Tomoe Tana 田名ともゑ

Poems written by Mrs. Tomoe Tana during her incarceration at Gila, Arizona

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Translated by Michihiro Ama in “Neglected Diary, Forgotten Buddhist Couple: Tana Daisho’s Internment Camp Diary as Historical and Literary Text,” Journal of Global Buddhism 14 (2013)

Saying, “To the Buddha,” young girls pick flowers and hand them to me;

I delightedly offer them to the Buddha.

みほとけにと手折りし花を少女らは我に給ひぬうれしく供ふ

From the peaks of the Sierras, winds blow this way and that:

In the dead of night, I pile on more clothes because of cold.

シエルの嶺ゆ吹き来る風の冷たさに真夜ともなればかけ衣をます

During a Dharma Talk, cries of a cricket are heard from time to time;

How like the voices of the Buddha.

法語つづくひまひまにきくこほろぎの音もみ仏のみこゑかのごと

Opening a sacred text I carry;

The voices of the devout chant a sutra in unison.

我がもちし聖典ひらき人びとの声を合はして誦経をするかも

When rains come, clouds leave.

How like the world of impermanence

This sudden change, where no one lives forever.

(Ama, p. 51)

雨くると空の雲ゆきすぐ変わる常なき人の世のさまに似て

（『サンタフェー・ローズバーグ戦時敵国人抑留所日記』第一巻　１９４)

Minding a sick child who seeks mother’s affection,

I cannot progress with my needlework, or even wipe away my perspiration.

母恋ふる病む児を憶ひ針もてる手もすすまざる汗も拭(ふ)かざる

Skimming his diary without stop makes my eyes moist;

When I put it down, I realize I have forgotten to even wipe off my perspiration.

うるむ瞳(め)を日記に走らせいきつかずよみ終りたり汗もわすれて

Wandering without a husband for whom I yearn,

I look with nostalgia at his handwriting, reading it again and again.

さまよへる我を導くなつかしき夫の筆あとくり返し読む

My husband is about to touch my face;

When I awake from that dream, the flickering of stars enters my eyes.

夫の手の我が面(も)に触るるとして醒めし目に入るものか星のまたたき

The lullaby I croon seems to wake the child;

He croons with me while half asleep.

(Ama, p. 52)

めしか歌ふ調べに小さき子は覚むると見えず共に歌ひぬ

（『サンタフェー・ローズバーグ戦時敵国人抑留所日記』第一巻 ２５０)

How like the voices of the Buddha

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At the San Mateo Buddhist Temple, October is the month in which we celebrate Buddhist women of the Nembutsu, including Shinran Shonin’s wife Eshinni and their youngest daughter Kakushinni, who worked tirelessly to ensure that the joy of the Nembutsu would be passed on to future generations. During our Sunday Services this month we will be learning about important women poets of the Nembutsu, including Mrs. Wariko Kai and Mrs. Misuzu Kaneko, who were active in Japan during the early part of the twentieth century.

Mrs. Tomoe Tana, the wife of Rev. Daisho Tana who served as the first assigned minister to the San Mateo Buddhist Temple from 1952-1955, was an inspiring poet of the Nembutsu writing here in the United States. Mrs. Tana was born in Hokkaido in 1913 as the daughter of a Buddhist priest. She married Rev. Tana in 1937 and moved to the United States in 1938, where they lived in Berkeley and then Lompoc.

Continue reading “How like the voices of the Buddha”

み仏のみこゑかのごと

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サンマテオ仏教会では１０月に親鸞聖人の奥様恵信尼さまと末娘覚信尼さまを始め、代々お念仏の喜びを伝灯してきて下さった仏教婦人の方々をお偲びし、今月のダーマスクールの法話では甲斐和里子や金子みすゞ、２０世紀にお念仏を喜ばれた女性の詩人をご紹介する予定です。

１９５２年から１９５５年までサンマテオ仏教会に赴任されていた開教使田名大正師の奥様、田名ともゑ夫人は長年アメリカにて短歌でご活躍され、お念仏の喜びを表す短歌を沢山残して下さいました。ともