Adaptations of Professor Sukeo Kumazawa's tanka

Adaptations of Professor Sukeo Kumazawa's tanka

Professor Sukeo Kumazawa was for many years a colleague of mine at Daito Bunka University. He was a dear friend and I suggested he select some of the many tanka he had written for me to translate I did a certain number and showed them to him. He had no complaints about the English as English, but suggested that my translations for the most part should be considered adaptations rather than translations in the normal sense of the word. With Professor Kumazawa's words in mind, I would like to present both his original poems and my adaptations, in the hope that someone better than me will be stimulated to do something with his work which might be considered more in the nature of a translation. The following may all be dated to around 8 February 1998.

01
読み返し読み返しても変わらない電報の文字サンフォード・ダイド

Yomikaeshi
yomikaeshite mo
kawaranai
denpou no moji
Sanford died.

Reading and reading again
Reading the unchanging words I wish were lies
The letters of the telegram that came
Saying “Sanford died."


02
学生に善処しますと言いながら処置の仕方を深しあぐねる

Gakusei ni
zensho shimasu to
iinagara
shochi no shikata wo
fukashiaguneru.

“I always do my best,"
I told my students, one an all,
not realizing that I meant it.
So that's why me and my big mounth,
we're in a bind to work things out.


03
さみしさを見つめて生きて来たけれど終夜てんてんと海鳴りを聞く

Samishisa wo
mitsumete ikite
kita keredo
shuuya tenten to
uminari wo kiku.

I have lived,
watching loneliness
surf the high seas' crests.
But tonight,
I hear it in the sounds of waves,
tossing and tumbling in the dark.


04
真冬の国を二つにわける海峡を朝まで風は吼えて渡れり

Mafuyu no kuni wo
futatsu ni
wakeru kaikyo wo
asa made kaze ha
hoete watareri

This winter-winded country
divided by a narrow numbing straight,
its hostile, howling, ghastly, gusts
that roar till mourning's light.


05
身を削り削りしものを与えつつ秋の一日が氷雨で終わる

Mi wo kezuri
kezuri shi mono wo
ataetsutsu
aki no ichinichi ga
hisame de owaru

Nose to the grindstone,
worked myself to the bone.
Did my bit, and then did more.
But as the autum day is ending,
I see rain and sleet descending.


06
トンネルを出れば雪水音たてて渡れる雪道　春の来る径

Tonneru wo
izurereba yuki
mizu oto tatete
watareru yuki michi
haru no kuru miti

Departing from the tunnel's disgorging mouth,
translucent, drops of melting snow
run beside the lane below
bouncy, heart-expansion-bringing,
singing Spring.

07
退院し死にたいと昨日泣いた叔母今日もういない　寒さしんしん

Taiin shi
shinitai to kinou
naita oba
kyou mou inai
samusa shinshin

My aunt, she said with tears,
“Damn it if I die in a hospital bed.
Get me out of here."
That was yesterday.
Today the cold, crawling hands of death
hold me in their frigid, frozen clutches fast.


08
言うだけで行動できずにひょろひょろと蔦のはびこる愚者の楽園

Iu dake de
koudou dekizu ni
hyorohyoro to
tsuta no habikoru
gusha no rakuenn

All air, no action!
Inconclusively contorted
like Ivy League ivy
spreading its tendrils
in a fool's paradise.


09
理をつくし説いても開かぬ馬鹿貝を妻と二人で夕食に食う

Ri wo tsukushi
toite mo hirakanu
bakagai wo
tsuma to futari de
yushoku ni kuu

What do you get
when you try to reason with a turd?
Shit on your face!
Said grace and ate with the wife that night,
but what I ate didn't taste quite right.


10
耐えるという一つのことを学びたる径ふりむけば忘却の闇

Taeru to iu
hitotsu no koto wo
manabitaru
michi furimukeba
boukyaku no yami

Having learned to bear the unbearable,
to patiently put up with others' shit,
I look back on the rutted road I tread
and see a sightless sight,
the darkness of the disremembered past.


11
わたくしは鈍行列車コツコツと進んで少しもとまりたくない

Watakushi ha
donkou ressha
kotsukotsu to
susunde sukoshi mo
tomaritaku nai

In vehicular terms, I'm a dud!
Like a train barely moving at all
But move, I do.
Forward, bit by bit,
anxious not to stop.


