For Shiraishi Kazuko (1931–2024)
10,000 ears take flight, our
Cartilage cut the Indian winds
Hear the stupendous sutra call
You to the shore of splendored
Paisley elephants, frolicking flocks
of seagulls lull a by, bye bye Babylon
Hello lullaby by the verse libre
Chanted, mutually enchanted
Yr kanji voice body choice
the leaves of your kakemono
Are the fluent characters of your blood
Walking into the Phryne
The whole works, like Anima Mundi
As Medusa, a muse-maker
Cybele or Anatolia, the earth mama
Athirat Sea of the Ras Shamra
The all-encompassing, The Vierge Ouvrante
You take us there, all the way
— Taylor Mignon
野生のレディ
白石かずこ様に
10,000の耳に飛び立つ私たちの軟骨がインドの風を切ってすすむ
驚嘆すべき経典があなたを華麗なペイズリー織りの象たちの岸辺に呼びよせるのを聞け
遊びたわむれるカモメの群れが子守歌をうたうバイバイバビロン
自由詩を朗読して子守歌にあいさつをともに魅惑される
あなたの文字声肉体選択
あなたの書く一枚一枚があなたの血の流れる文字である
フリューネのように水の中へ歩いていく
あなたの全仕事は世界霊魂そのものメドゥサのように沈黙を生む人
キュベレあるいはアナトリアー大地母神
ラス＝シャムラの海のアシトラ
すべてを包容する「開かれた処女」
あなたは私たちをそこへ誘いつづける
— Translated by Yuria Julia Kumagai
Notes:
- According to Taguchi Tetsuya, Professor Emeritus of Doshisha, “In 1978 a joint poetry reading was held with Kenneth Rexroth and Shiraishi Kazuko at the Kyoto coffee shop counter-cultural hub Honyaradō, with (oral poet and translator of Bob Dylan) Katagiri Yuzuru as MC.” [my parenthetical insertion] [reference]
- Katagiri was founding editor of Kyoto Review, a precursor to the Kyoto Journal.
- Rexroth was the editor and translator of Shiraishi’s Season of Sacred Lust, from New Directions.
- I wrote this poem while studying Black Mountain poet Charles Olson with Cid Corman in Kyoto, for my MA in Creative Writing.
- Kai Fusayoshi ran “Café Honyarado, well-known as a base for citizens’ movements and anti-war campaigns in Kyoto since the 1970s… burned down in January 2015.… Japanese intellectuals who visited included philosopher Tsurumi Shunsuke, writer Oda [Makoto], scholar of French literature Kuwahara Takeo, writer Ko Samyon, poets Shiraishi Kazuko, Tanikawa Shuntaro, Katagiri Yuzuru, Sakaki Nanao and Tanigawa Iwao, singer Goro Nakagawa… International visitors were Gary Snyder, Allen Ginsberg, Kenneth Rexroth, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, John Solt (who translated [Shiraishi and] Kitazono Katsue), William Johnston, poet Garrett Hongo, and Alan Lau…” [Kyoto Journal reference]
- I had the honor of performing the poem in front of Shiraishi Kazuko at a coffee shop in Tokyo in celebration of her being a recipient of the Medal of Honor with Purple Ribbon (Shiju Hōshō), a Japanese award bestowed by the Emperor.
