Santōka Alarm
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The house of one killed in the war

utterly hushed the fatsia flowers bloom

hissori to shite yatsude hana saku

1937–1938 · Wartime verses
Sōmokutō · The Home Front (Jūgo)

Notes

A verse made before the house of a man killed in the war. In the garden of a home fallen utterly silent, a fatsia (yatsude) puts out its white flowers. Even when the time inside a house of grief has stopped, the flower lives out its own flower-time. The verse quietly sets down only that gap.

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