12

播いた種どっしり大地に根づくのをじっと待ってる私は黒子
Maita tane
dosshiri daichi ni
nezuku no wo
jitto matteru
watashi wa kuroko

I'm the type that can till the soil and wait
till the seeds I sow take root,
spreading out in all directions.
I'm not a feature attraction,
just a teacher who hates distraction.


13
わが子乗せノースウエスト機台風の雲間に消えて夏は終わりぬ

Waga ko nose
no-suesuto ki
taifuu no
kumo no ma ni kiete
natsu ha owarinu

I put my boy on a plane
and saw the Northwest jet
fly through a hole in the clouds.
He was gone, my boy was gone.
My summer gone through a hole in the clouds.


14
貧しくて学べなかったくさぐさがふっと重たい晩夏の湿原

Mazushikute
manabenakatta
kusagusa ga
futto omotai
banka no sitsugen

So much I didn't have a chance
to learn back then. What a sin!
I thought, remembering my poverty,
while walking through a muddy, murky marsh
that sun-afflicted summer's day.


15
素手で風を捉えてみたい　すれすれに雪の斜面を雲駆け下る

Sote de kaze wo
toraete mitai
suresure ni
yuki no shamen wo
kumokake kudaru

I'd like to try and catch a gust of wind
with these two bare hands.
The clouds rolling down
that snow-covered slope seem to say
it's such an easy thing to do.


16
底なしのぬまの奥にはなにがある　ぶつぶつ水が涌き出るばかり

Soko nashi no
numa no oku ni wa
nani ga aru
butsubutsu mizu ga
wakideru bakari

What sacred sought-for secret
does the bare bottomless bottom
of that pure, placid, pond hide?
Only the indigested bursting out
of earth-angered water's belching bouts.


17
高尚な文学理論をふりざす友ありわれは遅れ来たる青年

Koushou na
bungaku riron wo
furizasu
tomo ari ware wa
okurekitaru seinen

I once had a friend
with a mouth of gold
so refined it smelled
of literary theory.
It was bitter to be merely the means
for giving his words added gleam.


18
幸いはどんな色かな最果てのブルーのぬまに淡雪が降る

Saiwai wa
donna iro ka na
saihate no
buruu no numa ni
awayuki ga furu

When painting happiness,
what's the color of bliss?
Would I miss the mark,
if I imagined flecks of snow
falling on the clear blue waters
of a northern marsh?


19
予測できぬ楕円のボールを追い求め演ずるドラマは無明のわが生

Yosoku dekinu
daen no booru wo
oimotome
enzuru dorama wa
mumyou no waga sei

All those jocks after a glorified pig bladder!
Harder and harder. And wow! What a drama.
Reminds me of me,
of the goals I set,
and all the resultant trauma.


20
この坂はいつ終わるやらエンジンはうめきうなりて吹雪はやまず

Kono saka wa
itsumo owaru yara
enjin wa
umekinarite
fubuki wa yamazu

If I can make it to the top,
driving this pile of junk,
will the engine's moans and groans
cause the snow to stop?


21
失った時がもどればきさらぎの風をえのぐで描いていたい

Ushinatta
toki ga modoreba
kisaragi no
kaze wo enogu de
egaite itai

If the past I've lost returned
February's charms
are those for which I'd yearn.
I'd lushly paint the wind,
color it over and over again.


22
チョムスキーを神と信じているらしいわれ持たざるはデウス・エクス・マキナ

Chomsky wo
kami to shinjite
iru rashii
ware motazaru ha
deus ex machina

I knew a star-struck turd,
one who believed Chomsky was God.
But I can't believe in a God
podium-speaking to those below,
condescending to make a show.


23
きさらぎの風にしろじろ岬へと一本の径ヤコブの梯子となりて

Kisaragi no
kaze ni shirojiro
misaki he to
ippon no michi Yakobu no
hashigo to narite

The winds of winter's ending
howl along a lane from hell
to pass a land as white as driven snow.
They're the calls of the Mad Hatter,
a challenge to climb my Jacob's ladder.


24
悔い改める時はまだあるまっすぐに径は一本岬へつづく

Kuiaratameru toki wa
mada aru
massugu ni
michi wa ippon
misaki he tudzuku

I have all the time in the world
to unfurl new plans,
to become a better man.
Even so, fast or slow,
it's a one-way street
straight to a point of no return.


25
この坂を登ればふたたび戻れまい風のように神のように

Kono saka wo
noboreba futatabi
modoremai
kaze no you ni
kami no you ni

This path, too, is straight-and-narrow,
like all, a road of no return,
unlike the air-swept wind,
unlike the ghost of God.


