I-KI-RU

Title: To live (“I-KI-RU” in Japanese)
Poet: Shuntaro Tanikawa (1931- )

Tanikawa is one of Japan’s famous poets. He wrote this poem in the late 1960s.
In Japan in the 1960s, many young people got excited into the protest about some
political issues, for instance, the protest against the revision of the treaty (called “the
U.S.-Japan Security treaty”). Also, some young people enthused about the protest
against the Japanese government which declared for the U.S. government carrying
on the Vietnam War. In my opinion, it seems to me that Tanikawa sympathized with
the young and tried to express the dignity and meaning of life by writing this poem*.
In this poem, he repeats metaphors about casual behavior, feelings, and scenes in
daily life, so that evokes readers into awareness of the dignity or meaning. For instance,
in the first stanza, Tanikawa writes, “To live, to be alive; / Is when you get thirsty / It’s
when the sun’s rays filter through the treetops / It’s suddenly remembering a melody /
It’s when you sneeze, It’s holding your hand.” Tanikawa gives the examples of five senses
of human, such as, “thirsty” indicates TASTE, “the sun’s rays” indicates SEE, “melody”
indicates HEAR, “sneeze” indicates SMELL and “holding your hand” indicates TOUCH.
Through indicating all the basic elements of human by describing them as everyday things,
Tanikawa seems to succeed in making readers aware of the dignity of life. This poem is
also rhythmical. For example, in the fourth stanza, Tanikawa starts with “It’s how” at
every sentence. These sentences formally give a rhythm to this poem, and about context,
those require a kind of imagination when reading. Therefore, this poem makes readers
become thoughtful and feel positive, while and after reading. The full poem is as follows.
* Shuntaro Tanikawa, SHIAWASE NI TUITE (in Japanese), Nanakuro, 2018
……………………………………………………………………… ……………………
To live, to be alive;
Is when you get thirsty
It’s when the sun’s rays filter through the treetops
It’s suddenly remembering a melody
It’s when you sneeze, It’s holding your hand.　

To live, to be alive;
It’s mini skirts
It’s planetariums
It’s Johann Strauss
It’s Picasso
It’s the Alps
It is encountering all the wonders in the World,
It is also being careful to stay away from unseen evils.

To live, to be alive;
Is to be able to cry
To be able to laugh
To be able to get mad,
It is freedom.
To live, to be alive;
It’s how there is a dog barking in the distance right now
It’s how the earth is spinning right now
It’s how somewhere a baby’s first cry is rising right now
It’s how somewhere a soldier is being wounded right now
It’s how there is a swing swaying in the breeze right now,
It’s how right now is already just a second ago.

To live, to be alive;
Is a bird flapping its wings
It’s the sea roaring
It’s a snail crawling
It is that a person loves.
It is the warmth from your hand.

It is life.”

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