短歌と英語版 Tanka in Japanese and Their English Versions: Aug. 2014
蝉の声を聞くと身体がしびれてきてやがて全く動けなくなる
Numbed by the voices
Of cicadas, I cannot
Move my limbs now
見つめ合う二人の顔の両方が変化し全く同じ顔になる
Gazing at each other,
The faces of the couple
Get quite similar
私を起き上がらせてくれるなら糸で私を操っていい
If only you’ll raise me,
I am willing to be moved on strings
Like a puppet
星々が鈴だとしたら そして星が一斉にみな振られて鳴ったら
If the stars are tiny
Round bells, and if they are
Shaken all at once
虹が空に見え始めると気絶して虹が消えると意識が戻る
As a rainbow appears,
He swoons and remains unconscious
Until it fades away
雪だるまが一万メートル上空を溶けることなく飛行している
At a height of ten
Thousand metres, a snowman is
Flying, free from melting
満月に向かってしばらく歩いていた 「何の用だ」と月に聞かれた
The full moon asked me,
“What’s your game?” as I was walking
Toward it for a while
ひまわりの畑に酒の雨が降り一本残らず浮かれ始めた
Over the field of
Sunflowers, rain of liquor fell,
Making them all merry
井の中の蛙を外へ出してやると今度はただの田舎の蛙
Out of a well, a frog
Was rescued, and now it is
A frog in the country*
*In Japanese, there is a proverbial phrase “a frog in the well (i-no-nakano-kawazu),” which refers to a person whose knowledge and experience is very limited. By the way, “a frog in the country” is “inakano-kawazu,” which makes a pun on “i-no-nakano-kawazu.” Taken out of a well, a frog indeed becomes an ordinary one in the country.
広場へと集まってきてぐるぐると竜巻のように旋回する蝉
Gathering in the square,
Cicadas are whirling
Like a whirlwind
オートバイを運転しているカンガルー 袋から顔を出している子供
A motorcycling
Kangaroo, with its child
Peeping out of its pouch
たくさんの鳥が飛び立つ音がした 都市から人がいなくなっていた
I heard sounds of many
Birds flying off. Later, I found
The city quite vacant
老いた人が姿を消して別の場所で若い人として暮らし始める
Some old persons vanish
And begin to live somewhere else,
Restored to youth
観覧車をそろそろ降りる時が来て楽しかったと思いつつ立つ
As the Ferris wheel has
Turned almost one round, I stand up
To get off, satisfied
青空に跡を真っ直ぐつけながらタイヤが一本転がっていく
Leaving a straight
Rut, a tyre goes, rolling
Over the blue sky
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