@



     (35)
TOPIC OF THIS MONTH
NEXT (36)

The Flow of Bungawan Solo
by Hideo Yokokawa
in memory of Kenji Tsuchiya


O Tsuchiya!,
in our youth, what you were deeply devoted yourself to
was Chaikovskii aqnd Kenji Miyazawa.

In your heart, there was nothing
that was not connected to beauty.
You were beauty itself.

O Tsuchiya!,
exceeding the concept of truth, good and beauty,
your sincere spirit was destined to live on
in name of humanity.

O Tsuchiya!,
You were kind to anybody.
Kindness you were bearing was true one
that came from real courage and perseverance,
with which you were gone.
When I was living in seclusion
in an inconvenient small village near Kashiwa,
residing in a small coarse house,
you paid frequent visits to our home, and
you talked about Indonesia slowly and haltingly,
while I talked about haiku by Hosai Ozaki,
mutually drinking or strolling a farm road, and
we used to sing your favorite song Bungawan Solo
together with my wife and daughters.

O Tsuchiya!,

when you were staying either in Jakarta or in Amsterdam
after finishing the initial draft of the historical masterpiece,
the Study on Indonesian Nationalism,
your voice over the phone sounded confident and stimulated me.
The imagination occurred in me immediately made me write
a poem entitled The Dragon of Gunun Sertibu,
and it was sent to your end by aerogram.
But in consideration of the limpid hard essays
you had written around that time,
the title of my poem should have been The Dragon of Gunung Kidur?
Because, at this late stage since then, it seems to me that the reason you
preferred Kidur which sounds harder than Seribu came from your northern
?stoicism deeply existing in your spirit, just like I prefer Adios sounding
brighter than Sayonara to my ears for farewell.
O Tsuchiya!, be that as it may,
we missed enjoying good drinks at the cozy pub
we used to enjoy talking, laughing, singing, drinking.
It could be a good rest mutually, couldnft it?

O Tsuchiya!, however,

the time will be moving on to the natural direction that
you have been groping for, like the everlasting flow and song of
Bungawan Solo filling the eternal reflection.

Adios,
O Tsuchiya!,
with the endless memories,Adios.

@




The Dragon of Gunung Seribu
by Hideo Yokokawa
for Kenji Tsuchiya

Dshaan
Bashashaan
Bashashashaan

Deep heavy waves of
the Indian Ocean
?destroy even the strong rocks.

In the sky is
the huge spiral movement
of lead.

Birrirbirr
Birirrrui
Shishshsh
shaaasha

Primeval depth -
One thousand ridges of
the great Gunung.

Shshshsh
Shaaa
gigigigigiiin

Grabbing the summits
by its iron nails,
the dragon
glares.


  INDEX
(01)  (03)  (05)  (06)  (07)  (08)  (09)  (10)  (12)  (13)  (14)  (15)  (16)  (17)  (18)  (19)  (20)  (21)  (23)  (25)  (27)  (28)  (29)   (30)  (31)  (32)  (33) (35)  (36)  (37)  (38)  (39)  (40)  (41)  (42)  (43)  (44)  (45)  (46)  (47)   (48)    
BACK TO HOME

@


@