Hirose River

by Sakutaro Hagiwara

Love-Compassion 

O woman,

With the firm hard teeth of yours,

How dainty [to watch you] chew the grass.

With the dilute herbal ink,

I'll paint your face entirely,

To arouse you,

And then we can play secretly in the bushes.

Look,

The bellflowers here shake their heads,

And the gentians yonder wiggle their arms.

O I'll press you to my bosom in firm embrace.

You, on your part, must pin me down with all your strength.

And let us go to the meadows where there are no signs of people,

And play our own serpentine game.

O I'll caress you and wind myself all around you,

And smear the green juice on your lovely skin, all over. 

The Park Bench

I laid back on the park bench where no one was around,

And again today my thoughts turn furious.

Why do they at my hometown, never relent

From grinding the sour-plum's pit in my teeth?

In Echigo, afar, sparkling snow caps the mountains no doubt,

And the wheats too must surely cower before one's wrath.

The voices that mock me fill the moons and hills,

And the anguished cry explodes my heart.

They're all alike.

Sever the attachment to those heartless ones.

O, kick off and leave the soil the homeland of my birth.

I take a pen-knife whetted sharp to my finger,

and when the cherries switch to leaves,

I carve the word 'Revenge' on the lonely bench. 

Hirose River 

The Hirose River runs all white,

As time wiles away, so too disappear all fanciful thoughts.

Hoping to bait life on hook and line,

I dangled my fishing rod in the river yesterday.

O such merriment has long receded,

Now minnowy fish scarce catch the eye.