2013年8月3日土曜日

in an extremely hot season



Buzzing of cicadas is loud from early in the morning.
Yet it will be replaced by another sort of cicadas one after another towards the end of summer.

Hearing the buzz, though it is not so comfortable sound, I think of a wonderful woman who died of breast cancer 
recurrence in the midst of August in 2010.
She is Yuko Kawano( 河野 裕子) who was a representative contemporary tanka poet and wife of Kazuhiro Nagata who is also a tanka poet as well as a competent scientist.
Recently I read Kazuhiro's tanka anthology,「夏・2010」(Summer・2010) in which he sang his lament about his wife's little time left to live.
His feelings are objectively clear, suave and give readers fade-less impression even three years after her death.
あと五年あればとふきみのつぶやきに相槌を打ち打ち消して、打つ 永田 和宏
You murmur

" I wish we could have five more years...",

 I agree with you

and deny your words,

then deny my negation

Kazuriro Nagata (1947~)
Their son and daughter write tanka poems as well, and the
son also published his tanka anthology after his mother's death.
The title is 「湖をさがしに」(Searching for my lake), and he mentions in
the postscript that the lake signifies Biwa lake relevant to his dead mother
and also to another place somewhere else for him.
By the way, the tanka book setting in the last ones by Yuko Kawano is called
「蝉声」(Buzzing of cicadas).


The other day my husband invited me to walk along sea shore and we went to Suma in Hyogo prefecture to where it takes about 90 minutes by train.
Considering the intense sun rays and a little long journey I decided not to go with my two-year-old granddaughter. Maybe next year!

We could see a couple of dolphins which were loosed from an aquarium nearby.
They looked joyful being free and they tried to make communication with visitors in their own way.
The manner how to do it reminded me of my dog, Daisy, when she looks quite happy.



Dry breeze from the sea is comfortable enough while the sun rays never deteriorate.

We took the exactly same route of the last time we visited here,
walking along the sea shore to the next station for returning.

Meanwhile I thought of our last visit of two years ago; the quiet sea and young people full of energy are the same, almost nothing have changed...except the condition of my knees.

A young man lies on his stomach to get more suntan. I'm sure this place is one of his favorite.
Cheer for his youth!


イルカの目見てきて仰ぐはるかなる雲のひと群れ夕づく空の

Pod of dolphin-shaped

are floating

in rarefied height

of evening summer sky,

 letting me think of dolphins' gentle and calm gaze
 haricot