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Leith Morton has written 6 books of poetry, most recently Tokyo: A Poem in Four Chapters (2006). He is also the author of six volumes of translated Japanese poetry, including Shuntaro Tanikawa: Selected Poems (2006). His other books include Modern Japanese Culture: The Insider View (2003); Modernism in Practice: An Introduction to Postwar Japanese Poetry (2004); Yosano Akiko no ‘Midaregami’ o Eigo de Ajiwau (2007); and The Alien Within: Representations of the Exotic in Twentieth Century Japanese Literature (2009).
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Z境/全面(フラット・)解除(キャンセレイション)
君が売る 言葉の数の恩寵で
あやふやなだけの日常が
たしかな廃墟になっていく
陶冶されゆく生命が
日々のあふれでる画面(モニタ)のなかで
忘却された手足を想い
君の思考を追跡(トレース)している
君がため ポリゴン平野で羊狩る
明日には要らなくなるものを
毎日捕らねば生きられない
耳からうごめく心臓音
骨からひびく鎮魂歌
同期していく音韻の上
君の思念が滴りおちる
君が言う 言葉の先にある世界
仮死の視線で見つめなければ
紐解くことすらできなくて
君がため 騒音(ノイズ・)消去(リダクション)かけた場所
ここから先は色のない日々
君のいた 日常の隙間口を開け
凍ったままの幸福に
つき刺さるのを
避けながら 避けながら
泡のたつ
歴史が日々より生まれるならば
この喧騒が平常という
君の視界は幻野でしかなく
君の買う 言葉の数の狂乱に
あいまいなだけ狂おしい
世界が
無墟(ドコカ)になっていく
Zekkyo Furatto kyansereishon (Border Z: Flat Cancellation)
What you’re selling The dubious everyday
Through the many graces of language
Will turn into a guaranteed ruin
The life you have cultivated
Amid the many monitors every day everywhere
Will recall your arms and legs that were consigned to oblivion
Trace your thoughts
For yourself You are hunting sheep on the polygon plain
You won’t need tomorrow
What you grab every day to survive
Your heartbeat reeling from your ears
A requiem lingering in your bones
Your thoughts dribble downwards
Onto this synchronicity of tone
You say that The world exists beyond language
If one does not look as if suspended in death
Puzzles themselves will never be unravelled
For yourself You are in a place where noise reduction has been put into operation
From this point on days will be colorless
Opening a window in the gap in the everyday Where you were located
To happiness frozen just like that
All the time avoiding Avoiding
Being stabbed
If the froth
Of history is born from the everyday
This tumult is normal
Your field of vision is nothing but an illusory plane
What you’re buying Through the many madnesses of language
Being imprecise is even more maddening
The world
Is travelling elsewhere
詩源ゴミの日
お菓子箱に入れるための
安全詩を買いにいったのに
帰ってきたら
私の手の中にあるのは
なぜか
危険詩想なのだ
慌てて返品しにいったのだが
美人店員は
眉一つ動かさず
ましてや白粉などは一片も剥がさず
「返品は承っておりません」
と涼しげに言うのだ
困ってしまい
燃えるゴミの日に出したら
翌日
管理人の四角い文字で
「詩源ゴミの日に出して下さい」
と 貼り紙がはられ
置かれていたのだ
Shigen gomi no hi (The Day When Poetics are Recycled)
When I went to buy some “safe” poetry
To put into a cake box
And returned
What was in my hand
For some reason or another
Was “dangerous” poetics
Panicking, I went to return them but
The beautiful shop assistant
Without batting an eyelid
Her makeup undisturbed
“We don’t accept returns”
She nonchalantly declared
Finding myself in a fix
I put them out with the combustible rubbish
The next day
In the boxy hand of the manager
“Put them out on the day when poetics are recycled”
Was written on a notice
And placed for me to see
A熱帯
G力にさからって逃亡する私は
青いデジタル虎の尾をふみ
B力に抵抗してたたかう君は
3D映像にチェンジ するのを忘れ
音もなく 食われた
痛みをシュミレートする
ぜっこうの機会 だったのに
ゲームフィールドA熱帯
最上最高ノ天気
私に君が見えなくなる
君に私が見えなくなる
映話接続の私をつれて
君は今日もピクニック
あるいは食事 ないしは映画
ときには愛だって かたってしまう
エンドレスD世界
フルエル空の青さの下デ
ここには私が あふれすぎ
君に私が 見えなくなる
S力から遠く コード化された私が立ち止まる
K点の真下 シグナル化された君が微笑む
劣化コピーの私をつれて
(ちんぷな私をぞろぞろつれて)
私は君に会いにいく
(君は私をミツケラレナイ)
A力よりはるか上空
すべての私をひきつれて
これより、君に会いにいく
A Nettai (Tropic A)
Seeking to escape the G force I
Trod on the tail of a blue digital tiger
Fighting against the B force you
Forgot to change into a 3D picture
And were gobbled up Without a sound
It was the Perfect chance
To manufacture a simulation of suffering
The tropic A game field
——— Had the most perfect weather
You became invisible to me
And I to you
Taking me connected to you by vision and audio
On a picnic today as well
Or for dinner Or perhaps a movie
From time to time you regaled me About love
The world of Endless D
——— under the quivering blue of the sky
Here I Overflowed excessively
I became invisible to you
Far away from the S force Turned into code I was brought to a standstill
Directly below the K point Turned into a signal you broke into a smile
Taking degraded copies of me
(Leading the obsolete me-copies)
I’m going to meet you
(You couldn’t find me)
Becoming invisible in order to be visible
(Because I’m invisible I’m making myself visible)
Am I visible? Are you saying you can’t see me?
In the air high above A force————————————
Taking all the versions of me
Now, I’m going to meet you