Soon I cease to be;--
One fond memory I would keep
When beyond this world.
Is there, then, no way for me
Just once more to meet with thee?
- translation by Clay MacCauley, 1917
Soon my life will close.
When I am beyond this world
And have forgotten it,
Let me remember only this:
One final meeting with you.
- revised from MacCauley by the Japanese Text Initiative of
the University of Virginia and the University of Pittsburgh
In the thought that soon
Outside this world I shall be
Where there is nothing,
If only I could see you
And speak with you once again!
- translation by Tom Galt, 1982
And a response by Richard Bear, 1999,
I had almost died
under a distant
sun. I thought
I should write her again,
and perhaps this time
she would say yes.
At length in the mail
came a postcard
showing only a coral
reef, with on the other
side strange words
from Shakespeare.
Note: The original is poem #56 in Hyakunin Isshu.