The Poems of Nakahara Chuya Quotes

“Quietude

Nothing visits me;
my heart is quiet.

It was Sunday’s roofed school paths,
- everyone gone to the meadow.

The floorboards have a cold shine,
small birds are singing in the garden.

The half-shut tap’s
droplet blinks!

The earth is rose-coloured, larks in the sky;
the sky is a beautiful April.

Nothing visits me;
my heart is quiet.”
― Chūya Nakahara, The Poems of Nakahara Chuya

“Image (II)

Over every extinguished past,
tears gush out.

The castle wall is desiccated;
the wind blows.

The grass waves;
over the hills, across the fields
no rest;
white angels countenances do not appear.

Alas I wish to die;
alas I wish to live;
alas I, over every extinguished past,
let tears gush out.
Out of the sky
the wind blows.”
― Chūya Nakahara, The Poems of Nakahara Chuya

“Song of the Sheep
(to Yasuhara Yoshihiro)

III
She trusted me completely, confided in me completely,
her heart was the colour of an orange;
that tenderness did not overflow,
nor did it cringe away, like a deer.
I forgot everything I was doing;
that time was the only time I savoured.”
― Chūya Nakahara, The Poems of Nakahara Chuya

“Lost Hope

Vanishing into the dark sky,
my young day’s blazing hope.

Like a summer night’s star, even now
visible far off in the sky, even now.

Vanishing into the dark sky,
my young day’s dreams and hope.

Now, here, falling prone
like a beast, with dark feelings.

Some day those dark feelings
will clear, and no way of knowing when;

Like drowning in the night’s sea,
seeing the moon in the sky.

The waves are so deep,
the moon is so pure;

Sad, my young day’s blazing hope
already vanishing into the dark sky.”
― Chūya Nakahara, The Poems of Nakahara Chuya