Yomota Inuhiko-III
Lead
For all their gloomy weight
my years have passed by too swiftly, the lead[1]
wooden box, sleeping car, Albert Ayler
what was it that commanded me to write
Chewed up by the teeth of gold-plated eternity
time blanketed by a lawn all green
the worn-out wooden fence has been taken down,
I was cut up, thrown out, and exiled
What’s left to me is just to incise letters on pillars
there are no more forests, beasts, female saints
no more drops of water of consolation lowered on my forehead
Once again I must go back with a weight of lead in hand
I will look for the water drowsing at the bottom of the sand, some day
to build a beautiful fountain with sculpted dolphins
[1] The reference is to Italy’s degli anni di piombo or “Years of Lead,” that is, from the late 1960s to the early 1980s when violent acts by both right-wing and left-wing paramilitary groups gripped the country. The title of Yomota’s memoirs of the 1970s, Saigetsu no namari (The Lead of Years), in 2009, alludes to it.
鉛
その陰鬱な重量にもかかわらず
あまりに素早く過ぎ去った わが鉛の歳月
木箱、寝台車、アルバート・アイラーよ
わたしに書くことを命じたのは 何だったのか
金鍍金の永遠の歯に噛み砕かれ
緑なす芝生に覆い尽くされた時間よ
擦り減った木の柵は取り壊され
わたしは切断され 放擲され 追放された
わたしに残されたのは 柱に文字を刻みつけることだけ
もう森はない 野獣も 聖女も
額に降ろされる一滴の慰めの水もない
もう一度 戻るのだ 鉛の分銅を手に
砂地の底に微睡む水を求め いつか
海豚の彫刻のある 美しい噴上げを築くのだ
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