Pathway to Japanese Literature

What fills me with nostalgia is my hometown's earth.
"Dream on the Sand" is a poem of earth, and it is a poem of my hometown.

To the kindness of my friend Mr. Fujita Kenji, who preserved and kept for me many of the works included in this collection—works that had been scattered and become impossible to trace—I am endlessly grateful.

Spring, Taisho 12

Author

Dream on the Sand

Rain on the River Stones

On the riverbed stones

The falling rain—

the beloved's

Could these be tears—oh,

The riverbank's

On bamboo grass leaves

Lonely... lonely

Rain falls

"On the river stones

The rain

Falls

The rain”

Even the sad song

Without singing,

the parted one's

Could these be tears—oh,

Plums

Even when I see the fallen plum fruits,

so sad

in the heart's depths a whirlpool churns

the days gone by

though they do not return

please return—once more

try to forget try to forget though I do

even when I see the fallen plum fruits I recall

even seeing them fallen I recall

spring bird

O gentle bird

Spring Song

Birds awaiting spring

plaintive voice

O gentle song

Spring Bird

birds of spring’s coming

plaintive song

Night of the Village Dance

O young men of the village

Dance satsukorasa!

Dance now!

From O Moon

The Rabbit watches.

O Rabbit!
You only watch
the young girls' faces—
Look at their faces!

The night deepened.

Dance satsukorasa!

Dance satsukorasa, O!

Suitchiyo

*Suitchiyo Suitchiyo*—
Osaka’s
town edge where Suitchiyo cries.

Older sister of Tsukushi
To Nagasaki
Younger sister too of Tsukushi

To Nagasaki

*Suitchiyo Suitchiyo*—
Perched atop ivy leaves,
Cries *Suitchiyo*

Thrush

Today too the thrush
Came upon hillside’s crest and cried
I too want to cry, O thrush bird
The sky turned milky
Another day drew to a close

They died and parted

They are no longer among us,
Though we try to forget—can they be forgotten?
Long time

It had been a long time—

Poppy flowers

By the weeping willow,

Even the rain fell,

All had grown desolate.

Forgive us

Might as well in the hometown

It would have been better had we stayed.

Foreign ships

The south wind blows again today.

To the sea of Tsukushi

Dutch

The ship is coming O!

Souhachi-san

This world is but a dream, I tell you.

The dream of Naniwa

Evening primrose

short, so short

Evening primrose

The south wind blows again today.

Out at sea appears

Dutch

triangular white sails of

Foreign ships

This world is but a dream, I tell you.

Ueno Station

Living in woman’s guise

Niigata's

Port-bound traveling performer
Clang clatter goes
Winter night's
The Niigata-bound train departs
With a face caked in white makeup

Niigata's

Port-bound traveling performer

Clang clatter

Clang clatter,

The Niigata-bound train departs.

Seven Islands

Sado is a remote island.

Oki also

Remote island.
Hachijō Island of Izu too.

All are remote islands

In Izu

Seven

Chichijima Kojima

Nanatsukojima too

All are remote islands.
Because they are remote islands,
With longing,
This here
Of Izu's Kojima
Seven islands—

An anxious heart

Love has cooled

This world—

Is this a dream?

I've cast love aside

This self too—

A dream?

Why this sorrow?

This world's

O Dream

Fox

On a night when frost falls

The fox

The fox cried.
The tail must be heavy
The feet
The feet must be cold

Rice fields here and there

All night long.

It cried.

Reed shoots
On Tokyo's glass windows
Rain falls
Chaotically

Spring night’s
Rain upon glass—
Rain falls on the window.
Hometown’s
Even to the reed shoots

Spring night's
rain falls chaotically—
pouring down—
Shall we return to hometown?
Shall we part ways with you?
Chaotically, chaotically—
Spring night's
rain upon glass—

Rain falls on the window.

Withered fields

The rice was harvested.

A thrush came and cried.

With feeble chirps,

Walking walking,

It cried.

The voice was too thin.

Poor thing,

I thought.

A chilly wind
was blowing through the rice fields.

