MONOLOGUE 
by
Hideo Yokokawa

for Jeanne Shannon

When I got to 50 years old
I wondered
how far I could go.

For a long time
before getting to 60 years old,
I've been thinking that I would go
stoutly to any extent
when I got to 60.

Since after last year,
the matter began to urge me,
and I've finished this monument with you
just prior to my age of 60.

Now I feel
I've done.

Thinking of the fortuity and happiness of
the unexpected meetings

also, thinking that
my journey
to Caesar and Buddha is
from this time forth.

       (Sooner or later)

< I'll float
  off my stem

  and go >

( In commemoration of our Bilingual Book of Poetry
"Carrying Water in a Sieve" )

 

 

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