Poem, SAN FRANCISCO

Nov 19, 2021

O in Red

by Judy Halebsky

named in diaries, written into stories
persimmon trees are older than their traces in the fossil record

O as a connective, a river, a border

at 22, my grandfather had already fought a war
and would never again find anything as thrilling

O a type of star, a type of blood, a mark of absence

under the freeway, what I thought was a concrete mural
a pattern of long grasses
is actually a kind of fossil―a death assemblage
a snapshot of what lived together in one place at one time

O for surprise, O for lament

the man in solitary confinement is thrilled to get his picture taken
he writes to his lawyer, Now the world knows I’m alive

note

Japanese Translation by Ayako Takahashi.

赤色のオウO

ジュディ・ハレスキ

訳 高橋綾子

日記に記され、物語に書かれる
柿の木は化石の痕跡よりも長生きだ

Oそれは、連結語、流れ、縁

祖父は22歳のとき 出征した
それほどの凄絶さを二度と感じることはなかった

Oそれは、星の類型、血液型、不在の記号

フリーウェイの下で私が考えたのはコンクリート壁画
伸びた草の模様
実際は化石の一種――死の集積
ある時ある場所で生きていたことのスナップ瞬間ショット撮影

Oそれは驚愕、Oそれは嘆き

禁固刑の男は写真撮影され震える
弁護士に手紙を書く 「僕がまだ生きているとやっと認めた」と

1.星の種類 O型主系列星のこと、代表的な星はいて座、オリオン座
2.ブライアン・スティーブンソン著 Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption (One World 2015)

Judy Halebsky

Judy Halebsky

Judy Halebsky is the author of Spring and a Thousand Years (Unabridged), Tree Line, and Sky =Empty, which one the New Issues Poetry Prize. Originally from Halifax, Nova Scotia, she moved to Northern California to study poetry at Mills College. On fellowships from the Japanese Ministry of Culture, she spent five years living in Japan, where she trained in Butoh dance and Noh theatre. Halebsky’s work has been supported by fellowships from the MacDowell Colony, the Millay Colony, and the Vermont Studio Center. Her poems have been published in American Poetry Review, Field, Zyzzyva and elsewhere. She directs the low-res MFA in Creative Writing at Dominican University of California and lives in Oakland.

カリフォルニアで注目されている若手女性詩人。
第一詩集『Sky=Empty』は新人詩人の登竜門である「the New Issue Prize」を獲得。「the California Book Award」のファイナリストともなった。

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