About this work
Tanka on ageing, familiar possessions and family memory appear alongside responses to Ishikawa Takuboku’s poems of illness and hometown longing. 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
濱野成秋
もうボロか捨てる仕草で目を泊めて
わが友は人とは限らぬこの下着
諍いの日も小躍りの日も
この家こそ安住の地と定めたる吾を嗤う蜘蛛あり
汝が庵は密事よと告げに寄る
大蜘蛛つまみし紙音ぞ怖し
遺言を書くわが指よ
携帯に吾ゆいごんをしたたむる
友は嗤ひて吾は真顔で
我が肉體よ滅びに向かふな
現身の指の動きを確かめつ
朝起き嫩葉に肺確かめつ
ふるさとの停車場路の川ばたの
くるみの下に小石拾へり 啄木
寂しきを唄へる少年の心に
啄木のちひさき小石を拾へるを
停車場いつしか変へられてをり 成秋
昔の肺病はコロナどころに非ずして
その名さへ忘られし頃飄然と
ふるさとに来て咳せし男 啄木
今、コロナウイルスさかんにて、
わが胸に都会の痛み撫でさはる
妻子も友もならぬ顔なる 成秋
今一度、啄木秀逸のふるさとの歌
ふるさとの訛なつかし停車場の
人ごみの中にそを聴きにゆく 啄木
鉄の輪の踏切むこうに降りきたる
父の帽子や見え隠れして 成秋
兄と一緒に父を迎へに来たものの
腹ちがひ折れ曲がりたる兄こわし
父を迎へるゐてまほしかれ 成秋
ふるさとを想起するに去りにし父母の姿よりも、義理の仲にて常に
険しき心情を漂はせし義兄のことが想われてならぬ。
（No.1936は以上）
English translation 英訳
AI-assisted English translation. The Japanese original remains authoritative.
Already worn out, I gaze with the gesture of discarding it
My friend is not merely a person, this undergarment
On days of quarrels and days of small dances
There is a spider who mocks me, who has decided this house is the place of peace
A great spider comes close as if to tell me, ‘Your dwelling holds a secret’; the paper rustles as I pick it up, and the sound frightens me
The sound of the spider's paper is terrifying
My finger, which writes a will
Carries my words into the portable
My friend laughs, I remain serious
O my body, do not face destruction
Confirm the movement of the body's fingers
Confirm the tender leaves of the morning
Oh, the lonely song of the woodpecker, awaken it on the day of departure
The riverbank of the hometown station
Under the chestnut tree, I pick up a small stone, the woodpecker
Oh, the heart of the lonely boy who sings songs of sorrow
He picks up a small stone, the woodpecker's
The station has changed without notice, it is autumn
My old lung disease is not merely a matter of the coronavirus
Even its name has been forgotten, and then he floats away
The man who coughs in the hometown, the woodpecker
Now, with the coronavirus rampant,
The pain of the city strokes my chest
No face of wife, child, or friend
Once again, the exquisite song of the woodpecker's hometown
The familiar, accented station of the hometown
I go to listen to it among the crowd of people, the woodpecker
In the hometown station of Kitano, there is my father's figure
He descends from the crossing of the iron ring
His hat, seen and unseen, it is autumn
Though I came with my brother to welcome my father
The brother, whose stomach was wrong, bent and twisted, was frightening
How precious it is to welcome the father
Autumn
When I think of the hometown, it is not the figure of my parents who have left, but rather
The thought of the stepbrother, who always carries a difficult heart, comes to mind
Autumn
Original wording, author credits, notes and source materials are preserved there.