I Am Completely
Different
I am completely
different.
Though I am wearing the same tie as yesterday,
am as poor as
yesterday,
as good for nothing as yesterday,
today
I am completely
different.
Though I am wearing the same clothes,
am as drunk as
yesterday,
living as clumsily as yesterday, nevertheless
today
I am
completely different.
Ah ...
I patiently close
my eyes
on all the grins and smirks
on all the twisted smiles and horse
laughs---
and glimpse then, inside me
one beautiful white
butterfly
fluttering towards tomorrow.
~ Kuroda Saburo
~
(translated by James Kirkup,
Burning Girraffes: Modern and Contemporary Japanese
Poetry)
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