That Parrot, This Carrot

THAT PARROT, THIS CARROT

I will not fight for you. Because the sun will
set soon, shooting stars will be seen from west
to east. The premonitions will all be fulfilled.
It is ludicrous if you think you can take care of
everything with a narrow society or an anti-society.
To think grumbling is confrontation and regard dull
rhetoric as history, if it’s a right to laugh off
such a worn-out contest, everyone has it. Though it’s
a terrible morning, I open the window, compare that
parrot with this carrot, and inch toward the one-man
show that wasn’t fulfilled yesterday. Insincerity is
my habit. The night is far, and near. You are
fundamentally miserable on account of your hobby of
being criticized, but I’d rather ask for non-criticism.
You being no longer young, know that you are in a
process that hasn’t begun and is already ending.
Because the sun will set soon, you can see shooting stars.
Though, as to now, it’s a truly terrible morning that
makes me flinch from the battle of sitting down on
a chair of cold pipes. Though it’s a really terrible
morning, when outside the window there’s only a dirty
plaza, both that parrot and this carrot stone-cold.


Akira Tatehata

Translation from Japanese by Hiroaki Sato

Posted over on Poems & Poetics