The Gone, Growing in Number
Original Text and Alternative Translation
在るは亡く
亡きは数そふ
世中に
哀れ何れの
日まで嘆かん
Aru wa naku
Naki wa kazusou‡
Yo no naka ni
Aware izure no
Hi made nagekan
Those who once were there
Are not. There are more each day;
Suff'ring in this world —
How much longer will it last?
My despair lingers still.
Literally:
What is, becomes not
Not-being-persons, number increases
Inside the world
Misery, until what day,
Sigh of despair.
‡ Observant readers will have noticed that the hiragana for kazusou appears to read kazusofu. This is due to the pre-WWII Japanese orthography, which read そふ as "sou." This use of ふ where we would now use う (u) was abolished in the post-war simplification of Japanese orthography.