Autumn Matins

Daily prayers to impermanence

Introduction

Autumn Matins is a meditation to this season’s slow unraveling, a cycle of surrender, stillness, and renewal.

Loosely shaped in the spirit of the tanka, they trace the small transfigurations of the world I inhabit in the Pacific Northwest. Like tanka, these verses turn inward after the image, folding perception into reflection, nature into the self. They are morning prayers to impermanence.

The tanka is one of Japan’s oldest poetic forms, predating the haiku. Traditionally composed of five lines in a 5–7–5–7–7 syllabic rhythm, it invites a movement from the external world to the interior, what the eye sees becomes what the heart feels. While these Autumn Matins are not bound to strict syllabic form, they honor the tanka’s spirit of concision and contemplation: to hold a season, a breath, or a moment of awareness within a few spare lines.

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Autumn Matins I

burnt ombre petals

the dying chrysanthemum

morning light trembles

I have spent a lifetime

longing for this brief surrender.

—

焦げ茶の花弁

死にゆく菊よ——

朝の光が震える。

生涯を費やし

この儚い委ねに憧れる。

—

Kogechā no haben

shiniyuku kiku yo—

asa no hikari ga furueru.

Shōgai o tsuiyashi

kono hakanai yudane ni akogareru.

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Autumn Matins II

In the Pacific Northwest

gloaming

the evening air crackles

inside caged ribs frostbitten—

I beckon the harvest tide.

—

北西の地にて

たそがれどき、

夕の風ははぜる。

凍えた胸の檻の中で——

私は収穫の潮を呼び寄せる。

—

Hokusei no chi nite

tasogare-doki,

yū no kaze wa hazeru.

kogoeta mune no ori no naka de—

\ watashi wa shūkaku no shio o yobiyoseru.

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Autumn Matins III

Orbweaver patience

cyclical entanglement

alanine rope ties

snaring the buzzing world,

making life and death from air.

–

女郎蜘蛛の忍耐、

めぐる絡まりの存在。

アラニンの縄は

うなる世界を捕え、

空から生と死を織りなす。

–

Jorō-gumo no nintai,

meguru karamari no sonzai.

Aranin no nawa wa

unaru sekai o torae,

sora kara sei to shi o orin nasu.

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Autumn Matins IV

The saddest dusk

belongs to the summer fledgling

now a veiled echo.

Kuebiko stands silent,

sheathed in bristled mortar.

—

おそらく、最も哀しい黄昏——
夏のひな鳥に属し、
いまは覆われたこだま。
久延毘古は沈黙し、
毛羽立つ漆喰に包まれている。

—

Osoraku, mottomo kanashii tasogare—
natsu no hinadori ni zokushi,
ima wa oowareta kodama.
Kuebiko wa chinmoku shi,
kebadatsu shikkui ni tsutsumarete iru.

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Autumn Matins V

when she menstruates

a fever dream unfolds, bright

she must clean the house.

through this whirltide of order

our marriage hums, spotless, whole.

—

彼女の月のとき、
熱の夢がひらく、眩しく。
家を清めねばならぬ。
この秩序の渦の中で、
我らの結婚は澄み渡り、満ちてゆく。

—

Kanojo no tsuki no toki,
netsu no yume ga hiraku, mabushiku.
ie o kiyome neba naranu.
kono chitsujo no uzu no naka de,
warera no kekkon wa sumiwatari, michite yuku.

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