短歌と英語版 Tanka in Japanese and Their English Versions: May 2022
ぽつぽつと青空に赤い点がつきやがて空じゅうが紫になった
Red dots began to
Appear on the blue sky, which
Finally turned purple
鳥たちが鳴き始めるとその山は目覚めて薄くまぶたを開く
When birds begin to sing,
The mountain wakes up and opens
Its eyes slightly
見えない手が私の口の両端に指を引っかけ横へ引っ張る
Two invisible hands
Hook their fingers around the sides
Of my mouth and pull
目に見えない人々が来て私を胴上げしているだけなのですが
Though I cause amazement,
I am only being tossed up
By the invisible
あちこちの地面をもこもこ盛り上げてもぐら怪人たちが出現
Heaping up the ground
Here and there, mole persons
Appear all at once
草たちは「臭い」や「腐る」という言葉が聞こえる度にくさくさしている
Each time grass hears
The words like “smelly” or “rot,”
It feels wretched*
*In Japanese, “grass” is “kusa,” while “smelly” is “kusai” and “rot” “kusaru,” so grass “feels wretched” (“kusakusa-suru” in Japanese) each time it hears those two words.
ぴょんぴょんと松ぼっくりが跳ねながら言葉を話す松ぼっくり劇
Like a puppet show,
Pine cones bounce about and speak
On a small stage
私が近づくだけでじゅわじゅわと建物がみな泡立って消える
Somehow, all the buildings
Evaporate, sizzling,
When I draw near to them
猫の鼻になってますよと教えられ指で整え人の鼻にする
Someone taught me kindly:
“Your nose has got like a cat’s.”
I reshaped it with haste
ゆっくりと右や左に茎をそらしそろって体操するひまわりたち
Bending their stems slowly
Right and left in unison,
Sunflowers exercise
伸びている蛇を抱えて後ろ足で立って綱引きする蛙たち
With an outstretched snake,
Frogs, standing on their hind legs,
Have a tug of war
ペンギンがたけのこのように生えてきて数メートルの高さに育つ
Like bamboo shoots, penguins
Come out from the ground and grow
Several metres high
「他の人が吐いた息など吸いたくない」「吸わずにいられるなら、さあ、どうぞ」
“I refuse to inhale
The air exhaled by others.”
“Go ahead, if you can”
草が生えて黄緑色になった月にシマウマを放つ、ライオンを放つ
On to the moon, which is
Yellow green with grass, we release
Zebras, and then lions
両側に腕が生えていてボクシングの構えをしている郵便ポスト
A public mailbox
Which has got arms is always
In a boxing stance
マネキーは招き猫だがヤンキーで素通りされると悪態をつく
The beckoning cat,
Manekee is a young punk, and
Curses, when ignored
避雷針に輪投げのように輪が掛かる 夜空の奥から降る光の輪
Shining rings descend
From the night sky and settle
On lightning rods like quoits
アメンボウのように水面を足の先だけですいすい動き回る亀
Like water striders,
Tortoises are moving around
On the water
青空にジグソーパズルの一ピースのような形の穴が開いている
There is a hole
In the blue sky in the shape of
A jigsaw puzzle’s piece
どの人も背中に殻をしょっていて時々殻の中へ引っ込む
All the people have
Their shells on the back, and at times
Retreat into them
人間がすってんと転びくっくっくと笑うように身を震わす植物
When a human slipped and
Fell over, the plants nearby shook
Themselves as if chuckling
地面から腕を引き抜くと次の腕の手が地面から顔を出している
When I pulled out an arm
From the ground, another showed
Its hand at the same hole
人々のすぼめた口から蛸の足が一本ずつ出てひょこひょこ動く
From the mouths of people
An arm of an octopus
Comes out and wriggles
「老いません。けれど寿命は延びません。老いていないと死はつらいですよ」
“I can give you youth,
But not a longer life. With youth,
You can’t die resignedly”
円筒にトウモロコシの粒のようにたくさん私がしがみついている
Innumerable “I”s
Cling to a cylinder
Like grains of corn
人間に交じって大きな歯車が回転しながら行き交っている
Among pedestrians,
Large gearwheels come and go
On the street, trundling
人間の肺らしきものが夜になるとたくさん空を飛び回り出す
Objects which seem to be
Human lungs begin to fly
In great numbers at night
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