Shuntaro Tanikawa

Mother,
Why is the river laughing?
Why, because the sun is tickling the river
...

One day somewhere
someone played the piano.
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Having parted with the evening glow
I meet with night.
But the angrier red clouds go nowhere
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Sometimes I reread poems I wrote long ago
I don't ask textbook questions like "what was the author feeling when he wrote this?"
When you write a poem, there is nothing but the feeling of wanting to write a poem
...

My toes seem terribly far away
The five digits, like five complete strangers,
sit close together, coldly indifferent
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To be in love—how does it feel?
It feels like sitting together gazing spellbound,
...

I lost an utterly trivial item.
Nothing that would trouble me greatly not to have
nor something I associate with fond memories.
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Because music never ends,
I cannot stay here.
I walk across the sward of life
...

I went alone back to the old days.
Butterflies are fluttering under the cloudy skies of those old days.
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I would have lived my whole life
just having loved her.
And once having died
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When I am sad I can't write a sad poem.
All I can do is endure my tears.
When I'm happy I don't write a happy poem.
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It's no use
floundering in the heart's shallows.
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Yes, this is the guy I call "watashi"—
Two tiny eyes and two common ears,
one nose, one mouth.
...

age three
there was no past for me
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So, coming one day
from somewhere,
suddenly I was standing on the grass;
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Nero
another summer is coming soon
your tongue
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Human beings on this small orb
sleep, waken and work, and sometimes
wish for friends on Mars.
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I won't let words rest.
At times they feel ashamed of themselves
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Sound becoming sound
had begun to infest the blank white paper,
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'Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens,
Bright copper kettles and warm woollem mittens,
Brown paper packages tied up with strings -
...