Overcast Sky
Translated By Jeffrey Angles
Translated from the Japanese
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!
Notes:
Read the translator’s note by Jeffrey Angles.
Source: Poetry (June 2025)