Mr. Janitor, I do not know your name.
You mumble Itterasshai!
Greeting me kindly as you polish the big brass gate.
I try to engage you in idle conversation
But chitchat and weather are unimportant
When it’s trash day and there are fingerprints on the glass.
You sometimes bump lightly against my door
On Tuesdays, as you vacuum the hall.
Like a tree-fall in the forest, I hear you excuse yourself to no one.
Godliness is no match for cleanliness.
Today, I caught you wiping a city property—
The sign outside our building that tells how to put out the garbage.
After work, you change into a suit to go home.
I hardly know you without your blue coveralls.
But you recognize me and say hello as we pass in the street.
How about translating it into Japanese and giving it to him?
Posted by: on August 11, 2003 03:45 PMyes, yes!
Posted by: on August 11, 2003 10:41 PMHey, easier said than done! What a test of my Japanese—and it’s not even a terribly lyrical poem. Maybe I could rewrite it in a Japanese form, though…
Posted by: kristen on August 11, 2003 10:54 PMGo for a series of haiku..
or perhaps in the epic style of “The tale of Genji”
Loved that line ‘Like a tree-fall in a forest, i hear you excuse yourself to noone.’
So true, so totally capturing my confusion!
I used to work as a cleaner for years, and coming in to teach at 8am, there are a few cleaners around, everytime, always the same people. I want to treat them respectfully, talk to them a bit, but its not done, and the low position they put themselves in in respect to me, the foreign sensei, makes me feel like i should feel low about having done this job in the past…
