Poetry International Poetry International
Poem

Kiyoko Nagase

My Rival was \'Death\'

Your visage is now in ripples
my water surface does not calm down
My mind was at peace even though we didn’t meet
because you were everywhere
Your intense gaze from the distance used to lighten my gait
and I could walk calmly even through thorns

Yet, he is no more
When I heard ‘Death’ captured and took him away
my heart whirled up into the sky like a twister
Oh, his hands that wrapped me are gone now
A path in mid-air whirls up high, winding like a string
around its invisible hollow core
soaring high, yet not on wings
it moves only as heat attached to sand

Today I walk with such a heavy gait,
yet I appear to others as simply slow and graceful — but to where?
The capture left just a momentary shining scar in mid-air
my rival was ‘death’
Absently I marvel that it’s a mere half-month since he’s been gone
My debility has already changed my shape
Just as a cloud cannot hold its shape and let it rain
I dissolve from all corners and let it rain
That nuanced and vast whole!
My attraction equaling infinity!
My sorrows raining as far as Lethe
weigh too heavy for me to support
waft low on the ground
like lead-colored fog

ライバルは「死」であった

ライバルは「死」であった

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My Rival was \'Death\'

Your visage is now in ripples
my water surface does not calm down
My mind was at peace even though we didn’t meet
because you were everywhere
Your intense gaze from the distance used to lighten my gait
and I could walk calmly even through thorns

Yet, he is no more
When I heard ‘Death’ captured and took him away
my heart whirled up into the sky like a twister
Oh, his hands that wrapped me are gone now
A path in mid-air whirls up high, winding like a string
around its invisible hollow core
soaring high, yet not on wings
it moves only as heat attached to sand

Today I walk with such a heavy gait,
yet I appear to others as simply slow and graceful — but to where?
The capture left just a momentary shining scar in mid-air
my rival was ‘death’
Absently I marvel that it’s a mere half-month since he’s been gone
My debility has already changed my shape
Just as a cloud cannot hold its shape and let it rain
I dissolve from all corners and let it rain
That nuanced and vast whole!
My attraction equaling infinity!
My sorrows raining as far as Lethe
weigh too heavy for me to support
waft low on the ground
like lead-colored fog

My Rival was \'Death\'

Your visage is now in ripples
my water surface does not calm down
My mind was at peace even though we didn’t meet
because you were everywhere
Your intense gaze from the distance used to lighten my gait
and I could walk calmly even through thorns

Yet, he is no more
When I heard ‘Death’ captured and took him away
my heart whirled up into the sky like a twister
Oh, his hands that wrapped me are gone now
A path in mid-air whirls up high, winding like a string
around its invisible hollow core
soaring high, yet not on wings
it moves only as heat attached to sand

Today I walk with such a heavy gait,
yet I appear to others as simply slow and graceful — but to where?
The capture left just a momentary shining scar in mid-air
my rival was ‘death’
Absently I marvel that it’s a mere half-month since he’s been gone
My debility has already changed my shape
Just as a cloud cannot hold its shape and let it rain
I dissolve from all corners and let it rain
That nuanced and vast whole!
My attraction equaling infinity!
My sorrows raining as far as Lethe
weigh too heavy for me to support
waft low on the ground
like lead-colored fog
Sponsors
Gemeente Rotterdam
Nederlands Letterenfonds
Stichting Van Beuningen Peterich-fonds
Ludo Pieters Gastschrijver Fonds
Lira fonds
Partners
LantarenVenster – Verhalenhuis Belvédère