Has forgotten.

forehead girl
sixteen Musashi
a face that cried when young
has forgotten
on the eaves of Kyoto's Chion-in
the carpenter too
umbrella

She had forgotten.

Forehead Girl—

sixteen musashi—

Never once cried,

she wore such a face.

The wind was a south wind.

Udo and Aoshima—

O south wind,

O I remember now—

A crescent moon

for whom does this longing burn?

The crescent had been out since daytime.

For whom did it burn?

I don't know, but

The wind was a south wind.

Off Aoshima's coast,

even on some detached rocky shore,

had it burned with longing?

The cricket's song

of the cricket's song

in loneliness

leaning against the window

sobbing quietly

phantom grass too

cosmos too

the flower blooms as it did in the past

blooms unchanged

of the cricket's song

in loneliness

On the tatami mats
Weeping facedown
The number of stars
Countless as the stars are the blows endured,
I cannot meet my beloved
I grew sad
I can't not cry, can't not cry
If time as countless as the stars has passed,

they will have forgotten me

Fifteenth Spring

The fifteenth spring,

Yesterday’s dream

Already the sixteenth

Spring has come

the sixteenth spring too

Passing like yesterday's dream

And the seventeenth

Spring comes

Song of Withered Reeds

If the reeds wither

Where could we meet?

The former riverbed—

Even the stones have dried

If the reeds wither

Where could we meet?

The back field—

Even the soil has dried

If the reeds wither

Where could we meet?

The withered leaves of reeds

Let us meet in their shade

Japanese nutmeg tree

As I look at the red flowers alone again today,

hometown's

I got the feeling a young woman might come calling.

hometown's

Young beloved women,

Though I haven't met them in five or six years,

Have the withered reeds on the riverbank ended up neither sprouting buds nor blooming flowers?

Omiyo-chan would be seventeen or eighteen, maybe nineteen by now.

the field behind my house's

On the Japanese nutmeg tree

Does the thrush still come and sing now?

Every time I hear the thrush sing,

hometown's

The Japanese nutmeg tree in the field

I am reminded endlessly

Tears will flow.

The women

Port Shigure

Port Shigure

Beneath the snake-eye umbrella,
as the seasonal rain falls,
counting days and months,
I watch the harbor.
To wait must be bitter -
rather than being waited upon -
Fushiki Port's

O Boatmen

Flower of Resentment

Not even once a month,

Though we never meet,

The pitiable salon's

O Flower of Resentment!

Scattered apart,

Even living separately,

Love grows deeper -

Scandal flows onward.

Figure from Behind

A back figure's loneliness—

Because she's crying in her heart.

When she was a country girl,

She was such a lovely figure back then.

Withered at the tips, sorrowful Ushigome’s

Now she is the café's Kakitsubata.

Love's suspension bridge above this

"Please let me cross, I beg you."

Watermelon field
Watermelon fields.
The moon is out.
Softly, softly,
The moon is out.

When the soil was struck,

A heavy thud resounded.

Both elder and younger sisters

Farewell, farewell

May rain

On a night when May rain fell, you

Downstream

Crossed the shallows to meet

And departed as dawn approached

Through many nights

Downstream

They saw you off in the shallows

When it becomes a night of falling May rain,

Nostalgically

The figure of you from that time comes to be recalled.

Evening Moon

Onaka nee-sama

In the field,
Swish-swish,
She trampled barley.
The geese returned,
And the evening moon—
Of the tingling forest

Emerging from above.

It's boring,

she said tearfully

Onaka nee-sama

She had a round face, didn't she.

Katsushika summer

Deutzia flowers scatter.

The lesser cuckoo sings.

In the midst of the marsh

Iris flowers are also blooming.

In the midst of the marsh

O irises,

In Katsushika

Now two months had lingered here.

I have neither house nor mansion

Last summer I was in Tokyo

This year now finds me in Katsushika,
The time has come when I must part
From this dwelling I had grown accustomed to.

Katsushika's

O irises,

Let us meet again

Bridge of Love

Bridge of Love

Cross it,

built

With intent to cross,

Until today,

had been

A single bamboo bridge

Shall we cross?

