Brian Bergstrom
@brianbergstrom.bsky.social
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Lecturer & Literary Translator JPN -> ENG
Currently out: DILEMMAS OF WORKING WOMEN by Fumio Yamamoto
In progress: CAPITAL FROM ZERO by Kōhei Saitō, LOVEAHOLIC by Fumio Yamamoto
Tarte 🥧 and Butt 🌈 Enthusiast (à Montréal)
IG: instagram.com/asa_no_burei
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![Anyway, here are my own translations of some of his poems; unlike many translators, I tried to keep the 5/7/5 meter even in English [hence, the technically incorrect use of "ocotopi"; so sue me, grammar nerds]:
---
O, the ancient pond!
A frog jumps into its depths:
The sound of water
---
Fishermen’s faces.
At first light, what do I see?
White poppy flowers.
---
Suma’s fishermen.
What cries from their arrowpoints?
Flying nightingales.
Nightingales flying
disappear into the distance:
A single island
At Suma temple
Listen to the ancient flutes
Beneath the trees’ shade
---
Octopi in pots
Dream unattainable dreams
‘neath the summer moon.
---
The moon is there, but
there’s a feeling of absence.
Summer in Suma.
I can see the moon
yet, something is still missing.
Summer in Suma.
---
Hair shaven and shed
On Kurokami mountain –
Old robes changed for new.*
*[by his companion on The Narrow Road to the Deep North, Sora, who took the tonsure at the beginning of the journey]
For a little while
I watch the waterfall’s spray.
My first summer’s rite.
---
How cruel it seems!
Beneath this warrior’s helmet:
Only a cricket.
---
Whiter than the white
stones of Stone Mountain Temple
blows the autumn wind.](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:25a4w47mlwtx3vexjg2khyym/bafkreidpx7l3zpwg5sbpuqu6jhtsosihycwqqsi5mrqtplbh2axdlljki4@jpeg)
