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Syndic Literary Journal

Don’t Forget the Wildness

Written by Mariko Sumikura

Translated from the Japanese by the Poet

Narrated by Bill Wolak

Japan

 

 Altamira’s live                 

in a cave

Our ancestors

were telling all thoughts

Without words

Breathing with a voice

With the tone

Man carried a chunk of meat

Fishes on his shoulder

Wanting love of a woman

The woman responded to the love

Decorated with fine stones and shells

With flowers and twigs 

Like that crude and strong

The two who loved each other

Sang joy’s fulfillment of love

They informed around people

After then, he was careful that the woman not be stolen

Now to religion and law tied formally

Using a lot of words

Oh, modern people who knit love

Like a delicate race

Don’t forget the wildness

Of our founder’s sense

The smell of love

 

Mariko Sumikura is a poet, essayist, and translator. She was born in Kyoto, Japan, works as a representative of Japan Universal Poets Association,  and is Chief-editor of  the online international journal Poetic-Bridge: Ama-Hashi. Her translations include Contemporary Poetry both from inside and outside of Japan through the JUNPA BOOKS Series. Her recent awards include: the Naji Naaman Literary Prize (Honor), 2018; and the European Academy of Science, Art, Letters, International Poetry Award, 2020.

 

Compiled/Published by LeRoy Chatfield
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