Shuntaro Tanikawa Poems

One day somewhere
someone played the piano.
...

I know who I am
I am here now
but I may be gone in an instant
even if I am no longer here I am me, myself
but in truth I do not have to be me

I am a plant at least a little
I may be a fish more or less
I am also an ore with a dull sheen
though I don't know its name
and of course I am almost you

Because I cannot disappear after being forgotten
I am a rhythm in a refrain
I am a subtle wave and a particle
having arrived, if I may be so conceited,
riding on your heart's beating rhythm
from the light years of distance

I know who I am
so I know who you are
even if I don't know your name
even if there is no census record
I am crowding out into you

Feeling happy being wet in rain
feeling at home with the starry sky
cackling at crude jokes
I am me
beyond the tautology of "I am me"
...

age three
there was no past for me
...

Mother,
Why is the river laughing?
Why, because the sun is tickling the river
...

Yes, this is the guy I call "watashi"—
Two tiny eyes and two common ears,
one nose, one mouth.
...

私の肝臓さんよ
腎臓さん膵臓さんともお別れだ
私はこれから死ぬところだが
かたわらに誰もいないから
君らに挨拶する

長きにわたって私のために働いてくれたが
これでもう君らは自由だ
どこへなりと立ち去るがいい
君らと別れて私もすっかり身軽になる
魂だけのすっぴんだ

心臓さんよ
脳髄さんよ
目耳口にもちんちんさんにも苦労をかけた
みんなみんな悪く思うな
君らあっての私だったのだから

とは言うものの君ら抜きの未来は明るい
もう私は私に未練がないから
迷わずに私を忘れて
泥に溶けよう空に消えよう
言葉なきものたちの仲間になろう
...

I would have lived my whole life
just having loved her.
And once having died
...

My toes seem terribly far away
The five digits, like five complete strangers,
sit close together, coldly indifferent
...

I lost an utterly trivial item.
Nothing that would trouble me greatly not to have
nor something I associate with fond memories.
...

Because music never ends,
I cannot stay here.
I walk across the sward of life
...