Fourth Series
Many different kinds of creatures
dwell on Earth
Earth is blue is beautiful
Because it is alive
it is blue and beautiful to our eyes
Colors, breaths, and feelings overflow this star
and yet---just think---the skies above are never ending!
And as for me, I've only just begun
My own heart beating telling me I'm alive
Knowing our years end in a trice
A shiver in moonlight
Forever! I whispered
I was so young
What is eternity? I asked my mother once upon a time
And my mother laughingly replied
Being with you forever and ever
You were rolling with laughter, so I said:
what if I merrily row a hashi over to you, and you said:
neither hashi nor bar can oar a barred spiral galaxy;
and then you looked so pleased at your own bad joke
that I looked up at the sky and rolled my eyes
Acorns on the ground here there everywhere
as if to fool me and confuse me
One is so busy in the fine weather after rain!
A familiar paw rests lightly
on my wrist
as I type---the paw of one
who never wonders
how many years are left to him
It's imagining but if in fact
I was suddenly all alone what would I do?
In my head I keep drawing then erasing a world in which I'm all alone
If everyone on earth linked hands
how long a chain could they make?
As I imagine all the people's hands clasping each other
my heart grows
suddenly warm
I want to ride my bike off into outer space, past
Mars, Mercury, Jupiter--- and then whoosh! I'd land in
the hammock of the crescent moon and have a good old yawn
Listen---sounds of heavenly harps, heavenly violins,
heavenly flutes--
it must be the Sunny Sky Orchestra
I clap in delight and
the sounds stop ---silence
I looked up and white fluffy came falling down
Softly I let it lie in my hand
and saw a fairy dancing
Where does a shooting star land?
In the ocean? A field? The mountains?
What happens to a shooting star when it lands?
I bet it turns into a seed and grows inside the earth
What kind of seed? That's what I want to know!
Oh, so the shooting star was a seed? From outer space
riding on wings of light came Life
It happened in far-off prehistoric times, before I became "homo sapiens"
Is it really true that memories of bygone days
are tucked away somewhere in the brain?
Or maybe they're drifting around somewhere there
But what would please me most is if all our forgettings
were remembered by someone somewhere in outer space!
That place where memories come back to life
is where I want to go and snuggle up this very minute
Then I'll start all over again from zero
Count from 1 to 100 and then
come after me
No need to run
Don't worry if you can't see me
Because the moon's trail will be around for a long long time
I want to run straight to her, yelling “Sa-chan!” but spin like a top
“Well, that’s the way it goes in our universe but someday you might
just be able to run straight--- and so begin a new universe for yourself”
The first time I saw you
I had a glimpse of
a long red line stretched between us
What line?
A red line, but now it’s very short
This road that winds around the center of the earth is hot!
Insects, animals, the dancing air!
And running through the middle of me too is another red road, an equator
Standing bolt upright in the exact middle of the desert
I became a sundial
Little by little the long shadows opposite the sun grew shorter,
disappeared completely for an instant and then lengthened again
The sun sank and now I am a moondial
If it’s darkness that fills the universe ,
then let’s soar high, by a jump rope bright with fireflies,
scattering life-light here and there
Go on, girls, go go go!
Over here, the milk’s bitter, so bitter
Over there, it’s sweet , so sweet
Go on, boys, go go go!
(Haha, it’s tens of thousands of light-years to the Milky Way!)
And we linger at the bank
making the joys and griefs of our life as lived here now
glitter as they roll in with each wave
