SEAGULLS (poem) - Mitsuharu Kaneko - Japan

Seagulls

At the fiery rock snout as in mythical times,
the barnacles, crowding, massing, listen to the groans of the earth, the roars of heaven.
Splashes leap deep into the purple cavern, flapping their manes.

The entire seascape of the lucid morning is sent off in briny mists.

At that moment, casting their shadows on the boulders,
the holy lanterns of gold angels offer,
two seagulls fly across the blue darkness. (1)
Toward the platinum lighthouse.
Playing on their thin flutes of life.

Translator's Note: (1) The two Chinese characters Kaneko chose for what is here given as “blue darkness”, sohmei (cangming in Chinese), are somewhat different to those usually applied to mean the sea or the ocean (although the pronunciations are more or less the same both in Japanese and Chinese).