【被爆者の俳句】4 Haiku by atomic bomb victims 4

　 広島や一燈もなく天の川　　中井只人　 　

「白島にて被爆、十数カ所の傷を受け、妻子の所在不明のまま、その日から通信局及び電話局の焼跡の室に起居して復旧作業に従う。」という一文が添えられている。

家族の消息さえわからないまま、生き残った人たちは必死で復旧に当たったのだ。　

破壊し尽くされ、一つの燈火さえ点らない広島の夜空に天の川がきらめく。

過酷な状況下にあっても、人が星や花など自然を美しいと思うのは、時代・国を越えて普遍的な〝生き物としての人間〟が、そこに「生命の根源」を感じるからではないか。

星屑の一つ一つが犠牲になった人であり、追悼の一句である。

－－－－ー－－－－ー－－－－ー－－－－－

【Haiku by atomic bomb victims】4

In Hiroshima

not a single light—

The Milky Way

Nakai Tadato

This poem is prefaced by the words “I was in Hakushima when the atomic bomb fell. I was wounded in more than a dozen places and had no idea if my wife and children were even alive, but from that day I lodged in the burned-out ruins of the telegraph and telephone office and joined in the work of recovery.

” While the whereabouts—or even the fate—of their families remained unknown, the survivors embarked with all their might on the mission of recovery.

Hiroshima was in ruins and not a single light shone in the darkness, but in the night sky above the Milky Way gleamed.

Why do people respond so deeply to nature, to the stars and the flowers, even in the midst of the cruelest conditions? It must be something universal in them as sentient beings, something that transcends the particulars of history and nations, a feeling that nature brings them to the source of life. In this haiku of mourning, each and every star, large or small, may be one of those whose lives were lost.

　 Translation © Janine Beichman