Don't Cry Yoshino River

Somewhere on the Water Planet
Somewhere in Yaponesia
Somewhere in a rice-rich country
Along the Median Tectonic Line 

              There is holy water.
                 People call it a river:
        People call it Yoshino River. 

Earth's muscle--the mountain high.
Earth's bloodlines--the gorges deep. 

The Yoshino River
Gathers snow, rain and beech tree sap.
Cascades numberless falls, and
For a short while
Hanging in the terracing rice paddies
Reflects beautifully thousands of moons
Through late Spring nights.

In the olden days
When the Yoshino River was dreaming
The twenty-first century
A golden wonder-horse was crossing
In a desert of concrete blocks and plastic trees. 

A mysterious figure.
With an attaché case and a portable phone, 
Was sitting uptightly on that golden saddle.

Today, the Yoshino River
Is a flow of spirits
Offering generously
Its beauty, its strength and its richness
To all beings.
At the end of epic journey
The water is returning
To the Mother Ocean
Now and always.

Look there!
At the estuary
A golden monolithic dam

Rises up!

Under the foot of the magic dam
All disappears ...
From the tidal flat the fiddler crab
From the beach the whimbrel
From the binoculars the osprey
From the future the birdwatcher.

Living in his concrete cave
Third Stone Age man,
Just like a fiddler crab,
His one-sided tremendous claw.
What destiny awaits him tomorrow? 

Don't cry Yoshino River! 

                 You are holy water!
         People call you a river!
         People call you Yoshino River!

Don't cry Yoshino River!

                 --Nanao Sakaki
                    November 1996