Ishikawa Takuboku, A Handful of Sand (Japanese Poetry)

Ishikawa Takuboku, Seven Tanka

translated by Ad Blankestijn

[Stones with inscriptions of Takuboku's tanka,
at Cape Oma (famous for its line-caught tuna)
in the Shimokita Peninsula, facing the Tsugaru Strait]

(1)
on the white beach of a small island in the Eastern Sea
my face wet with tears
I play with a crab

Tokai no kojima no shirasuna ni
ware nakunurete
kani to tawamuru

東海の小島の磯の白砂に
われ泣きぬれて
蟹とたはむる


(2)
a pistol rusted all over came out
when I was digging
with my finger in the sand of the dunes

itaku sabishi pisutoru idenu
sunayama no
suna o yubi motearishini

いたく錆びしピストル出でぬ
砂山の
砂を指もて掘りてありしに

(3)
after writing the word "great" more than a hundred times
in the sand
I gave up dying and went home

dai to iu ji wo hyaku amari
suna ni kaki
shinu koto wo yamete kaerikitareri

大といふ字を百あまり
砂に書き
死ぬことをやめて帰り来れり


(4)
just for fun I put mother on my back
but cried because she was so light -
I couldn't even do three steps

tawamure ni haha wo seoite
sono amari ni karoki ni nakite
sanpo ayumazu

たはむれに母を背負ひて
そのあまり軽きに泣きて
三歩あゆまず


(5)
on the roadside a dog gives out a long yawn
I do the same
out of sheer envy

michibata ni inu naganaga to akubi shinu
ware mo mane shinu
urayamashisa ni

 
路傍（みちばた）に犬ながながと呻（あくび）しぬ
われも真似（まね）しぬ
うらやましさに


(6)
a mouth moving in a beastly face -
that was all I saw
of the man giving a speech

kemono meku kao ari kuchi wo akete su
to nomi mite iru
hito no kataru wo

けものめく顔あり口をあけたてす
とのみ見てゐぬ
人の語るを


(7)
as I took off my gloves I suddenly stopped
as some puzzling memory
zipped through my head

tebukuro wo nugu te futo yamu
nani yaramu
kokoro ka sumeshi omoide no ari

手套（てぶくろ）を脱（ぬ）ぐ手ふと休（や）む
何やらむ
こころかすめし思ひ出のあり

[Ishikawa Takuboku]

Ishikawa Takuboku is the pseudonym of the Japanese poet Ishikawa Hajime (1886-1912). Takuboku is especially know for his tanka, the traditional Japanese short poem of 31 syllables.

Takuboku was born near Morioka, the capital of Iwate Prefecture. Takuboku was a brilliant student, but after some of his poems had appeared in a major literary magazine, Myojo, he dropped out of school in 1902 and went to Tokyo. There he pursued his relations with the editors of Myojo, Yosano Tekkan and Tekkan's wife Akiko, who both were prominent tanka poets as well. But illness and lack of funds forced Takuboku to return home in 1903. Takuboku continued writing during his recuperation and his first verse collection, in the free verse manner, was published in 1905. It attracted attention for its startling imagery. That same year, Takuboku married and took a position as assistant teacher. In 1907, he moved to Hokkaido. These years were characterized by unremitting financial problems, due to family circumstances, illness, and the impossibility to find a more stable job.

In 1908, Takuboku returned to Tokyo and from this time on he devoted himself almost exclusively to the writing of tanka. His fame as a poet rests on the quality of these poems and his innovations in the form. His first collection of tanka, from which the above poems come, A Handful of Sand, was published in 1910. The 551 poems in the collection deal with Takuboku's daily life, in simple unadorned language. They have a frankness and vitality that was unprecedented in Japanese poetry.

Unfortunately, Takuboku suffered from tuberculosis and the illness carried him away in 1912 at the young age of only 26. His second tanka collection, Sad Toys, was published posthumously, as was his interesting diary, Romaji Nikki. Takuboku is often considered as one of Japan's finest modern poets and his influence on modern tanka was very large indeed. His poetry has also been extensively translated.

Notes:
About the first poem, Donald Keene has written in Dawn to the West, Poetry, Drama Criticism (New York, 1984), that it evokes the loneliness and futility of the poet's life. The "small island" is of course Japan, the sand stands for the emptiness of Takuboku's life, and playing with a crab is symbolic for the meaningless of his daily preoccupations (p. 46).

Takuboku's work is in the public domain.

Translations and studies:
Ishikawa Takuboku, Romaji Diary and Sad Toys, translated by Sanford Goldstein and Seishi Shinoda. Rutland, Charles E. Tuttle Co. 1985.
Ishikawa Takuboku's Tankas, by Teruo SugaChukyo Pub. Co., 1995
Donald Keene, The First Modern Japanese: The Life of Ishikawa Takuboku. New York: Columbia University Press, 2016.
e-texts of Ishikawa Takuboku's works at Aozora bunko

Photos: Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Japanese Poetry Index