Sake Poetry:
Tedorigawa Yoshida-gura “U”
(Yoshida Shuzoten @Ishikawa Pref.)

Written by Ryosuke
Translated by Nina Patrick & Saki Kimura

That walk upon the snow
I see There is an edge in soft snow
If touched it will
       melt
Although it melts
it carves pain
transparently
  The snow cont inues  to fall
Like the heat of summer
melt it away
Hands move today, too
Ripples spread
Are shivers a physical portent?
  perhaps –
Climb the stairs again today
  the stairs
I climb as in
Each day
were we
somehow
able to touch upon it?  Thereto
(ultimately nobody answers)
Climbing
Height is fear Fear is pride
Is it so It is so It is so Is it?
But the view from the landing always
Ah, it does not change
It troubles me
Quitting is not quite possible
(doing, quitting, doing – none are routes of escape)

On the road of not quitting, trampling a bud of a tree  one step

Hands continue to move
without moving them
In the meantime
  or so was said
    as if there were reason to move
      there isn’t – the clear sky today, again
Cloudiness, clouded-sky, sky after cloudiness after cloudiness
Snow that seems to want to crush the cloudiness
Fingers again – warm light and thin smoke that awaken
always gather at one point in the sky
Even with pray er
  the falling cont inues
In raging billows
No – soundly
Just like
consuming the clouds
Every day without flavor with texture
Numbed hands
Numbed hands
do not scream
Why?
Without screaming
Sighing again to the clouds
Those who see that are always comfortable
That’s all right but
Those who give birth are those who eat again
To eat the clouds is to live
If a continuous, unbroken chain is reflected

In heat, snow

On any day

In shadow, flowers

In soft snow
there is an edge
If it is touched
it will
melt, but
– although it melts transparently
  it
  cuts
Pain
without reason
The refrain
today, too
walks on its own accord
A refrain of déjà vu
Engulfs
Will always melts in white
Here, again, I can’t help but laugh
Together with a useless will
Refrain

(“This is good sake”)
(“It truly is”)

It is, right?
Yes It is

Continually carved Continually carving
With both hands

Vines cling to each step
A whiteness crystal
In my line of sight, the light in the winter night
Summer I wait for you in the garden

– Hey, don’t you scowl so much…
In soft snow there is an edge