Green onions

Green onions and paper mulberry

Thinking of home.

When leaving home.

Green onions of the field

Green onions and paper mulberry

They were being blown by the wind.

Song

A song could be heard.

Migratory birds crossed.

Slender. Lonely.

O weaving song,

Today too the migratory birds

Flew across the sky.

Arrowwheel plant

In the arrowwheel plant's leaf shadows

Concealed,

They sang

Katydid

As for Elder Sister,

She was deceived.

As for Mother too,

She was deceived.

Even if they hid and sang,

Arrowwheel's

In the name 'wheel'

They were deceived.

On the hill

Within the haze,

Golden

The rapeseed flowers had bloomed,
Rain falls on reed buds,
Spring rain’s
The sound of its pouring had also been heard.
The wind blew through wheat leaves,
Dawn’s
The wind too had blown calmly,

From within the mist
softly,
nectar mist fell on the grass.

River spray

Let us go quickly now

Crossing that mountain

Though flowers bloom

Hometown's

The moon is hazy.

River spray

Let us go quickly now

Crossing that river

Though flowers scatter,

Hometown’s

Moon stays dear.

River spray.
Ariake Moon,
from your former self—
how you've changed.

Lately, I
It's agonizing.
What should I do—
I suppose this must suffice.

Last night too, all night
I cried.
To the you of old,
Do it for me.
Ariake Moon
I asked you, you know.
Eddies,

Standing on the riverbank,

The Tone River's
As I gazed at its blue water,
Tears welled up in my chest.
At the riverbank's edge

Round and round,

Small eddies

are swirling

Taking each other's hands

With lover

I want to walk

I even feel

In small eddies,

Round and round.

I want to be swept into their whirl.

I even feel.

Hot tears

A hollowed-out shell's

O my love,

This world is

Ephemeral husk?

The long time—

In the midst of a dream

Hot tears,

O fire in my chest

Around Ryogoku.

Crossing Ryogoku Bridge,

she went.

Eighteen or maybe nineteen years old—

She was a woman.

“Kuchīre-gyō” was written there.

They met at the journey’s exit.

Her hair hung in loose clusters—

she was that woman.

Carob bean field.

I did not meet the child parted from in the mountains.

Because of that child, the nightingale of Azuma sings in the carob field.

Yesterday on a sakaki branch,

with bamboo grass’s dead leaves piercing its eyes, a bird was there crying “Father! Father!”

Today too on the branch of the sakaki tree

With bamboo grass's dead leaves piercing its eyes, a bird cried "Mother! Mother!"

I did not meet the child parted with in the mountains.

As the wind blew, the nightingale sang in the carob bean field.

Comb

Behind the riverbank's

Rustling mugwort

Thinking back.

Do they not care to look?

This morning too, at the back door,

The comb lay fallen.

Had someone passed through?

How pitiable it was

On the sand

On the sand wrote words

Parting and

wrote

Long parting and

Thinking of

wrote

Looking at the written characters

With feet on sand

stepping

Squelch squelch

With tears

Stepped.

In those days

Even withered grass

Yesterday’s――dream

Dream——

Drowsily drifting,

Repeating

Dream——

Even the winter moon

The past's——dream

Dream——

Drowsily drifting,

Repeating

Dream——

A dream—a dream,

I too——thought

I thought——

Drowsily drifting,

Profoundly——I thought

I thought——

Seventeen Flowers

On the other side of the river,

Seventeen Flowers,

Painful though it may be,

Seventeen Flowers, bloom crimson for me

Heartless though it may be

Seventeen Flowers,

On the other side of the river,

Seventeen Flowers, bloom crimson for me

Crimson as flames

Seventeen Flowers,

Painful though it may be,

bloom crimson for me

Dream Unseen

I parted from my lover last night.

Through the train station,

This morning—alone,
I walked.
The coming and going of people boarding and alighting,
I gazed.

There and here,

Walking.

A nostalgic，unseen dream—

Enticed，

This morning alone，

I must have come.

