Rhythm

There is a rhythm to this world

and the observation of it matters.

*

There is a rhythm to this world

that begins with the rain.

*

There is a rhythm to this world

that soars with the grace of an eagle,

And I am a snail in it.

*

Sometimes the themness is all around me

And I hear the whoosh of the tires of cars on the asphalt.

Car tires on the asphalt.

*

I listen, uncomprehending.

Without joy.

The sky is my refuge from the constant

whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.

*

A sudden horn or the screeching of brakes,

The pulse hardly pauses.

*

Trapped inside those little boxes,

People who can sing with joy.

They are alone in those tiny little boxes.

Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.

*

Outside, the owls stop to listen,

The traffic rises with the daylight,

louder and louder it grows,

while my naturalist’s heart falls into

whoosh, whoosh, whoosh.

******

Thank you for reading my work.

I found the poetry of Chūya Nakahara, who wrote in Japan in the 1920s and 1930s until his death at age 30 from tuberculosis, while searching for some Japanese music to hone my advanced-beginner language skills. A musician and poet, Kazuki Tomokawa set several of Nakahara’s poems to music in his 2006 album Nakahara Chuya Sakuhinnshu (The Collected Works of Chūya Nakahara). The first song on the album uses Circus as a base. Though the lines are rearranged in the song, the listener can gain a sense of the rhythm of Nakahara’s writing style.

Nakahara began his career writing traditional Tanka poetry in lines of 5 and 7 syllables. He studied French and translated the work of the French poet Rimbaud into Japanese. In the process, he became enamored of the Swiss Dada and Symbolist movements in Europe and, along with a group of other Japanese poets, folded them into his previous structure to create a unique body of work.

The structural outline of Rhythm, with its intentional line repetition and treatment of characters within the poem, is based on my analysis of the structure of Nakahara’s poem Circus. I have been working on a translation of Circus for several months, not completely satisfied with the English versions I have found, though its translators have higher credentials than I. There are also musical settings of the Circus by various composers. Nakahara’s poetry was often set to music during his lifetime.

Natalie Wilkinson

Kazuki Tomokawa -The first song on the album is Circus. It is currently my favorite album. I listen to it every day.

Circus as translated and read by Jeffry Angles on The Poetry Foundation

This piece has also been published on Medium.