I found my new favorite poem

It's kinda long xD so if you wanna read it, go ahead. I just wanted to share :3

 

When She Was Still Alive - one of the three Naga Uta's written by Hitomaro

 

When she was still alive

We would go out, arm in arm,

And look at the elm trees

Growing on the embankment 

In front of our house.

Their branches were interlaced.

Their crowns were dense with spring leaves.

They were like our love.

Love and trust were not enough to turn back

The wheels of life and death.

She faded like a mirage over the desert.

One morning like a bird she was gone

In the white scarves of death.

Now when the child

Whom she left in her memory

Cries and begs for her,

All I can do is pick him up

And hug him clumsily.

I have nothing to give him.

In our bedroom our pillows

Still lie side by side,

As we lay once.

I sit there by byself

And let the days grow dark.

I lie awake at night, sighing till daylight.

No matter how much I mourn

I shall never see her again.

They tell me her spirit

May haunt Mount Hagai

Under the eagles' wings.

I struggle over the ridges

And climb to the summit.

I know all the time

That I shall never see her,

Not even so much as a faint quiver in the air.

All my longing, all my love

Will never make a difference.

 

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