Three Tanka

By Mikajima Yoshiko
Translated By James Garza
                      It’s dusk.
                               The kitchenware
                                        is everywhere.
                                                The house is loud
                                                         with autumn rain.

____

The farmer wheeled his produce my way: the pickling greens I bought crackled with frost

____

                      Spring
                      sunned diapers—
                      I am relieved at last
                      for my child
 
Translated from the Japanese, below
____


家のうち鍋などさげてゆきかへるゆふぐれにきく秋雨の音
____

百姓が車に積みて売りに来し漬菜を買へば氷こぼるる
____

何よりもわが子のむつき乾けるがうれしき身なり春の日あたり
 
Notes:

“It’s dusk” (“Ie no uchi,” 1915) and “The farmer wheeled” (“Hyakushō ga,” 1918) were originally published in Araragi. “Spring” (“Naniyori mo,” 1915) was originally published in Seitō

Read the note on this poem by James Garza.

Source: Poetry (May 2022)