26
幽門の述語に麻酔切れ泣きし子は痛み耐えうる男となりたる

Yuumon no
jutsugo ni masui
kire naki shi
ko wa itami taeuru
otoko to naritaru

Anesthesia was a blessing
when they cut open my baby's belly.
But when he woke
he broke out in tears
for fear of pain
Now there's nothing he can't stand.
My boy's become a man.


27
うなされて目覚めて汗に濡れし首まわせば暗闇ますます深し

Unasarete
mezamete ase ni
nureshi kubi
mawaseba kurayami
masumasu fukashi

Devil-jockeyed nightmares
galloping, grinding my brains to a halt.
Up-woken, fear-forced, my bedded neck
was wet with sweat,
my eyes still full
of staalking shadows lurking without let.


28
わが時は石に刻みて積みたりと石工は誇る石の命を

Waga uta wa
ishi ni kizamite
tsumitari to
ishiku wa hokoru
ishi no inochi wo

My masonry's an art, a love-song to the eternal,
the stonemason brightly bragged
as he piled his precious stones,
proud that each stone's life
had a value all its own.


29
登らねば教室へ行けぬ急坂を定年坂とだれが名づけたる

Noboraneba
kyoushitsu he yukenu
kyuuhan wo
teinenzaka to
dare ga nadzuketaru

There's a hill I have to climb
when I go to teach.
A steep hill!
And I no longer wonder
what was meant when
someone named it Mt. Retirement.


30
友逝けばまた来ることもなからんか別れを惜しむシッペンスバーグの夕日

Tomo yukeba
mata kuru koto mo
nakaran ka
wakare wo oshimu
Shippensburg no yuuhi

If my friend should die,
should I return to Shippensburg?
How could a I say goodbye
To the setting sun of Shippensburg?


31
限りなく続くカナダの麦畑バスにゆらゆら友の死を思う

Kagirinaku
tsudzuku Kanada no
mugibatake
basu ni yurayura
tomo no shi wo omou

Endless miles and miles of wheat,
Canada stretching to infinity.
And all that time the bus went on,
shaking, shifting, sun-shadow dancing
and all that time all I thought was him,
was why he had to die.


32
Onna ni wa
otoko no roman ga
wakaranaku
otoko wa jitto
guchi wo kiiteru

A man's dreams
are no match for a wife,
making life a bed of nails,
a stoic listening comprehension course
that fails
to take the pain from patience. 　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　

33
“Up yours," to
nigirikobushi wo
tsukiagete
Nancy isshun
kodomo ni kaeru

“Up yours!"
answered Nancy,
arm upthrust.
And in that moment,
for just a wild-eyed moment,
became a daddy's girl,
a pretty little girl again.


34
Seikatsu no
rizumu sorezore
kuichigau
kazoku 5-nin ga
soumen susuru

Biorhythms out of sync,
disfunctions tightly linked,
the family five find a common ground
in the sights and sounds
of eating oodles and oodles
of chicken noodle soup.


35
Manju shage
tadoreba doko made
yuku no yara
hatanaka no komichi
rakuyou ni akai

If I pursued the lilies of the field,
lining this isolated lane,
to where would they lead away my soul?
To where this disappearing path does run?
To the crimson setting sun?


36
Osoikuru
suima ni kate to
yoake made
mado utsu kaze ha
fuyu he no wakare

Listening to the window-pane attacking wind
hack away till dawn was come
and blue-black dark was gone,
I escaped sleep's lazy charms,
alarmed to find these greetings
of the flightly wind
had meant yet another winter's end.

37
Asa moya ni
Ooshima no mieru
Izu no umi
fuyu he no wakare no
hibiki wo kaesu

An island arising in the morning mist
of the whispering winter sea
reminds me of the vibrant
wine-red sounds of springs to come.

38
Hitori kite
Izu no yamayu ni
kutsurogeba
izu koto mo naku
yoseru yama no oto

Just me and myself,
peacefully pampered
by the spa's mountain's geothermal stew,
out of nowhere, we heard this mountain stirring,
kitty-cat purring; and the two of us concurred.

39
Kasuka naru
mizu no nagare wo
tadorikite
sara ni ooki na
numa ni idetari

The insignificance
of trudging along a trifling stream
to reach an azure,
eye-stretching lake-surrounding shore,
was pure pleasure,
and the birth of a more magnificant treasure.