EPITAPH FOR "POET'S TOMB" Poem by Shuntaro Tanikawa

"I, infinite silence, will grant you words"
[God Contemplates Man]　　—Jules Supervielle


When I was born
I was nameless
like a water molecule
But right away I was fed vowels mouth-to-mouth
consonants tickled my ears
I was called and
pulled away from the cosmos

Oscillating the atmosphere
carved onto clay tablets
inscribed on bamboo
recorded on sand
words are onion skins
If I keep on peeling
I will not find the cosmos

I would have loved to lose words
to be a tree singing in the wind
I would have loved to be a cloud from a hundred thousand years ago
I would have loved to be a whale's song
Now I go back to being nameless
with dirt over my eyes, my ears and my mouth
with stars leading me by the fingers