Overcast Sky

Nakahara Chūya

    one morning     I saw     a black flag
fluttering     up there     in the sky
    the flag fluttered     back and forth     back and forth
inaudible     for it was     so high

    I wanted     to reel     it down
but without     rope     how could I?
    so the flag     just went     back and forth
dancing     in the depths     of the sky

    I recall     as a boy     many times
looking up     those mornings     back a while
    I saw one     that time     over fields
now     again     over city roof tiles

    this time     and that time     are so far apart
and this place     and that place     aren’t the same
    but black flag!     still you flutter     alone
back and forth     in the sky     unchanged!