぞく
The sky ruddies before my eyes
the morning sun peeks into wintry forest |
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篩ふ如冬陽そそぎて雑木林に二月早くも片栗芽ぶく
Winter sun filters into the woods as through a sieve
February - and already we see trout lily |
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先住者埋めておきたる球根かわが知らぬ花とりどりに咲く
Bulbs planted by the previous resident?
Flowers I do not know bloom in variety |
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予期もせぬ花そこここに咲き出でて見しこともなき人を偲ぶも
Flowers sprout forth unexpectedly here and there
reminding me of a man I never met |
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ワシントン迄はるばる出かけ老妻とケネディサンターに文楽を観る
My aged wife and I set out for distant Washington
for bunraku at Kennedy Center |
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文楽を観桜は丁度まつさかり老の郷愁慰めて余る
Bunraku - and cherry blossoms in full bloom
this old man's homesickness is more than soothed |
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ケンウッド（地名）街をうづめて咲きほこる桜は嬉し日本種よしの
Kenwood - brimming with cherry blossoms in full glory
the delightful Japanese Yoshino
(Kenwood, in Bethesda, Maryland. The hybrid Yoshino is the most popular flowering cherry tree in Japan. D.C.) |
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花にかすむ街どこまでもはてしなく世相も老も忘れて彷徨ふ
A town veiled everywhere in blossoms without end
forgetting the world and old age I wander |
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花に疲れ家に帰りて靴脱げば踵に一つ花片を貼る
Worn out with flowers I return home and take off my shoes
a petal sticks to my heel |
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漢和辞典傍らにおき手紙書く平易なる漢字もど忘れして
I write letters with a dictionary by my side
even the most simple kanji slip my mind |
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平易なる漢字忘れて仮名で書きまた仮名使ひに惑ふこの頃
Forgetting simple kanji I use kana
and I hesitate over how to use kana too
(Kanji, Chinese logographic characters that along with syllabic-script kana comprise the Japanese writing system, number over fifty thousand, of which between three to five thousand are used by an educated adult. Kana can be used to write a word syllabically when one does not know or has forgotten a kanji. The syllabic script kana are normally used in combination with kanji according to a kana orthography. D.C.) |
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亡友の今は形見も康熙字典索くこともなく書架に積まれて
A kouki dictionary - a keepsake from my lamented friend
sits unused on my bookcase
(The Kouki dictionary, published in 1716, is a Japanese version of the Chinese Kangxi Dictionary, the standard Chinese dictionary from the 18th and 19th centuries. D.C.) |
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富も地位も名も我れになしさればこそ閑寂なる余生を安穏に生き
Wealth - status - fame - I have none
thus my old age has peace and tranquility |
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祖父歎き父もなげきぬその孫の我また今や末世を慷く
My grandfather - then my father
now I lament the decadent times |
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自己を語るは他人を評るに勝れリとふつと思ひぬ饒舌に耽り
Indulging in garrulity I notice
talk of myself outweighs my criticism of others |
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茄子も瓜もおもひの外に好く出来て向三軒両隣にくばる
A better yield than expected - I give eggplants and cucumbers
to neighbors across the street and on either side |
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結構なお人柄よと妻は嗤ふ茄子も生瓜も先づよそに配る
"What a fine person!" - laughs my wife
I give my first eggplants and cucumbers to strangers |
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欝蒼と緑樹にかこむ丘の上の大邸宅は土建屋が購ふ
On a hill surrounded by luxuriant verdure
a great mansion - bought by a contractor |
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森は倒し家は毀して土地をあけアパート建つと土建屋は言ふ
"I'll cut down the woods - demolish the house - clear the land
and build apartments" - says the contractor |
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価格十万石造の豪華ビル惜しげもなく毀しては棄て
The splendid stonework building worth one hundred thousand
demolished and cleared away without a thought |
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電機のうなりダンプの往き来十日余り豪華なる邸宅は跡形もなく
Over ten days of roaring machinery and dump trucks
and the splendid mansion is gone without a trace |
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もったいないと明治の言葉我はかこつ若き世代の知らざる言葉
I mourn the Meiji expression - "Wasteful"
an expression the younger generation does not know |
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猫の頭空より襲ひけなげにもマッキンバードは領域を守る
Heroically diving at my cat's head
the mockingbird defends its territory |
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水底の小石も見えて水碧く渓よどめども魚影はなく
One can see the stones in the azure river
that runs quietly through this valley - yet no hint of a fish |
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故郷の渓さながらに水流けどはやもやまめも影なくて侘し
Water runs just as in the valleys of my native village
yet sadly with no hint of redfin or trout |
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蒼空にさっとひと刷に白雲のすさびうれしく枯野に坐る
One quick stroke of white clouds across the azure sky
I sit on an autumnal field delighting in this dalliance |
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一二寸伸ぶれば早も実をつけて秋の雑草天命を知る
Growing one or two inches they quickly bear seeds
autumnal weeds understand God's will |
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名も知らぬ朱実たわわになりさがる野路を選みて秋晴を歩く
Heavily laden with cinnabar seeds of a name unknown to me
this is the path to walk the fine autumn day |
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何処に続く野路かは知らね兎に角も行き果ててみむよし遠くとも
Where does this path lead?
