The Art of Being Alone: Poems 1952–2009

Contents

CONTENTS Acknowledgment xv Introduction 1 Poems 1952–2009 Alone inTwo Billion Light Years 45 二十億光年の孤独 (1952) Spring 45 Prayer 46 Alone inTwo Billion LightYears 47 Nero to a Beloved Small Dog 47 Scalpel 49 AWalk on a Cloudy Day 50 62 Sonnets 六十二のソネット (1953) 51 19 Vastness 51 30 51 41 52 61 53 62 53 On Love 愛について (1955) 55 The Sky’s Deceit 55 Birds 55 Notes to John Cage 56 Billy the Kid 57 Menstruation 58 Contents viii A Chair 59 A Room 60 21 (1962) 62 Perusal 62 a 62 b 62 c 63 d 64 e 64 f 65 g 66 Ad lib of the day 67 Whiskers 67 Nellie 68 Marijuana 68 COOL 69 A Village of Poets 70 A Room of Silence 70 Unfamiliar Poem-Man 71 Poem-Eye 71 Journey 旅 (1968) 73 Toba 1 73 Toba 2 73 Toba 3 74 Toba 4 75 Toba 5 75 Toba 6 76 Toba 7 76 Toba 8 77 Toba 9 78 Toba 10 78 Toba Addendum 79 Trip 1 79 Trip 2 80 Contents ix Trip 3 80 Trip 4 81 Trip 5 82 Trip 6 82 Trip 7 83 Trip 8 84 anonym 1 84 anonym 2 85 anonym 3 85 anonym 4 86 anonym 5 87 anonym 6 87 anonym 7 88 anonym 8 88 A Pensive Youth うつむく青年 (1971) 90 CanYou Hear? 90 The Sea 91 The New Frontier — Apollo 11 — 92 The Day Small Birds Vanished from the Sky 93 空に小鳥がいなくなった日 (1974) Morning 93 A MorningTakes Shape 94 Inside Myself 94 The Day Small BirdsVanished from the Sky 95 At Midnight in the Kitchen I Wanted toTalk to You 97 夜中に台所でぼくはきみに話しかけたかった (1975) Grass 97 At Midnight in the Kitchen IWanted toTalk toYou 97 1 97 2 toTakemitsuTōru 98 3 to Oda Minoru 98 4 toTanikawaTomoko 99 Contents x 5 99 6 100 7 100 8 to Iijima Kōichi 101 9 102 10 after Charlie Brown 102 11 103 12 103 13 toYuasa Jōji 104 14 to Kanaseki Hisao 104 At theTidal Flat 105 Death and Flame 1940 106 Definitions 定義 (1975) 107 AVery Difficult Object 107 An Impossible Approach to a Glass 107 A PersonalView of Gray 108 Observation of a Play inWater 109 Fragments of a ForgedTalamaikan Manuscript 110 タラマイカ偽書残けつ (1978) Fragments of a ForgedTalamaikan Manuscript 110 Selected Poems of Tanikawa Shuntarō 127 『谷川俊太郎詩集続』(1979) To Go Home 127 Coca Cola Lesson コカコーラ • レッスン (1980) 128 Coca Cola Lesson 128 Diary of Auntie 130 The Map of Days 日々の地図 (1982) 134 Perspective 134 The City 136 Smile 136 Unknown Hometown 137 Contents xi Path 137 Your Back 138 Convalescence 139 Letters 手紙 (1984) 141 Time 141 A Letter 141 Your Shoulder 142 Poets: Yosano Akiko 143 Naked はだか (1988) 144 Goodbye 144 ATree 144 Piano 145 To a Woman 女に (1991) 146 BeforeWeWere Born 146 Birth 146 A Fist 146 Blood 147 Day after Day 147 To Meet 147 Lost 148 Telephone 148 Snakes 148 Tomb 148 We Laugh 149 A Dream 149 DEATH 149 Afterlife 150 Clueless 世間知らず (1993) 151 The Death of My Father 151 Eulogy for My Father 153 The Path to Kurabuchi 154 He Is No More 154 Contents xii The Eighteen Year Old 十八歳 (1993) 156 A CosmicWorld 156 Late in the Afternoon 156 Night Classroom 157 Listening to Mozart モーツアルトを聴く人 (1995) 160 The Pure Land 160 The Ground 161 Listening to Mozart 162 Rather than Snow White 真っ白でいるよりも (1995) 163 Metaphorical Sea 163 Living with Cats 164 We’ve Got a Baby 166 Morning Light 167 minimal (2002) 168 I Tatters 168 A brief rest at Suzhou 168 The room 169 To resist 170 Limbs 170 I sit 171 My shadow 171 And then 172 Just the way it is 173 A postcard 173 II Water 174 Deep sighs 174 Night 175 Still life 176 Window 176 Song 177 High noon 178 Contents xiii A pebble 178 Face 179 Amniotic fluid 180 III Giggle 180 The bed 181 I myself 182 Blood 182 A day 183 Taste 183 Winter 184 Dirt 184 Flower petals 185 As I am doing now 185 Postscript 186 Poet’sTomb 詩人の墓 (2006) 188 Poet’sTomb 188 Watashi (I Myself) 私 (2007) 193 Watashi (I Myself) 193 Self Introduction 193 The River 194 To Meet “Me” 194 Certain Scenery 195 It’s Morning 196 Goodbye 197 Continuing toWrite 198 I Am...