
Japanese Poets – Shuntarou Tanigawa
朝のリレー | Asa no Riree | Morning relay race |
カムチャッカの若者が きりんの夢を見ているとき メキシコの娘は 朝もやの中でバスを待っている ニューヨークの少女が 微笑みながら寝がえりをうつとき ローマの少年は 柱頭を染める朝日にウインクする この地球では いつもどこかで朝がはじまっている |
Kamchatka no wakamono ga kirin no yume wo miteiru toki Mexico no musume wa asamoya no nakade bus wo matteiru New York no shoujo ga hohoemi nagara negaeri wo utsutoki Rome no shounen wa chutou wo someru asahi ni wink suru kono chikyuu dewa itsumo dokoka de asa ga hajimatteiru |
When a young boy in Kamchatka is dreaming about firaffes, A young Mexican girl is waiting for the bus in the morning haze When a little girl in New York is turning over in her bed smiling, A Roman boy winks at the morning sun colouring the capitals In this Earth, always in somewhere, the morning starts |
This is a Shuntarou Tanizaki (谷崎俊太郎)´s poem which used to be a poem most of the Japanese school children would learn at school. He is one of the most well-known poet in Japan. One coffee company used his poem, Morning relay race for their ad while ago and became one of my favorites. It was a well made.
I´m not a big poetry reader even that there are a few Japanese poets I read and I like. Shuntarou Tanizaki is one of them. I´ve found his poems are quite raw and therefore, I can feel his confusion, pain and warmth.
This Morning relay race makes you feel that the world is connected and as we live, we keep handing a baton to each other. Thinking like that as a kid, suddenly the earth became so close and so familiar.
Now I shall withdraw and as I put my head on the pillow, I´ll think of the morning sun starts shining somewhere the other side of the world.
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