The man with fire in his eyes

 

 

There is fire     in his eyes

When he     stares at me intently     I become hot

A cold heart   and a chilled stomach

Get warm

He     has the African sun in his eyes

A man who has the pride of the Zulu royal family

The meat he roasted for me

In the oven in his kitchen     in between revolutions

Was delicious

In the living room     his one year old twins Ra and Re

Were taking turns crying

His eyes of fire     gently     soothing the children

Sing a lullaby

There was a moment the warm

Earth was     warmed to the core     and became happy

In the living room of the man with fire in his eyes.

Kazuko Shiraishi ( Japan )

© Kazuko Shiraishi
© of the translation: Samuel Grolmes and Yumiko Tsumura

 

Kazuko Shiraishi, born in Vancouver, Canada, in 1932 is a prominent Japanese poet. She spent seven year of life in Canada before moving to Japan . The contrast between the serene live in Vancouver and the nationalistic Japan left deep impressions on the young poet who felt and keeps feeling herself being an outsider. Shiraishi, who started writing poetry at a very early age, became one of the first surrealistic poets in Japan . She published her first book of poetry, “The Town that Rains Eggs”, in 1951.

Jazz inspired a musical quality to her poems. Shichosha, a leading Japanese editor, published between 1963 and 1974 five books of her poetry. Shiraishi is not only a most productive poet, she is also a great performer, being invited at famous international poetry festivals, such as Poetry International in Rotterdam, The International Poetry Festival in Kuala Lumpur etc. Her book “A Canoe Returns to the future”, published in 1978, was awarded the Mugen Poetry Prize. “Sand Families”, was awarded the Rekitei Prize in 1982.
”Let Those Who Appear” got no less than 3 poetry awards! The present poem has been selected from that
poetry collection, published by New Directions, New York , in 2002.