Ishigaki Rin / 石垣りん- Ⅳ

Love Song 

 

 

 

Along the Tokaido route at an inn in Maruko, famous

even now for its grated yam, I shared in a splendid feast.

I was standing on the veranda looking absent-mindedly

at a 400 year-old podocarpus tree by an old pond when—

zi…zi…zi… I caught sight of a singing cicada coming to

rest on my toe. I didn’t move an inch.

 

Presently we were called to a tatami room where elegant

dishes for four were in place; and, the cap of a beer bottle

ready to pop open, we sat down. I could only pick up the

cicada and place it on my lap. It then crawled up over my

breast onto my neck, down my back and up my hair.

Throughout this late lunch it compared me to a tree.

 

I stood up to discover that the clear sky had suddenly

become overcast and rain was pouring down. Although

the car was waiting for us the cicada showed no signs of

flying off from my shoulder. Where would it have liked

me to take it? I deposited it in shining wet grass by the roadside.

 

That parting leaves me heartbroken still. The faint, feeble touch

of its notched legs clutching my heart. Cicada. Cicada.

I long to see you again.

 

 

 

 

 

恋うた

 

 

東海道は丸子の宿　今に残るとろろの里で　一席の饗

応にあずかった。庭に面した縁側に佇み　池のほとり

の樹齢四百年という梛の木を　見るともなく見ている

と　斜め横あいからヂヂヂと鳴いて　飛び込んできた

蝉一匹　私の足指に羽を休めて動こうとしない。

やがて四人の会席膳ととのい　ビールの栓を抜くばか

りになって座敷に呼ばれた。追いかねて蝉をつまみ

膝に乗せれば　胸を這い　背にまわり　髪の毛を伝い

とうとう昼に遅い食事が終わるまで　私を一本の樹木

に代えた。

席を立つと　さきほどまで晴れていた空は　かき曇り

どしゃ降りとなり　外に車が待つというのに　蝉は肩

から飛び立つけはいも見せなかった。　どこへ連れて

行けと言うのか。　思いあまって道端の　濡れ光る葉

陰に移して来た。

あの別れが私を切なくする。　細い足のぎざぎざで

しがみついてきたかすかな触感。　蝉よ　蝉よ　また

逢いたい。