T A K A R A B E T O R I K O
__________________________SEVEN POEMS
Translated by Hiroaki Sato
Au Au
Think of a sea lion traveling the ocean.
The amplified announcement in Cantonese said, I thought,
Think of a sea lion traveling the ocean.
Does a machine also have emotions?
Hong Kong is in a misty rain.
The remarkable feeling of entering land jutting out into the sea from the sky.
After all, those ripples must also have the machine's emotions mixed in them.
Yes, a sea lion.
No matter how hard you think about it, ready to leave your seat midair,
it isn't as if I had come over here by swimming in the sea.
The summer I have after a long interval is smudged gray in the window
and the face of the rain is featureless.
The face of the earth I can't see.
And so,
—Think of a sea lion traveling the ocean,
says the machine.
If I were a sea lion, I wouldn't think of sea lions.
Cheek resting on manmade land,
I would simply cry au au au au.
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