Poem for Peace

​As we welcome a new year, we pray that it is filled with joy and peace. We share with you a poem by Rinko Sagara, a 15 year old girl from Okinawa, Japan. The poem was read during an Okinawa Memorial Day ceremony to remember the victims of the Battle of Okinawa. We thank the NCC WDP Committee of Japan for sharing this poem with all of us. 

​Happy New Year!

Poem for Peace: “Live”

I am alive.

Treading the great earth, transmitting the heat of the mantle,

Receiving the wind, impregnated with comfortable dampness, in the whole body,

Sensing the smell of the grass in the nostrils,
Listening to the sound of the sea coming from afar.

I am alive now.

What a beautiful island this is
Where I live!
The sea shining blue,
The wave glittering into splashes, dashing against the rock,

The neighing of a goat,
The babbling of a brook,
The path leading to farmland,
The budding green of the mountain,
The gentle sound of the Sanshin,
The light of the shining sun.

What a beautiful island,
Where I was born and raised!

I feel the island with all my senses and sensitivity.
​
My heart grows increasingly warm.

I am alive at this moment.
 
The splendor of this moment,
The affection of this moment,
Becoming a comfort of the now,
Is spreading within me.

How should I express this feeling
That is welling up unbearably?
​
Dear now,
Irreplaceable now,
The now where I live!

Seventy-three years ago,

​That day my beloved island was transformed into an island of death,

The chirping of birds changed into screams of fear.

The gentle sounding Sanshin disappeared in the roaring of the bombing.

The great expansive blue sky disappeared in the rain of iron.

The smell of the grass was muddied with the smell of the dead,

The surface of the shining sea was filled with battleships.

The flame blowing out from the flamethrower, the crying of small children,

People’s homes burned out, the smell of gunpowder.

The earth shaken by the landing bombs, the sea dyed with blood,

People changing their appearance, becoming like demons and monsters,

Memories of a fierce battle in the screaming and shrieking.

Everyone was alive.

It was life living desperately – nothing different from me,

They imagined their lives, their respective futures,

With no doubt.

They had their families, their friends, and their lovers,

Their jobs, their life values.

They were delighted with their daily little happiness's.

They were the same human beings as I, having lived with others hand in hand.

And yet,

They were destroyed and deprived,

Just because the era they lived was different, only because of that,

Their innocent lives, those days that were lived as ordinary.

The Hill of Mabuni, a gentle ocean expanding under the eyes,

All of this island, sad, and unforgettable.

I firmly grip my hands and swear.

I swear from the bottom of my heart,

With my heart reaching the lives deprived.

So long as I live,

I absolutely will never allow war, which sacrifices so many lives,

Will never, ever make the past a future,

And will aim at a world of peace among all people, beyond nationality, beyond race,

Beyond religion, beyond all kinds of interests,

To live, to be able to cherish life,

To create a world unviolated by anyone,

To never give up the effort to create peace.

​​You will feel, also,

The beauty of this island.

You will know, also,

The sorrow of this island.

And you, also,

Live this same moment as I.

You live together with the now.
Therefore, you must surely understand
The meaninglessness of war, true peace,
Not with your brains, but with your hearts.
There is actually no peace gained

By having the foolish power of military power.
Peace is to live the life of course,
To let life shine in its fullness.

I am alive now,
Together with everyone.
And I will live from now on,
Dearly and carefully day by day,

Thinking of peace, praying for peace,
Because the future is
On the extending line of this moment,
In other words, the future is now!

My favorite island,
A proud people’s island.
And all the lives that live on this island.
I am living my life with me, my friends, my family.
 
Let’s continue living together from now on also.
From this beautiful homeland surrounded by this blue.
​
Let’s transmit our message of true peace.
Each person standing up,
Let’s each one of us rise up
And walk the future with everyone.

In the winds of the hill of Mabumi,
My life is ringing, blowing,
The resonance of past, present, and future.
Let the requiem reach the past of sorrow!
Let life reverberate
​
In the future we live in!
I live in this very now!

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(Translated by Rosan Yoshida revised by Erin Davis)
MAINICHI.JP|BY
https://heiwasekai.wordpress.com/2018/06/25/546/