Tobacco Flowers

Otsuta yome-sama

Tobacco flowers

Tobacco flowers have bloomed in the former man's field

Otsuta yome-sama

I've given up

Having no ties left to anything at all—I gave up completely

The torn shoji's

When I peered through its hole

turned her back and spun thread

Under the umbrella
Where was I born
Yasugi's town?
On a day when rain fell
Was I born?
Please listen

Around seventeen,
always with tears,
it tightens, you see

That is what we want to hear

Under the umbrella
On a day when rain falls

Was I born?

Thrush

The rice fields had withered completely
Everywhere, here too
A cold wind blew
When dusk fell across the paddies
Plaintively, plaintively
The thrush cried out
Omoyo wore a red flower hairpin
Before her house
She came out to watch

In a thin voice, the thrush
plaintively, plaintively
was crying.
Omoyo’s heart too,
in first love,
quivered plaintively.
The rice fields had withered away—
everywhere, here too—
a cold wind was blowing.

twilight

the orchid-chrysanthemum flowers are desolate

Kawagoe’s

“Small Restaurant” was written
“Small Restaurant” was written

Orchid-chrysanthemums’
flowers were desolate—a one-night wife
around twilight was left stranded
Kawagoe’s

the woman making mouse-like cries
rust
rust

leaning against the window lattice

“When will you come again?” she asked.

A crying woman—

The rusted kitchen knife’s sorrow—

“How fleeting this existence is,” she said.

Who can say?

Only summer nights dawning so easily—
the street was bright,
a blue bamboo blind;
no matter how much she polished and polished,
the kitchen knife’s rust,
even when polished...

Who can say?

the one who does not return

On the other side of the river
A water rail cried out.
Come back home.

Come back home.

The moon hangs hazy,

You’re out at the riverbank—

You must have forgotten,

You’re still here.

Unrequited Love

Longing,
when I went out back to look -
blue sky

fleeting

my

Unrequited love,

fleeting

To me,
Why did you do this?

In this heart like a raging sea,

Why did you do this?

Earthworm’s Song

“Take me with you too,” said Omitsu.

She had decided to go along.

The night

The night deepened soundlessly.

“I don’t need kimonos or sashes anymore,” she said against the man’s chest, pressing her face against him and sobbing quietly. Behind the stable’s back door, sorrowfully, an earthworm was singing a song. The field's soil—Otsuta, Mr. Groom—he listlessly sowed seeds in the field behind the house. There were lovely women aplenty, yet he had relied on Otsuta alone. What do you intend, soil of the field? Today too, parched and restless, it lay parched.

Bindweed

Artlessly, the flowers bloom

Artlessly,

The flowers wither.

Is it not sad?

O daughters,

On the sandy shore by the water's edge,

The bindweed flowers
withering away
What desolation this is.
O daughters,

Ring

"If it's me you care for,
buy me a ring.
Without a ring,
my hands grow cold with desolation."

"I'll buy you a ring.
I'll buy and send you a ring.
I'll get you a sash too.
I'll buy and send tabi socks too."

"If it's me you care for,
buy me geta too."

"I'll buy you geta too.
I'll send fair-weather clogs."

Hateful woman.
Should I think it's just wind blowing through empty sky?
She did something hateful.
The girl -
trying to forget,
unforgotten.

he wanted to strike her

this heart

Moonlight.
A pale pink
handkerchief—
she stares fixedly,
crying.

On the window glass
the moon that shone
through hazy moonlight
was blue.

Pale pink.

On the handkerchief
Something was written
They wondered if there was anything

================================================================

On the silk shawl
Winter night’s
faintly blue
The moon casts its light.
Faintly, faintly
Sadness—
Hot tears
Fall.

I am this world's
castaway

Because of you, I—
castaway

Faintly, faintly
Sadness—

Hot tears
fall

The moon of yore—
I met you

In Musashino
The blue moon of old appeared.
"You saw it too, didn't you?"
Musashino's
A house stands in the middle of a field.
Evening skylark in the middle of the field
"Now I—
I'm going back to my hometown!"
Potato
White flowers bloom.
"Potato,"
On nights when the moon rises
In the middle of the field

On nights without the moon,

Potato,

Please don't tell anyone
Keep it unspoken.

