Poem for Today

I am Completely Different


I am completely different.
Though I am wearing the same tie as yesterday,
am as poor as yesterday,
as good for nothing as yesterday,
today
I am completely different.
Though I am wearing the same clothes,
am as drunk as yesterday,
living as clumsily as yesterday, nevertheless
today
I am completely different.


Ah ---
I patiently close my eyes
on all the grins and smirks
on all the twisted smiles and horse laughs --
and glimpse then, inside me
one beautiful white butterfly
fluttering towards tomorrow.


Kuroda Saburo
(1919-1980) Important post-War Japanese poet, spent WWII in Java, known for his moving portrayal of family life, esp. his series of love poems, A Une Femme, & the collection he wrote for his daughter, With Little Yuri. ((translated by James Kirkup, Burning Girraffes: Modern and Contemporary Japanese Poetry. University of Salzberg Press, 1996)