Poem: The Urge to Yawn

by James Huffman, H. Orth Hirt Professor of History Emeritus, Wittenberg University Context. 
After the single-minded, sacrifice-for-the country drive toward modernity of the late 19th century, many Japanese, particularly those in the cities, felt exhausted spiritually. And as modern goods and ideas circulated ever broadly, people with means began seeking more leisure, more pleasure, greater self-fulfillment. For that reason, a pleasured-oriented café culture had risen in cities like Tokyo and Osaka by the 1910s and 1920s, and one of the heroes of that culture was Ishikawa Takuboku (1886-1912), a poet and novelist who expressed the pessimism and disillusionment of so many in the younger generation. As these poems from his collection, Sad Toys (Kanakashiki gangu) show, he used the traditional short-poem form (without adhering to its strict rules about the number of syllables) to express highly modern ideas. He died of tuberculosis at the young age of 26, as did his wife just a year later.

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The Urge to Yawn

When I breathe,                                                      
This sound in my chest                                       
Lonelier than the winter wind.                             

Husband’s mind on travel!                                  
The wife scolding, the child in tears!                
O this table in the morning!                                

Somehow, this morning,                                    
Things don’t seem so bad—                           
I trim my nails.                                                      

From deep in my guts the urge to yawn,         
And so it came—a long long roar                   
This New Year day!                                             .

All these people                                                  
Going in the same direction—                          
And me, watching them from the side           

Somehow,                                                          
Feel more people than I expected           
Think as I do . . .                                               

Leaning against this hospital window,         
I watch                                                                
The vigorous walk of other kinds of men     
To be scolded by my mother                          
For failing to take this pill!                               

Original Japanese 

Iki sureba,
Mune no uchi nite naru oto ari.
Kogarashi yorimo sabishiki sono oto!

Tabi o omou otto no kokoro!
Shikara, naku, tsumako no kokoro!
Asa no shokutaku!

Nan to naku,
Kesa wa sukoshiku waga kokoro akaruki gotoshi
Te no tsume o kiru.

Hara no soko yori akubi moyshi
Naganaga to akubi shite minu,
Kotoshi no ganjitsu.

Hito ga mina
Onaji hōgaku ni muite yuku.
Sore o yoko yori mite iru kokoro.

Nani to naku,
Angai ni ōki ki mo seraru,
Jibun to onaji koto omou hito.

Byōin no mado ni yorisutsu.
Iroiro no hito no
Genki ni aruku o nagamu.

Kusuri nomu koto o wasurete,
Hisashiburi ni,
Haha ni shikarareshi o ureshi to omoeru.


Questions.
1. What universal feelings or ideas do you find in Ishikawa’s poetry?
2. What about the spread of modernity and the rapid rise of cities might have caused Ishikawa’s dark view of life? And why did that resonate with so many people?
3. What do you find that is positive in these poems? Is there any sense of human connectedness?

Terms.
Café culture. This phrase is used to describe the rise of an urban entertainment world, especially in the 1920s, that centered in streetside cafes and encouraged modern, Western-style fashions, dancing, movies, dating, and the reading of youth-oriented magazines.
New Year Day. January 1 is the holiday of holidays in Japan, a time when everyone rejoices in the hope represented by the new year. Stores and businesses close, and people call on relatives, eat special foods, visit shrines, and read the greetings and good will messages sent by friends and relatives.

Source: Ishikawa Takuboku, Romaji Diary and Sad Toys. Sanford Goldstein and Seishi Shinoda, trans. Rutland, VT: Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1985, 135, 137, 138, 147, 149, 156, 169, 190.

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