Raise the blinds slightly, peek a deli through the opera glasses. I
was there over the street just about a while ago. There was me who was
closely examining pickled vegetables. A middle-aged woman in a yellow
shirt was talking to me. She said, I got souvenir from this person.
She showed me an ashtray filled with thirty lids of the beer. (I
thought who is this person. The cook of this deli who is tired of her
anonymous life? Which is the souvenir? The ashtray or the lids? Or
both?) The middle-aged woman in a yellow shirt continued to talk about
the topic that the cook went on one-day bus tour to the sea. According
to this person, it seems that a lot of buses are driven on the wooden
boardwalk, it seems that there are the monstrous trumpet shells on the
beach, it seems that they are living and blowing the brine that is
likely to reach the clouds.
I wonder how often the route buses come and go on the Tokyo
Metropolitan Road Route 420 under my window while I am preparing
meals. You cannot see me from the window on the bus. Me who dropped
the mushrooms from my hands. You will regret getting off the bus at
intersection of the Tokyo Metropolitan Road Route 420 and Route 5. You
will be disgusted at dazzling sunlight. Then you will try to walk to
the terminal station. You will have a rest at fun-fair on the rooftop
of the department store. You will laugh hysterically at the orchestra
of clockwork bears. You will clap your hands to their off-key song.
You will never ever remember me. You will never ever notice me who
comes running up from escalator. Me who is thinking of you, not lunch.
A road sweeper at 4:00 am. Washes bedside Aspirin with the detergent-
containing water. Cleaned roadside of the Tokyo Metropolitan Road
Route 420 does not know Ms.cried. Queen of sleep that builds a castle
on a hill. She will never ever be moved by arpeggio such as the faint
timbre of the rain in crepuscule. The road sweeper, please pass a
message to Ms.cried. Deliver the watercress salad and plenty of
mineral water to her awakening. And living trumpet shells, fountain
that is likely to reach the clouds. Thirty types of crown. Chants of
bears in deep clear forest.
Note: Ms.cried
Ms.cried comes from ";mizu-kurai-do"; in Japanese. It means ";water-eating-soil";. At
Musashino Platform located between western Tokyo and southern Saitama Prefecture, there
are legendary lands where the soil absorbs rainwater and keep dry up.
This poem is one of my first poetry collection Ms. cried - 77 poems by hiromi suzuki
(kisaragi publishing, 2013 ISBN978-4-901850-42-1). Tokyo Metropolitan Road Route 420,
24-hour written in Japanese has been translated by hiromi suzuki, 2019.
中野通り、24時
ブラインドをうすく開けてオペラグラスで覗く。通りの
むこうの惣菜屋。つい先程までそこにいたのだピクルス
を吟味しているわたし。黄色いシャツの中年女が話しか
けてくる。このひと（トウのたった惣菜屋の独身の女店
主のことか）からもらったお土産だよ（灰皿の中に瓶ビ
ールの王冠が三十個くらい）バス・ツアーで海にいった
んだよ（灰皿と王冠のどちらが土産だろう？両方か？）
木のボードウォークの上をバスが走るんだって。海岸に
はオモチャみたいな巨大ホラ貝がいるんだって。生きて
るんだって。雲にとどきそうなくらい潮を吹くんだって
食事を用意する窓の下を路線バスは日に何度行き交うだ
ろうか。バスの中のあなたからは見えない手元からマッ
シュルームを落としたわたし。あなたは鍋屋横丁の停車
場で降りて後悔するだろう。強い陽射しにへきえきしな
がら駅ターミナルまで歩くのだろう。デパートの屋上遊
園地にでるのだろう。機械仕掛けのクマのジャンボリー
に大笑いして気味の悪い手拍子をうつのだろう。ほんの
すこしでもわたしのことを思い出さないだろう。エスカ
レーターからかけ上ってくるなど思いつきもしないだろ
う。ましてわたしが昼食ではなくあなたを思うことなど
道路清掃車は午前四時。アスピリンを溶かした枕元にし
ずかに洗剤入りの水を撒いていくのだ。さっぱりしたア
スファルトはミズクライドをしらない。丘陵に城をかま
える眠りの女王。かすかな黎明のアルペジオごときに心
をうたれることはない。道路清掃車よミズクライドにつ
たえておくれ。おめざめには届けようクレソンのサラダ
とたっぷりのミネラル・ウォーターを。生きたホラ貝を
空にとどく噴水を。王冠三十個をクマたちのうたごえを
_________
hiromi suzuki is a poet, fiction writer and artist living in Tokyo, Japan. She is the author of Ms. cried - 77 poems by hiromi suzuki (Kisaragi Publishing, 2013), logbook (Hesterglock Press, 2018), INVISIBLE SCENERY (Low Frequency Press, 2018), Andante (AngelHousePress, 2019). Her works have been published internationally in poetry journals, literary journals and anthologies.
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