Iku Takenaka Poems

生きましょうよ」
向いあいのあなたとわたし
「しゃべりつづけて生きましょうよ」
しゃべってわるい筈はないし
しゃべることで消化も一そうよくなるし

見おろす港の船の噸数について
又　その行先について　積荷について
積荷についた指紋について
その指紋が巻いているか流れているかについて

「しゃべりましょうよ　生きましょうよ」
桃の花よ
すらりと立つ麦よ
あなたよ
...

"Let's live on"
You and me, facing each other.
"Let's keep on talking and live on"
There is nothing wrong with talking, and
talking will even promote better digestion.

About the tonnage of a ship in the harbor we're looking down on
and about its destination, about its cargo,
about fingerprints left on the cargo,
about whether the fingerprints have whorl or arch patterns.

"Let's talk. Let's live on"
dear peach flowers.
dear nice and tall barley grass,
dear you!
...

火を欲しい人はないか
よい色の火です
杉林のなかの焚火のやう
印度の魔術の火のやう


いま咥えてゐるタバコの火は
先刻（さっき）ゆきずりの人からもらった
ふしぎな火
砂金石色の貴い火


この火をもらひたい人はないか
順送りにもたせて生かしときたい火
一人でもよい　二人なら
なほ一層よい
このタバコ吸ひ切るまでに
誰れか　来ないか
...

Anybody want fire?
Here is nice-colored fire.
Like a bonfire in a cedar forest.
Like an Indian magic fire.

The fire that lit this cigarette in my mouth
was passed on to me a while ago by a stranger on the street.
A strange fire.
A noble fire of aventurine color.

Anybody want this fire?
The fire to be passed on from one to another and kept alive.
Just one person would be fine but two
would be even better.
Won't anybody come by
before I finish this cigarette?
...

ああ　書物のことを思ふと
咽喉をしめられるやうだ
拾五六の年ごろから
大切にして集めてきた書物


連れそそふ妻よりもずっと古馴染
数へたことはなかったが
三千冊は優に超えてゐた
いや　四千冊はあったかな


一九四五年六月五日の朝のこと
すっかり手許においてゐて
その最後を見とどけた
けむりになって失（う）せるのを


そののち家はみつかった
布団はめぐんでもらった
しかし　書物は
不運の書物は帰ってこない


身辺うたた荒涼
ああ　書物
夢に指でめくることもある
そらんじてゐる文句もある
...

Ah, at the thought of my books
I feel like I'm being strangled.
The books I had devotedly collected
since I was 15 or 16.

They'd been my companions for much longer than my better half.
Though I had never counted,
there were well over 3000 of them.
Or possibly 4000!

On the morning of June 5th in 1945,
I had them all with me
and witnessed their end
as they all vanished in smoke.

Later I found a place to live.
Someone gave us mattresses.
But my books
my unfortunate books would not come back.

My terribly bleak and desolate life.
O my books.
I turn their pages from time to time in my dreams,
there are some passages I've learned by heart.
...

A
１　走る線路。光る線路。ナイフのやうに交叉する、交叉する線路。つづく枕木の並行線。
２　つぎつぎと別れてゆく線路、線路
３　つひに海だ。
４　海にうかぶ一艘の汽船。巨大な壁。拒絶。
　　（行く手は壁なんだ）
５　乾舷標を洗はうとする波、匍匐する波。

　B
１　女の髪が風に騒いでゐる。顔のない髪。
２　白い帆のはためき。
３　高い檣のてつぺんでペンキ塗りの水夫が働いてゐる。
４　俯瞰する海。迫る海。
５　あつ、顚落、落下する水夫
６　砕けちる航海ラムプ。

　C
１　ハムマー、ハムマーを握る手は鋲を打つ、眼に見えぬ速さで。
２　休む手、しかし開かうとはしない手。
３　血管、脈うつ血管。
４　海へ落ちこむ鎖の群。
５　波と波とに呑まれて、泡泡、泡。
６　微に消えてゆく波紋。
...

A
1 Railway tracks running, railway tracks shining, crossing like knives.
Railroads crossing, crossties extending, making parallel lines.
2 Railway tracks parting one after another, railway tracks, railway tracks.
3 The sea at last.
4 A steamship floating on the sea. A gigantic wall. A refusal.
(The wall is standing in our way)
5 Waves trying to wash the freeboard mark, waves crawling.

B
1 A woman's hair is blowing in the wind, hair without a face.
2 A fluttering white sail.
3 At the top of the high mast is a sailor on duty painting.
4 A bird's eye view of the sea, the approaching sea.
5 O, falling. The sailor falling.
6 A navigation lamp crashed to pieces.

C
1 A hammer, a hand that holds the hammer hitting rivets, so fast that you can't see.
2 The hand resting, but the hand that won't open.
3 A blood vessel, a throbbing blood vessel.
4 A cluster of chains falling into the sea.
5 Swallowed in between the waves, bubble, bubble, bubble.
6 Ripples fading ever softly.
...