Shuntaro Tanikawa Poems

Mother,
Why is the river laughing?
Why, because the sun is tickling the river
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One day somewhere
someone played the piano.
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Having parted with the evening glow
I meet with night.
But the angrier red clouds go nowhere
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Sometimes I reread poems I wrote long ago
I don't ask textbook questions like "what was the author feeling when he wrote this?"
When you write a poem, there is nothing but the feeling of wanting to write a poem
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My toes seem terribly far away
The five digits, like five complete strangers,
sit close together, coldly indifferent
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To be in love—how does it feel?
It feels like sitting together gazing spellbound,
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I lost an utterly trivial item.
Nothing that would trouble me greatly not to have
nor something I associate with fond memories.
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Because music never ends,
I cannot stay here.
I walk across the sward of life
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I went alone back to the old days.
Butterflies are fluttering under the cloudy skies of those old days.
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I would have lived my whole life
just having loved her.
And once having died
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