A handful of sand

東海の小島の磯の白砂しらすな
われ泣きぬれて
蟹とたはむる

On the white sand of a shore
Of a little island in the eastern sea
Soaked in tears, I play with a crab.

につたふ
なみだのごはず
一握いちあくの砂を示しし人を忘れず

never forget
that man, tears
running down his face
a handful of sand
held out to show me

かにかくに渋民村は恋しかり
おもひでの山
おもひでの川

One thing and another
Makes me yearn for
Shibutami Village
The mountains I remember,
The river I recall

石をもて追はるるごとく
ふるさとをでしかなしみ
消ゆる時なし

This sorrow of being driven from my home
As if pelted with stones
Will never disappear.

やはらかに柳あをめる
北上きたかみ岸辺きしべ目に見ゆ
泣けとごとくに

On the far river bank
Fresh green, the tender willow:
As if she said, 'Weep for me.'

そのかみの神童の名のかなしさよ
ふるさとに来て泣くはそのこと

The sadness of it!
To have had the reputation of a prodigy—
That makes me weep when I come back home.

の寒き
流離の旅の人として
路問ふほどのこと言ひしのみ

A man with cold cheeks,
On a journey in an uncertain place—
All he asked was which road to take.

かの時に言ひそびれたる
大切の言葉は今も
胸にのこれど

Even now the vital words
I failed to say at the time
Linger in my breast.

ひややかに清き大理石なめいし
春の日の静かに照るは
かかる思ひならむ

I wonder if such love
Is like spring light shining softly
On cool, pure marble.

子を負ひて
雪の吹き入る停車場に
われ見送りし妻の眉かな

The child on her back
In the station with snow blowing in
The eyebrows of my wife who had come to see me off.

みぞれ降る
石狩のの汽車に読みし
ツルゲエネフの物語かな

Sleet is falling
As the train crossed the Ishikari Plain
I read a novel by Turgenev.

わが去れるのちの噂を
おもひやる旅出たびではかなし
死ににゆくごと

The thought of their gossip, once they
Hear I've left, makes the journey sadder,
Like going to my death.

さいはての駅に下り立ち
雪あかり
さびしき街にあゆみ入りにき

I got off at the station on the line
And in the light of the snow
Walked into a loney town

わがひに心いためて
うたはざる女ありしが
いかになれるや

There was a woman who stopped singing
Worried about my drunkenness—
I wonder what happend to her.

よりそひて
深夜の雪の中に立つ
女の右手めてのあたたかさかな

Close together
We stood a while in the late night snow—
How warm the woman's right hand was!

死ぬばかり我がふをまちて
いろいろの
かなしきことをささやきし人

Waiting till I was dead drunk,
She whispered to me
Those many sad things!

きしきしと寒さに踏めば板きし
かへりの廊下の
不意のくちづけ

On the way back along corridors
Creaking under these feet in the cold—
Her sudden kiss!

そのひざまくらしつつも
我がこころ
思ひしはみな我のことなり

While pillowing this head on her lap,
All I had in mind
Was myself.

かなしくも
夜明よあくるまでは残りゐぬ
息きれしの肌のぬくもり

Heart-breaking—
The warmth in the skin of a child who breathed his last
Lingering till the break of day.