Untitled
違ふ世にあらば覇王となるはずの彼と僕とが観覧車にゐる
‘In another world’
In another world
he whose fate was to become
a grand potentate
and me, sitting side by side,
here upon this ferris wheel
Untitld
chigau yo ni / araba haō to / naru hazu no /
to differ world in if were potentate become should
kare to boku to ga / kanransha ni iru
he and me and (subj. marker) ferris wheel on sitting
In another world he who should have become a potentate, and I, sitting together on a ferris
wheel
Translator’s note:
Our literal translator, Alan Cummings, began by explaining the tanka form to us – one so successful in Japan that for much of literary history it ‘obliterated’ other forms, and from which the haiku derives. We decided for our first attempt at a translation we would have a go at emulating the syllables, usually rendered in English as a 5/7/5/7/7 pattern. It was actually extremely difficult! Even the word potentate, for example, which we chose partly for its three syllables, had to be unpacked slightly (we added ‘grand’) in order to make it up to five syllables.
We soon became fascinated by the layers of reality in this seemingly slight poem though. It contains a shock, the first three lines sounding classical, then the gaudy ‘ferris wheel’ intruding. Which world is ours – the one in which ‘he’ is an overlord? The one with the fairground? Neither? Karan Kurose is the chief priest of Gannenji Buddhist temple, Toyama, and we felt that the turning wheel is perhaps a Buddhist image – on this wheel of life everyone is equal. ‘Upon’ is our subtle allusion to King Lear too (‘Thou art a soul in bliss; but I am bound. Upon a wheel of fire….’)
Clare Pollard
Please note: this tanka does not have a title so we have used the first line as a title.