“MORNING RELAY” – Shuntaro Tanikawa
While a young man in Kamchatka
Dreams of a giraffe
A young girl in Mexico
Waits for the bus in the morning haze
While a little girl in New York
Rolls over in her bed with a smile
A little boy in Rome
Winks at the morning sun that colors the column capital
On this Earth
Always, somewhere, morning is starting
We are relaying mornings
From longitude to longitude
Taking turns protecting Earth, as it were
Pick up your ears awhile before you go to sleep
And somewhere, far away, you’ll hear an alarm clock ringing
It’s proof that someone has firmly caught
The morning you’ve passed on
This is a famous Japanese poet Shuntaro Tanikawa’s poetry.