Ishikawa Takuboku 石川啄木

waka poet · newspaper proofreader · Meiji Japan · 1886–1912

A poet who wrote three-line tanka while working as a newspaper proofreader. Worn down by poverty and illness, he died at twenty-six.

Posts

1910

I work and work, and still my life gets no easier. I stare at my hands.

はたらけどはたらけど猶わが生活楽にならざりぢっと手を見る

Tanka collection A Handful of Sand (Ichiaku no suna)

1910

On a day when every friend seems to have done better than me, I buy flowers, come home, and am tender with my wife.

友がみなわれよりえらく見ゆる日よ花を買ひ来て妻としたしむ

Tanka collection A Handful of Sand (Ichiaku no suna)

1910

I miss the accent of home. I go into the crowd at the station just to hear it.

ふるさとの訛なつかし停車場の人ごみの中にそを聴きにゆく

Tanka collection A Handful of Sand (Ichiaku no suna)

1910

I only somehow felt like getting on a train. When I got off the train there was nowhere to go.

何となく汽車に乗りたく思ひしのみ汽車を下りしにゆくところなし

Tanka collection A Handful of Sand (Ichiaku no suna)

1910

For a joke I lifted my mother on my back, and she was so light I wept and could not take three steps.

たはむれに母を背負ひてそのあまり軽きに泣きて三歩あゆまず

Tanka collection A Handful of Sand (Ichiaku no suna)

New Year's Day 1911 · He died the following spring; the collection came out after his death

Somehow it feels as if good things will happen this year. New Year's morning, clear, no wind.

何となく、今年はよい事あるごとし。元日の朝、晴れて風無し。