From ALBUM OF WHITENESS (Shiro No Arubamu), 1929 *
SEMIOTIC THEORY
*
white tableware
flower
spoon
spring, 3 p.m.
white
white
red
*
prism architecture
white animal
space
*
blue flag
apple and noblelady
white landscape
*
flowers and musical instruments
white window
wind
*
shell and wreath
slippered young girl
a portrait of a canary's ripening steamship
*
hothouse's boy
distant moon
white flower
white
*
cosmetics and fireworks
doll's blue window
white socks
esthetics
white esthetics
*
silver cubist doll
silver cubist doll
flower and mirror
statics
*
white architecture
far suburban sky
far
*
sky
sea
rooftop garden
cigarette smoking boy, decolorized boy
alone
space
*
magic-making noblelady's magic-making silver boy
magic-making noblelady's magic-making silver boy
reflected in red mirror
reflected in red mirror
white hands and eyebrows and flowers
I
space
*
blue sky
can't see anything
can't see anything
white residence
*
white distant view
faint pink flag
hopelessness
*
decolorized boy
distant sky
hyacinth
window
white landscape
*
it is happy lifestyle and me
it is happy ideas and me
it is transparent pleasures and me
it is transparent manners and me
it is fresh appetite and me
it is fresh love and me
memories of blue past
all dumped in ink bottle
*
mechanics is dark
plants are heavy
*
white tableware
bouquet and book of poems
white
white
yellow
*
white residence
white
pink noblelady
white distant view
blue sky
*
trumpet aristocrats all wear red bandannas
*
evening formalwear
evening formalwear
evening formalwear
evening formalwear
evening formalwear
boring
From CONICAL POEMS (Ensui Shishu), 1933
NUL
I stare in a crystal globe at a green cat. I stare in another crystal globe at a silvery white plant. I didn’t smoke a rolled cigarette.
A BOY’S DEATH IN A FLASK
All of a sudden smashed into something like a wall. Then, hanging suspended, instantly fell.
THOSE COUNTLESS STAIRS AND CRYSTAL BREASTS OF THE BOY WITH A GLASS RIBBON TIED AROUND HIS NECK
Snail-colored space warps, tears, flies off. Then, from a direction of total liquid, a boy with golden stripes showed the circle of a wise forehead and came sliding here into the proscenium.
BLONDE SHADE AND THEN THE WHITE CIRCLE’S PROGRAM
After a perfect conversation, a dark limit tore. A summer desert was there. I don’t know the asphyxiated crystal vegetable inside a globe. I don’t see the octopus of insane mica inside a globe. I entertain myself. Possibility of limitlessness. Finally, panic to love stands up in the mirror. At that time, I faced my other clear boundary and leaned in the stillness.
THE FEATHERY HEAD OF THE SINCERE ANGEL WHO OPENED TLIGHT METAL FINGERS AND MOUTH AND THEN THE MAKE-UP OF SOME SPHERE OF LUSTER IN THE MIDDLE OF A LIMIT
Between limit and limit I rode a crystal parachute and hung suspended. Then in the light of a gentle breeze a completely different limit came sliding by in a pyramid shape. I straddled that peak and, while creating space with an antenna, I started training pure white spheres with a coil-like apparatus.
From VILLAGE (MURA), 1980, haiku originally published 1935-1940
shimeji mushrooms dry
in the sunlight behind the storeroom
the monk grew old
shimeji hosu/ kura no hinata ni/ so oinu
umbrellas lined up
along the temple gate
this morning’s autumn
sanmon ni/ kasa narabe ari/ kesa no aki
the gourd
constricts and tapers
in the heat
hyotan no/ kubirete sagaru/ atsusa kana
at the end
of a safe trip
the first haze
tsutsuganaki/ tabi no aware ya/ hatsu gasumi
morning glories
while being torn off
bloomed
asagao no/ chigirenagara ni/ saki ni keri
From BLACK FIRE (Kuroi hi), 1951
OU UNE SOLITUDE
glass
inside
glass
that
curved line
and
within
it
gloomy
seashell
above
one
stem
the
wind
a
plate
for
tragedy's
plate
one star
breaks
one
star
departs
for
purple's
yellow
wreath
there
are
purple
yellow
wreaths
one
star
departs
one
star
sits
down
crying
From SMOKE’S STRAIGHTLINE (Kemuri no chokusen), 1959
MONOTONOUS SPACE
1
white square
within it
white square
within it
black square
within it
black square
within it
yellow square
within it
yellow square
within it
white square
within it
white square
within it
2
white
within it
white
within it
black
within it
black
within it
yellow
within it
yellow
within it
white
within it
white
within it
white
3
blue
triangular
mustache
’s glass
white
triangular
tobacco
’s building
black square
triangular
star
’s handkerchief
4
white square
within it
white square
within it
white square
within it
white square
within it
white square
*all poems here translated by John Solt from Oceans Beyond Monotonous Space (LA: highmoonoon, 2009).