1016. Epitaph For "Poet's Tomb" - Shuntaro Tankawa

“I, infinite silence, will grant you words”

[God Contemplates Man]　　—Jules Supervielle

When I was born

I was nameless

like a water molecule

But right away I was fed vowels mouth-to-mouth

consonants tickled my ears

I was called and

pulled away from the cosmos

Oscillating the atmosphere

carved onto clay tablets

inscribed on bamboo

recorded on sand

words are onion skins

If I keep on peeling

I will not find the cosmos

I would have loved to lose words

to be a tree singing in the wind

I would have loved to be a cloud from a hundred thousand years ago

I would have loved to be a whale’s song

Now I go back to being nameless

with dirt over my eyes, my ears and my mouth

with stars leading me by the fingers