第四歌集。写真・三品鐘と衣装・リアナンシーが手がけるモノクロ朗読写真と短歌を収録。
From 「眠れる海」
Noguchi Ayako
Translations by Jordan A. Y. Smith
風邪ひかないようにねいずれは死んでね 煙草の丸い断面燃やす
Careful not to catch cold, but be sure to die someday
Flame touches the round cross section of a cigarette
くせのある毛髪にワックス伸ばし あなたはみんなあかのたにんだ
Smoothing wax through kinky hair
You are all perfect strangers
うなじから裂けばゆっくりあふれ出る都ありけり、戦場である
Split from the nape, slowly overflowing,
Spilling a glorious capital city into the battlefield
なんてきれい 蓮 半身を横たえるときは髪からたわみはじめて
With such a lovely
Lotus flower in mind
I halfway recline,
Long hair draping toward my bed
Until it gently bows round
東洋のようなほのかな灯をかかげわたしをそこへ呼べば行こうが
Holding aloft
A dim lantern glimmering
Like the East itself,
You need only beckon and
Perhaps I’d come to you
だえきけつえきふんにょうまじりてわたしたち夜の川なりまだここにいる
Saliva blood feces urine mixed,
We become a river of night, yet here we remain
万国旗の裾ひっぱれば落ちてくる地獄のようで見ていた、いつも
If one tugs at the hems of flags of all nations, I’ve seen,
All hell comes falling—always
瀑布のごとく扇のごとくしめあげてきみに差し出す髪はからくり
Gathered like a folding fan like a waterfall,
Offering up to you my hair––
A wily contrivance
母よ花野よどうにかせねばならないと豆を選るてのひらが卑屈だ
My mother, a field
Of wildflowers gone to seed,
What must I do—
Teach me how to separate
Wheat from chaff with these sad hands
すいれんが水に腐って匂うのを 蒸し暑い午後のそこへ だけれど
The water lilies
In the water
Have rotted, their smell
Draws to itself
A muggy afternoon––yet…
奔馬のよるの・水道のさびしきうねり・水の奥には過去があること
Night of runaway horse・
His lonely undulations
Flow from the faucet・
In those watery depths,
Lies the past
名残 いえ、じょうずに解けなかっただけ 牡丹のように手から離れる
Remnants, or rather
That which I simply failed to resolve
Like a peony falling from my hand
ふたりして逃げる 丘まで ふくらはぎ舌でたどって行き止まりまで
The two of us flee
As far as the hills, until
Our tongues trace their way
Down each other’s calves
To where the paths end