Nearly Autumn

It's nearly autumn.
Twilight addresses us like a friend
and, with the movements of those rich in years,
trees gloomily cast barren silhouettes into the night.

Everything quivers with indecision
like ever more silently shallow sighs....
Our thoughts will whisper to each other:
"Not just about yesterday but about tomorrow, too."

—— Thus has fall returned.
Like someone begging leaves to stay,
autumn once again will linger here.... 

Kept as an unforgotten memento,
it will nevertheless soon pass by, leaving no memory.
Autumn—and then...once more at dusk one day....

From Of Dawn, Of Dusk (The Poetry of Tachihara; 1914-1939), translated by Iida Gakuji and Robert Epp.