I'll walk to the end - no matter how far |
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追憶の友かぞへつつ野路を歩く畏友の訃報今朝もまた届き
Counting my friends I walk the country path
this morning one more has died |
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かさこそと落葉踏みつつ森ゆけば散りつぐ紅葉顔にまつはる
I tread rustling through the forest leaves
tinted leaves still fall and play about my face |
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女郎花といふ七草の呼名ふと浮ぶ花の群落路傍にそよげば
"Patrinia" - I suddenly recall from The Seven Herbs of Autumn
as clusters of flowers sway by the roadside
(Commonly in Japan "The Seven Herbs of Autumn" are bush clover, miscanthus, kudzu, large pink, patrinia, boneset, and Chinese bellflower. D.C.) |
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十月半季節はづれの雪降りて一きは著るく紅葉を覆ふ
A mid-October snow
remarkably and strikingly shrouds the autumnal colors |
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季節はづれの寒波襲ひて二百年前バレーホーンの厳冬を偲ぶ
An unseasonable cold wave - two hundred years past
and the brutal winter of Valley Forge comes to mind |
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ワシントンの旗下に集る一万余内三千人は凍えて死ねり
Over ten thousand gathered under Washington's command
three thousand of whom froze to death |
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冬枯の木立に高く見出でたり朝毎に聞きし烏の古巣
High in a wintry grove
the nest - I heard crows every morning |
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風にゆらぐ梢の古巣ぞんざいに烏は幾羽雛育てけむ
The tattered old nest sways with the wintry treetop
How many chicks did the crows raise there? |
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手頃なる枯枝拾ひ杖につく小春の野路を稍稍遠出して
With a good branch for a cane
a modest excursion through the Indian-summer countryside |
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冬枯の薮にかくれてせせらぎはかすかに音す佇みて聞く
Hidden beneath a wintry thicket
lies a brook faintly sounding - I listen |
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せせらぎの音は幽かに水は見えずこのかそけさを生きたくぞ思ふ
A brook gurgles faintly - unseen
my life should be so faint |
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自覚せねど老いさらぼえて見ゆるらし至り尽せる労りを享く
I must appear feeble
I receive so much attention |
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五千哩空の旅より下り立てば今朝曾孫が生まれしと告ぐ
I alight from an air journey of five thousand miles
"Your great-grandson was born this morning" |
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二年前に植ゐしパパイヤぞくぞくと早も実をつけ花あまた咲く
The papaya tree I planted two years ago
bears an abundance of fruit and many flowers |
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緑ぬき白く群立つビルの彼方碧洋の涯船一つ光る
White clusters of buildings rise through green - and beyond
a single ship glitters on the horizon of an azure sea |
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碧は広重雄渾は北斎の技に俟たむ窓辺に佇ちて太平洋を見下す
Hiroshige's azure - but the grandiosity is by Hokusai
as I gaze down on the Pacific from my window |
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朝の鏡苦笑を浮べ暫し佇つ八十になれば八十の顔
I linger before the wry smile in the mirror this morning
when eighty your face looks eighty |
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無意識に所かまはず放屁する悪癖さへも我れ亡父に似て
Breaking wind anywhere I like
I take after father even in bad habits |
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和平交流の他に活路なき祖国日本惑ふことなくその道をゆけ
My native Japan - your only way is peaceful interchange
take that road without hesitation |
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齢八十何を喰べても口にうまし念仏申し食卓をたつ
Eighty - and anything I eat tastes good
I rise from the dinner table with thanks to Amitabha
(Namu Amida Butsu is a prayer to Amitabha, the Buddha of Infinite Light. The prayer is an act of Buddhist devotion, but in Japanese popular culture the invocation of Namu Amida Butsu is simply a wish for good luck or an expression of gratitude with no religious meaning. D.C.) |
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ベトナムウォ−ターゲイト弗の下落暗影は深刻しアメリカの明日
Vietnam - Watergate - the falling dollar
a deep gloom descends on the future of America |
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星条旗月に立てしを峠としアメリカも辿らむ歴史への途
Its summit - the Stars and Stripes on the moon
America too will surely descend the road into history |
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ユニオンジャック七つの海に影もなく思出にのみ旗風なびく
No hint of the Union Jack on the Seven Seas
the fluttering flag just a memory |
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英米の辿りし途に思ひ走せ経済動物の批難に覚めよ
Consider the paths of Britain and America
and wake up to denounce the "economic animal" |
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*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 |
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Kisaburo Konoshima was born in 1893 in Gifu, Japan. He left his village for an education in Tokyo when he was fifteen years old, and went on to become a professor of political economics at the now defunct Shokumin Gakkou in Kyoto. In 1924 he abandoned academia for the life of a farmer, and emigrated to California with his wife and children. In 1941 Konoshima was forced off his farm and he and his family were interned in the Heart Mountain Relocation Camp in Wyoming. Following the war Konoshima moved to New York City, where he devoted himself to his children's education and his poetry. In 1950 he joined the Japanese poetry society Cho-on, which published his entire opus of over fifteen hundred tanka in the Cho-on quarterly, from 1950 to his death in 1984.
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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.
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Copyright 2008: Simply Haiku
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