Nakahara Chuya > Quotes

“I want to gaze at the horizon and I can't,
for the wraiths of heatwaves keep standing up and sitting down
- I end up squatting.”
― Nakahara Chuya

“O expectations, stale and dismal airs, leave this body of mine!
I want nothing anymore but simplicity, quiet, murmurs and order.”
― Nakahara Chuya, The Poems of Nakahara Chuya

“Alas I wish to die;
alas I wish to live;
alas I, over every extinguished past,
let tears gush out.
Out of the sky
the wind blows.”
― Nakahara Chuya, The Poems of Nakahara Chuya

“How do you make the morning come?
The morning will come by itself
How and where will it come?
It will wash its face, then come out
Is that tomorrow?
That is tomorrow morning
Now the crickets are singing, aren't they?
And the Bugle is sounding the last post, isn't it?
Trains are still running
It's not the witching hour yet, is it?”
― Nakahara Chuya, The Poems of Nakahara Chuya

“Song of the Sheep
(to Yasuhara Yoshihiro)

III

She trusted me completely, confided in me completely,
her heart was the colour of an orange;
that tenderness did not overflow,
nor did it cringe away, like a deer.
I forgot everything I was doing;
that time was the only time I savoured.”
― Nakahara Chuya

“She trusted me completely, confided in me completely, her heart was the colour of an orange; that tenderness did not overflow, nor did it cringe away, like a deer. I forgot everything I was doing; that time was the only time I savoured.”
― Nakahara Chuya, The Poems of Nakahara Chuya

“Lost Hope

Vanishing into the dark sky,
my young day’s blazing hope.

Like a summer night’s star, even now
visible far off in the sky, even now.

Vanishing into the dark sky,
my young day’s dreams and hope.

Now, here, falling prone
like a beast, with dark feelings.

Some day those dark feelings
will clear, and no way of knowing when;

Like drowning in the night’s sea,
seeing the moon in the sky.

The waves are so deep,
the moon is so pure;

Sad, my young day’s blazing hope
already vanishing into the dark sky.”
― Nakahara Chuya