Tanikawa Shuntaro / 谷川俊太郎 – Ⅰ
Micky Mouse by Night
Mickey Mouse by night is harder to understand
than by day.
He nibbles his toast timidly
and walks along the underground sewer.
But some day he will escape
from the cheerful smiles of this world
and return to being
a real mouse.
No one knows
whether that will be painful for him
or delightful.
He reluctantly sets out.
Lured by a vision of ideal Edam cheese,
he walks on from 4th Street to South Main,
then to a narrow lane in Ho Chi Minh City
leaving a scattering of his offspring behind him,
and finally he achieves the image of immortality,
though its archetype had already been
compressed and saved in 3D
on the retinas of cats of all ages the world over.
Mickey Mouse by night is harder to understand
than by day.
He nibbles his toast timidly
and walks along the underground sewer.
But some day he will escape
from the cheerful smiles of this world
and return to being
a real mouse.
No one knows
whether that will be painful for him
or delightful.
He reluctantly sets out.
Lured by a vision of ideal Edam cheese,
he walks on from 4th Street to South Main,
then to a narrow lane in Ho Chi Minh City
leaving a scattering of his offspring behind him,
and finally he achieves the image of immortality,
though its archetype had already been
compressed and saved in 3D
on the retinas of cats of all ages the world over.
