Ootomari Port

Ootomari Port, Kaneko Misuzu
The way back from the festival in the mountains,
With my aunt who gave me a lift,
When we parted and descended the pass,
the beautiful sea shone brightly in the cedar treetops,

Sailing poles in the sea, a marooned boat,
a few straw roofs on the shore,
all like in the sky,
all like in a dream.
Soba fields down the mountain pass,
And at the end of the fields,
That’s Ootomari Port after all,
A sieve and a lonely harbor.
From “The Complete Collection of Misuzu Kaneko’s Children’s Songs” (JULA Publishing Bureau)

*The poems by Misuzu Kaneko are published with the approval of the Society for the Preservation of Misuzu Kaneko’s Writings.
Please obtain permission from the “Society for the Preservation of Misuzu Kaneko’s Works” before reprinting.