I sketched out the following moody Tanka several days ago. It sat on my desk, overwhelmed with thoughts of how to change it: alternate lines; different wordings; scrapping the whole damn thing. So this morning, I not only typed it -- keeping most of the poem as first scrawled -- but, as I completed it, suddenly felt an urge to translate it into Japanese.

An interesting impulse, for the translation "finds the balance" missing in the original, and winds up beautifully optimistic. So, here they are, original and Japanese version.

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Tanka:

Proud moon from behind

The now too-cloying cloud rolls,

Once you gave me hope

That I’d find a place to shine,

When young, many moons ago.

短歌:

そら そら を、

月の風見るば、

うれしい で

明日言葉は

輝く出るば。

Tanka:

Sora sora wo,

Tsuki no kaze miruba,

Ureshii de

Ashita kotoba wa

Kagayaku dereba.

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