Mizuho Ishida

The Ox at Night / 夜の雄牛

Sunken in a body shape
The forgotten hay called to mind
The creature is breathing in sleep
Inaudible to anyone
Nobody hears yet smells a faint

aroma of winter sunlight through leaves
It is the form of her song
A bed sheet falling with a breath
Soars to stars (then
The outer space wafts

Back to the face),
Has nowhere to go and returns
I gazing at the unique gesture
Can’t help falling in love again
With the charming beauty

It alone becomes the beauty
Hard to believe but I want to
Like catching the emptiness on the clear dark night
What words can fashion
Is more like almost a nothing
At most a note of light a drop of rhythm
Still I saw you drop
A tear of joy noctilucent clouds and eyelids in dream
Through the unspeakable blink
Bring now here that little thing

note: The poem was first published on a newspaper, the Yomiuri Shimbun.
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  体の形に凹んでは
 忘れられた干し藁をおもわせる
 生き物が寝息をたてている
だれにも聴こえないし
聴く者もない でもかすかに

冬の木洩れ陽のいい香がして
それが 彼女の歌の形
  シーツは降下しながら一呼吸で
  星へ翔けあがる(それから
   大気圏外空間がふわふわ

   顔にむかってもどってくる)
   どこにもゆけずに帰ってきて
   独特なしぐさをみつめると
   その可笑しな美をあらためて
   愛さずにはいられなくなる

   それだけが信じがたくも
  信じてみたい美になる
  空をつかむように透明な闇夜で
言葉がつくりだせるものは
ほとんど無にしかおもえない

たかだか一光の調べ 一滴の韻律
それでも きみが喜びの涙を
  零すのをみた 夢の夜光雲と瞼
  その語りえない瞬きのあいまから
   あのわずかなものをいまここへ

注:初出読売新聞

About Mizuho Ishida

Born 1973. A Japanese poet, critic and monk of Shingon Chizan Buddhism. Published first collection of poems Segments-Kakerahen in 2006, then Sleepy Islands(2012), Faraway Atlas(2014), Ear, Bamboo Leaf Boat(2015) and Asian Dream(2019).