The girl who takes a dose of youthful souls Who doesn’t bow is still effective The end of summer In the middle of the road Lying on its back dead a Brown Baker cicada In the aunt’s folded fan Jammed within this year’s butterfly is dead In the tobacconist at the bottom of the slope Not moving an inch the perpetual shop assistant Children gleam Fish or skylarks Sped off in the direction of the sea-tang In the forlorn, tiny universe dog dung remains The power of green binds the window All the trees silently burst into flame Z, zzz, zzzz Buzzing green Afternoon in the locked music room A strange chord can be heard On top of the piano Matches and a bundle of small candles ‘Take off your socks’ ‘Keep your skirt on’ The girl’s legs are slowly opened In the inlet giddy students in the grade above Looking from afar another girl This summer Binds all their pasts together Travelling behind them From tomorrow all will begin their ending -- translated from Japanese by Leith Morton -- gif by Nguyễn Hoàng Giang (originally published by Vagabond Press : Poems of Masayo Koike, Shuntaro Tanikawa & Rin Ishigaki)