Sakutaro Hagiwara

1886-1942 / Japan

Melancholic Far Scenery

When it turns melancholy twilight,
The whole of Tokyo fills with laborers,
And the shadows of their fatigued hats
Fill the whoe city,
And in the ward-district theareabouts and the ward-district hereabouts,
Dig over the stiff ground,
And what they discover they have dug up
Is a sooty foil-wrap of snuff tobacco.
it's a shriveled up root-stalk of a fragrant-violet
Weighing almost five momme.
And they start off from farther down, around the Honjo-Fukagawa district,
And gradually start to encroach the whole city.
In the shadow of the angst-filled twilight,
A wilted heart is working the shovel and making it gleam.
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