Rabbit
Let me have a sheet of drawing paper
Please use the white pastel
to draw a vast snowy field
Please draw me in there
Don’t hesitate, use the white pastel
There I will play
closed in by a vast white expanse
I will be free for the first time
closed in by the vast white expanse
With no distinction between me and the surroundings
I will be invisible for the first time
I will dance
No need to go all the way to the moon
the snowy field on this drawing paper is my place
I simply sleep, eat, and play
Rabbit, Rabbit, what do you see when you jump?
I see the full moon when I jump
.
Wakako Kaku
from Zero ni naru karada
publisher: Tokuma Shoten, Tokyo, 2002
Translation: 2009, Takako Lento
Translator's Note: The last two lines are from a Japanese children’s folk song.
In Japan, the shadows on the face of the moon are said to represent rabbits
making rice cake.
.