August 26, 2024

Translation: The Glass Cove (Seiko Matsuda)

A stately offering from Eiichi Ohtaki. You can file The Glass Cove in the "modest but affecting" drawer, next to Shigeru Suzuki's Moon Baby.



:::



I really did love you.
Don't forget that.

The small cove
reflected a clear sky.
When I stepped into the water
with bare feet,
the cold sliced into me.

I was riding the back of his motorcycle that day.
We were chasing the sunset
and came upon this secret place.

The initials we carved
into the wet rock
call back lost time.

Even if I removed my bracelet
and buried it in the sand,
the white band of skin around my wrist
wouldn't vanish, now would it?

The initials we carved 
that summer, long ago,
glitter as they sway beneath the waves.

I sit on the edge of a boat
from which the colors have faded
from long contact with the sand.
I toss pebbles 
at my memories.

Low tide in the glass cove
doesn't last long.
I didn't shed many tears either.


No comments:

Post a Comment

Translation: A Night on the Third Planet (Morio Agata)

My months of Takashi Matsumoto study led me, as was bound to happen, to the four albums he produced in that mysterious gray area between Hap...