Sky-blue Flowers - World of Misuzu Kaneko



nemophila "insignis blue"

Sky-Blue Flowers

(Misuzu Kaneko/translated by D.P.Dutcher)

Listen close, you little flowers,

Color of the blue, blue sky.

Around here there used to be

A pretty black-eyed girl,

Always looking at the sky

Like I was just doing now.

Dawn to dusk the blue sky

Shining in her eyes,

They turned one day to little flowers

That even now watch the sky.

If what I say is right, why,

Flowers, you must know

More about the real true sky

Than wise professors do.

I’m always looking at the sky

And thinking lots and lots

But what’s real and true I don’t know.

I bet you see it all and do.

Wise flowers don’t say a thing,

Just keep looking at the sky.

Those blue eyes, sky-dyed,

Still aren’t tired of watching.

(Original Japanese  空色の花　here)

 Blue lobelia in my garden, don't they look like blue butterflies?

Misuzu Kaneko’s poetry collection has been selling well since Higashi Nihon Earthquake.  For a month right after the earthquake and tsunami, almost all the advertisements by private companies on TV had been replaced by the ones by AC Japan, a non-profit organization, of which advertisements have promoted virtue and social manners.  Kaneko’s poem is used in one of them.  This is it.

Is it an Echo?

 When I say “Let’s play.”

I hear “Let’s play.”

When I say “Dumb!”

I hear  “Dumb!”

When I say “I won’t play with you any more.”

I hear “I won’t play."

Later I feel lonely and say “I’m sorry.”

I hear “I’m sorry.” 

Is that an echo? 
No, true to anyone. 

(Original Japanese  こだまでしょうか here)

The words we give come back to us like echoes.

Misuzu Kaneko wrote poems for children. Her poems are Japanese nusery rhyme: they are melodious and  rhythmical written in simple and gentle Japanese language spoken by young children.   She showed affection and sympathy toward things both animate and inanimate and looked at the world with child’s innocence and bright-eyed alertness like Sky-blue Flower.

Another post about Misuzu Kaneko and her poems:  Stars and Dandelions

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