11-year-old's poem of loss and hope gives courage to disaster survivors (JAPAN)

[AsahinaKimi]

Natsuki Iwami is pictured at her home in Sendai's Aoba Ward on June 6. (Mainichi)

Nai (Nothing)

Looking out,

there is nothing.

What should be there;

scenery;

feelings;

Are all gone.

We who are striving

to bring back the things

that used to be;

They will be different,

but good things

will come to us again.

SENDAI -- "Nothing."

This single, lonely word makes up the title of a poem by 11-year-old Natsuki Iwami to sum up what she found after the March 11 tsunami when she went to her grandparents' town -- or where it used to be. The houses, the smiling people; everything was gone.

However, the poem -- written in black ink on cardboard and on display at the town hall in Yamamoto, Miyagi Prefecture, where Natsuki's grandparents live -- ends on a hopeful if melancholy note: "They will be different, but good things will come to us again."

"The poem is an amazing expression of the will to make something even better than what was here before," says an announcer for Ringo Radio, a disaster information radio station that broadcasts from the lobby of the Yamamoto Town Hall. "I'm thinking it should be inscribed on a panel or turned into a song to preserve it."

MORE...
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20110614p2a00m0na011000c.html

[joshcryer]

1. Arigatou

Very touching article, thanks.

[AsahinaKimi]

2. no...and thank you!

Kicking cause it really is sweet.

[WillyT]

3. K & R !!!

:kick:

[Bonobo]

4. Original Japanese + my translation

ない
見わたせば
なにもない
そこにあるはずの
風景
思い
ぜんぶない
でも
そこにあった
ものをとりもどす
ために
がんばっている
ぼくたちには
まえとはちがうが
必ずいいものが
帰ってくるだろう

Nothing
When I look out
There is nothing
Things that should be there
Scenery
Memories
It's all gone
But for those of us that are
working hard to bring them back
they will be different than before
but I'm certain that good things
will come back

[mahina]

6. aloha e Bonobo

good to see you.

[Bonobo]

7. Maholo, Mahina!

Maikaʻi, a ʻo ʻoe?

[mahina]

14. Maika'i no, aloha.

:pals: :pals:

[mahina]

5. Arigato gozaimashita,

K & R, aloha.

[AsahinaKimi]

9. Kochira koso

こちらこそ!

[otohara]

8. Just Got Back From Japan

no where near the disaster areas.

I "heart" Japan and the Japanese people.

[AsahinaKimi]

10. Okaeri Nasai!!!!!!!

おかえりなさい!!　Welcome home. ^^

[otohara]

16. Arigato

We went to Gifu to see my husbands family, then Kyoto - I ate too much.

It all seems like a dream now.

[Art_from_Ark]

17. Gifu City? Rural Gifu?

I like Gifu Prefecture, especially Seki-ga-hara. I've also seen cormorant fishing at Inuyama. I think the season has started by now, no?
And going to Kyoto would be a nice break for me, if I could do it. :) Or going out to Bonobo's place, somewhere near Himeji, I think :)

[otohara]

18. Prefecture

in the mountains of Gifu Prefecture.

Loved seeing all the Olympic size rice fields with tiny plants.

[Art_from_Ark]

19. Gifu mountains

Kita Alps? Takayama? Ena? It sounds interesting, wherever you went :)

[Bonobo]

11. Okaeri.

Dou datta?

Tanoshikatta?

Takusan oishii mono wo tabeta no?

[otohara]

15. Hai

I ate too much oishii food in Gifu and Kyoto! Drank too much of the delicious coffee they get in Japan.
Then I came home, ate a burger and due to jet-lag and that burger, I had a major migraine.

Wonderful trip, it all seems like a dream now.

[Withywindle]

12. kick

It's beautiful. Simple and eloquent.

[stevedeshazer]

13. Great stuff.

I enjoy your posts about Japan.

Thanks!