About this work
A reworking of poems from the preceding instalment revisits diaries, family photographs and childhood places, with commentary on loss and historical poverty. This English version is an editorial translation for access; the Japanese text remains available alongside it for comparison.
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日本語原文 Japanese original
以下、すべて７の本歌と。 濱野成秋
今やデスクにも背かれるや？ なんの。
幾年をこの書き机に背ぐくまる
そは徒に汝が死を問ふや
想いの糸をそっと捨てたり
この作を時に郷土に植えたしと
読み直す目に田んぼの白鷺
子も孫も先祖になんかまるで関心なし
失ひし古アルバムは哀しけれ
母の手父の指いま亡きがゆえ 慟哭
郷里にある西除川に筆の罪なし
西除の粘土無心に採りゐたる
幼な指に罪なき土筆が 成秋
水あかり顔に受けつつ川底の
砂礫すくひゐる人さむげなり 夕暮
と夕暮が詠みたるに、吾、小粋にかく歌ひをり
冬の川渡る舟人舵を絶へ
雪見炬燵もまた愉しけれ 成秋
前田夕暮は同じ歌集で
野さらしの風日を吹きてうら寒し
われは露佛に物申したき 夕暮
と詠んだので、吾は、水子と称して天に戻さる常習を
重ね石戻さる嬰児のはかなきに
涙す母子も百年経ちゐて 成秋
「上げる」とは赤子を生かして育てること。「戻す」とは天に召されよと、
産婆が暗闇に出て間引く。
かほどに辛きこと、我が国では常習にて、現今の教科書には記載なく、
人はたまたま川辺の片隅に積まれし水子供養の重ね石が何かも知らず
踏みつけて通る。
この貧しさは昭和二十年八月十五日の終戦の、その日の後も続いていた。
二・二六事件の反乱部隊に参加した将兵の多くは貧農の出で、どんぞこの
暮らしをよそに、勝手気ままに政治を執る上部への怒りと鬱屈を持っていた。
かくして起こった哀しい背景を知らぬ素振りの歴史家は、これを軽視し、
唯、隊内における皇道派が粛清され統制派が実権を握ったと記すのみ。
これは史実を歪める乱暴な記録であり、歴史家の歴史家たる使命を知らぬ
所業とさえいえる。
自作短歌を三首掲載している。父の人生は私にとって大きな謎であるが、
それを想うだに、六月三十日の末期の水は辛く、窶れ果てた父を読んだ
最初の歌の、「泣き」は「鳴き」にあらず。わが心の嗚咽にて。
かりそめの宿を想ひて病む父の
鬢にしんしん鴫泣き渉る
道頓の父が語りし屋形船
清談したかや女子もいたかや
故郷の河内太鼓は哀しかり
路ゆく人の皆変りゐて
（No.1932は以上）
English translation 英訳
AI-assisted English translation. The Japanese original remains authoritative.
Below are all seven verses of the original song. Seishu Hamano
Now, do you turn your back on the desk? What is it?
How many years have passed, with this writing desk behind me?
So you mockingly ask me about death?
Gently cast away the thread of thought
This work, at times, is planted in the homeland
Re-reading it, the eyes see white herons in the rice fields
Children and grandchildren have no interest in ancestors at all
The lost old album is sorrowful
My mother's hands and my father's fingers, now gone, cause grief
The West River of my hometown bears no blame for the pen
Collecting clay from the West River without a mind
The young fingers, innocent, made the clay
Seishu Hamano
From the song collection of the poet Maeda Yugure, "Rainbow" (1933)
Receiving the light of water, the face receives it
The person scooping sand and pebbles from the riverbed is strange
Yukimi
When Yukimi sang this, I, with a small style, sang this
The boatman crossing the river in winter stops the oar
The snow-viewing kotatsu is also pleasant
Seishu Hamano
Maeda Yugure, in the same song collection, sang
The wind blows the day, and the cold is bitter
I spoke to the dew Buddha
Yukimi
When he sang this, I, called "Water Child," returned to heaven as a habit
Returning the infant, the child, who is innocent
The mother and child weep, and a hundred years have passed
Seishu Hamano
When visiting the wild Buddha, what does the midwife say, "Do you raise or return?"
"Raise" means to keep the child alive and raise it. "Return" means to call the child to heaven
The midwife steps into the darkness and writes it down
Such a painful thing is a common practice in our country, yet it is not recorded in today's textbooks
People do not know what the stacked stones for water child offerings are
They walk over them without knowing
This poverty continued after August 15th, 1945, the end of the war
Many soldiers who participated in the 1936 rebellion came from poor farming families
They looked upon this life as something foreign, and held anger and frustration toward the upper echelons who wielded power
Historians who act as if they do not know the sad background of this event ignore it
They merely note that the Royal Way faction was purged and the Control faction took control
This is a violent distortion of historical facts and can be called an act of ignorance by historians
Meanwhile, the author included three of his own short songs in the beginning of his novel "My Father's Inn," published on January 1, 2001
My father's life is a great mystery to me
Thinking about it, the water on June 30th was bitter, and my father, worn out, was read
The first song, "Cry," is not "Call" but my heart's sobbing
Thinking of the temporary inn, my father is sick
The white herons cry on his silver hair
The father of the path told about the houseboat
He spoke of the quiet talk, and the woman, the girl, too
The river drum of my hometown is sad
All people walking the path have changed
(No. 1932 is above)
Original wording, author credits, notes and source materials are preserved there.