Tanka Translation 68: Shuji Shimada

68  Shuji Shimada（島田修二）

アジア史に人間の罪誌しつつわれが裡なる兵士老いたり

ajia-shi ni ningen no tsumi shirushitsutsu ware ga uchi naru heishi oitari

recording human sins

in Asian history

a soldier inside me

is aged

 

 

ガス室をアウシュヴィッツに作りしも人間なればあきらめ眠る

gasu-shitsu o aushuvittsu ni tsukurishimo ningen nareba akirame nemuru

it is us humans

who built a gas chamber

in Auschwitz

I sleep with resignation

 

家といふかなしみの舟成ししよりひとは確かに死へと漕ぎゆく

ie to iu kanashimi no fune nashishi yori hito wa tashikani shi e to kogiyuku

after having built a house

which is a boat of sorrow

it is sure a human being rows

towards a death

 

from “Gendai Tanka No Kansho 101” (Appreciation of Contemporary Tanka 101) edited by Ken Kodaka, Shinshokan, 1999, Tokyo, Japan