in a pasture

Mt. Maya( 摩耶山）is a small mountain on the center of Rokkoh mountain range, about 700 meters high,in Hyogo prefecture. We can easily access to the top of it by a little cable car,

and can enjoy an ocean view including expanding  reclaimed land like amoeba which became a convenient modern area. 

A pasture is not far from the cable car station of Maya, and the sunny afternoon gave my husband an idea to pay a visit the pasture and I could not resist it.

At first glance the pasture looked compact, but a path led us further up and down showing some animals, goats. horses, sheep...

These goats are still quite young.

They seem to be well tamed, still their feral instinct is observed especially in the eyes.

荒れあれて雪積む夜もをさな児をかき抱きわがけものの眠り

石川　不二子（１９３３～）

Embracing my innocent life

in my arms

at night of storm-force wind and snow,

How wild and beast-like

my sleep is

Fujiko Ishikawa

In fact to talk about snow is too early here. What associates me with the tanka poem is the age-hardened coats of sheep. Their features make me imagine the weathertight lives even in this calm sanctuary. And for the people who work for the animals it must be harder in severe winter and summer time.
Now it is a short comfortable season just after the long extraordinary heat wave.

By the way, the writer of the tanka poem, Fujiko, used to be a dairy worker after she studied on farming at University, and continued to compose tanka poems working with her husband in a pasture.

The natural style of her poems reflects well the way of her living, and I admire the hint of unaffected sensuality in her poems.

  

It was Indian summer that day, though already some Japanese pampas and sort of bush clovers were rustling on the hilltop.