Michio Mado

Michio Mado Poems

Michio Mado Biography

For the last half a century, literally everyone in Japan, of any age, has been familiar with the children’s song ‘Little Elephant’. This, and other well-known songs by the same writer, are almost as popular as Mother Goose nursery rhymes in the English-speaking world. But not many knew that these verses were written by a man named Michio Mado, and even fewer were aware that Mado was in fact a serious artist, both in poetry and in painting – that is, until 2009, when Mado’s 100th birthday was widely celebrated across the nation.)

The Best Poem Of Michio Mado

Apple

As I place
one apple
here

the apple,
its mass,
all by itself
occupies all

Here exists
0ne apple
nothing else

Ah
what is
and what is not
come together
blindingly clear

Translation: Takako Lento

Michio Mado Comments