Frosty Night

Let us sing with the guitar
The farewell song,
Together with tears
Let us sing.

On a cold frosty night
In the frost-withered sky
Even the stars themselves
Appear trembling.

Come now, let us sing
Together with tears
Parting with you—
A sad song.

Newly Cultivated Field

This morning too, the quail
In the newly cultivated field
Called out.
Longing for the quail—
The quail in the field
The lovely lad's

In the newly cultivated field
The quail called.
The sound of the shuttle
In the village where cornflowers bloom
"It must be around sunset, don't you think?"
Tap-tap, clink.
The sound of the shuttle
Tap-tap, clink.

The sound of the shuttle

In the village where cornflowers bloom
"Thinner than thread, don't you think?"
Tap-tap, clatter.

Morning of Song

Tap-tap, clatter.

Morning of Song.

The sound of the back door
In the dead of night
Knocked at the back door—
Thud-thud
Occasionally knocked
The word that he would come tonight—
No word had come—
"Lovely lad..."
I wondered if there was none.

Jingo-san

Weeping willow.
He did nothing but pose riddles.
I was so ashamed.

Jingo-san's riddle
How will it ever be solved?

“Jingo-san’s riddle…”

“Oh… Jingo-san…”

“Please stop giving them.”

Dream

Last night, I dreamed.

Mr.Kizou's dream

Yearning, nostalgic.

I saw it all night long

Last year, Kizou-san

had the back of my hand scratched by Kizou-san

Drowsily, drowsily,

I was seeing that dream.

Threads of the Heart

Became a wife

Years and months

I have spent

I wonder why.

Today too—unresolved
threads of the heart
being pulled by someone
they must be.

Under the desk—a violet
Written in ink
Stationery
Torn in two and fallen.

To whom did I send word—
I sent it, didn’t I?
To whom did I send word—
I sent it, didn’t I?

Grains of Sand

The songs heard at Shiogare Beach—
All sad
Songs—nothing but

Even if you count as many as the grains of sand
The one who left—
does not return

They grew tearful.
Without crying—without crying—
Could they endure?

Nightfall Song

No good, no good,

Without even listening—
Far from conversation—Sister—
Years upon years had piled up—
"What's happened, dear one?"

"A man's bearing—
if it’s fine—then let it be fine..."

Your name—
The character called 'Parting' being so sorrowful—

In the charcoal brazier I wrote and erased,
erased and wrote—

I cried.

‘Even if I erase and write
of bygone days
now is fleeting
‘only emptiness’

“Sweet on the tongue—
false
People’s words and
“Unaware of the Dew”

“The maiden’s pride—even play’s
Than illusion,
pale’

In sorrowful state—your name
In the charcoal brazier—how many times—
I wrote and gazed at

I cried.

Iris Flowers

In the iris flowers
early summer—
your figure comes to mind

Your figure—
early summer—
it was the iris flowers that bloomed

Behind the stable,
listlessly
bloomed the iris flowers.

It was the iris flowers that bloomed.
Among the iris flowers
Early summer—
Your image comes to mind

Dear beloved you
Dear beloved you of Ibaraki
Lonely mountains
The sun sets.

In the western mountains too, fire burns.
In the eastern mountains too,
Fire burns.
Dear beloved you sixteen-year-old,
The heart's blaze—
Fire burns.

Outside the fence
under an autumn-clear sky
bloomed on the fence—
Cosmos,
peach-colored with human longing,
their pale hearts—
Cosmos,
a young woman listlessly
outside the fence
sang:
“Love is sorrow,”
“O cosmos flowers—”

is singing

if you live on the road

If you live on the road

Chino's

The rain too
softly, softly
seeps into flesh
Hakata doll
The Hakata doll—
tear-stained
Doll.
Hand in hand clasping
It is crying.

Aso

Aso—
spewing fire—the flame
of lovers' paths
Draw forth, Kumamoto's
dear one