だれが書いたのか
「安らかに眠って下さい」などと
どうしてねむれよう
剥げおちた皮膚の痛みも去らないのに
命が内から崩れてくる
苦悶がいまも 火となって駆けるのに
また夏がきて
夾竹桃が 咲く
あの日の紅さに 死者たちが目をみひらく
生者たちは目をそむける
紅い花芯のひとつびとつに
死者の目を点火せよ
風にゆれる すべての花のしたに
わたしたちの怯懦を晒せ
‥‥‥恥ずかしくないか わたしたち
犠牲の上に生きのびて
平和をしかと 手に摑んだか
長年月を わたしたち
あまりに無力で はなればなれで‥‥‥
だが まさにいま
生きていて 生命への愛を語る
このささやかな営みが
殺意と憎しみを融かしつくすその日まで
ヒロシマの霊よ
眠るな
Season of Flowers
Who wrote
“Rest in peace”?
How can they rest?
Their skin burnt from their bodies, their pain unceasing?
Life collapses from within
Their suffering even now races as a fire
Summer has come again
The oleanders are in bloom
At that day’s red, red blooms the dead open wide their eyes
The living avert their gaze
Light the eyes of the dead
At the heart of each red flower
Beneath all the flowers that tremble in the wind
Expose our cowardice
Is it not shameful?
Have we not survived upon their sacrifice
Peace grasped firmly in our hands?
For such a long time now have we,
Completely powerless, been parted one from the other….
But now indeed
Living, we speak our love for life
Until the day when
This little work
Melts away all hatred and desire to kill
O spirits of Hiroshima
Do not rest in peace
(Translated by Paul McCarthy)