Heaven above, earth below

こぼれたるミルクをしんとぬぐふとき天上天下花野なるべし

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　水原　紫苑（１９５９～）

I'm wiping the spilt milk

in absolute silence

in solitude

May flowers fill the fields

of heaven above and earth below Shion Mizuhara

This tanka poem was very difficult for me to understand for long time.

However, when I thought of 「こぼれたるミルク」（spilt milk） in English, I came to correlate it with the saying "It is no use crying over spilt milk."








Then, I understood that she might regret something in the former lines.

She mentions tremendously broad world as her ideal in the latter lines that make readers imagine the words by Buddha, "Heaven above, earth below, only I am holy."


(花野　flower field might be cherry blossom fields according to traditional interpretation, though I dare to have translated it as fields full of flowers here.)






The former part and the latter one in a verse is well balanced in general, and if this tanka wouldn't be an exceptional, her regret must be profoundly important matter that is related to her fundamental issue.

As far as I can imagine, love is one of the most important and fundamental matters for human beings, though love has its variety from self-centred one to agape.




And, it is quite difficult that we conquer and sublime the sense of possessions when we concern with love, I think.

はじめより持たざるひとつを喪（うしな）ひしもののごとくに胸に秘め置く

　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　内藤　明（１９５４～）

I hoard one thing

that I had not have

from the very beginning,

as if I have lost it

the very thing   Akira Naitoh