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A Love Letter, by Nanao Sakaki
I first came upon this poem in 2007; I love it. I shared it back at the time, but that was 16 years ago, so I'm sharing it again--this time with illustrations. (Some of them are click-through-able to the original person's photo on Flickr... others are just shamelessly ripped from stock photos and what-have-you.)
"A Love Letter" was originally published in a collection called Break the Mirror.
Within a circle of one meter
You sit, pray and sing,
Within a field a hundred meters large
Raise rice and goats.
Within a forest ten kilometers large
Play with raccoons, hawks,
Poison snakes and butterflies.
Mountainous country Shinano
A hundred kilometers large
Where someone lives leisurely, they say.
Within a circle ten thousand kilometers large
Go to see the southern coral reef in summer
Or winter drifting ices in the sea of Okhotsk.
Within a circle a million kilometers large
Upon the spaced-out yellow mustard blossoms
The moon in the east, the sun west.
Within a circle ten billion kilometers large
Pop far out of the solar system mandala.
Within a circle ten thousand light years large
The Galaxy full blooming in spring.
Now within a circle ten billion light years large
All thoughts of time, space are burnt away
There again you sit, pray and sing
You sit, pray and sing.
"A Love Letter" was originally published in a collection called Break the Mirror.
Within a circle of one meter
You sit, pray and sing,
Within a shelter ten meters large
You sleep well, rain sounds a lullaby.
You sleep well, rain sounds a lullaby.
Within a field a hundred meters large
Raise rice and goats.
Within a valley a thousand meters large
Gather firewood, water, wild vegetables and Amanitas.
Gather firewood, water, wild vegetables and Amanitas.
Within a forest ten kilometers large
Play with raccoons, hawks,
Poison snakes and butterflies.
A hundred kilometers large
Where someone lives leisurely, they say.
Within a circle ten thousand kilometers large
Go to see the southern coral reef in summer
Or winter drifting ices in the sea of Okhotsk.
Within a circle one hundred thousand kilometers large
Swimming in the sea of shooting stars.
Swimming in the sea of shooting stars.
Within a circle a million kilometers large
Upon the spaced-out yellow mustard blossoms
The moon in the east, the sun west.
Pop far out of the solar system mandala.
Within a circle ten thousand light years large
The Galaxy full blooming in spring.
Within a circle one billion light years large
Andromeda is melting away into snowing cherry flowers.
Andromeda is melting away into snowing cherry flowers.
All thoughts of time, space are burnt away
There again you sit, pray and sing
You sit, pray and sing.
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There's so much in the poem! I thought Amanitas were poisonous, so I looked them up, since why would someone be gathering them, and it turns out some are ok to eat, and have hallucinogenic properties, in addition to the poisonous ones. And then it mentions poison snakes in the next verse.
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