"Sea-Colored Ring" Poetry Translation

The following are a sample of poems by Ko Ohashi whom I am working with to translate a number of his poems into English. He would like me to share his poetry, and these are some of my favourites from his collection Sea-Colored Ring (海色の指輪).

When We Embrace

A morning wrapped in white fog.
I wake up,
with the sound of bird song.

The sound of fog.
Silent
echoes, throbs,
that caresses the heart.

 The sound of fog,
gradually,
changes to another sound.
The fog moves away from the mountains.

The raw breath of morning
as well,
embraced by light.

08　Mar 201４
Tokyo

The Amber Color of Dreams

Little by little, my feelings transform to the blue of the heavens.
In those days.
They overflowed with radiance.

My heart flew in a dazzling ocean.
Days passed.
Each one blissful.

It was only wrapped in the sun’s light.
Yet the sadness disappeared.
I thought that this was living.

Drunk in sweet love until blind.
The intoxication made the loneliness disappear.
I felt that as I did not know unhappiness, I could not know happiness.

There were only white clouds in the blue sky.
It was beautiful.
Only white waves stood up on the blue waves.

I knew that before long the color I was seeing would change.
The time known as the present moved far away.
Youth that would never return,
I knew it was over.

4 Mar 2014
Tokyo

Truth and Unhappiness

If the truth is unknown,
then I think happiness cannot be achieved,
I know the truth.
The truth called pain.

The truth, is better unknown.
Not knowing the truth,
means you can continue to be happy.

Ignorance really might be bliss.
But, if we continue being ignorant,
we suppress curiosity.

To know is to feel pain.
To not know is to feel pain.
But, what should we do,
with what we know, with the pain.

3　Mar 2014
Tokyo.

Sea-Colored Ring by Ko Ohashi, translated by Jennifer O'Donnell.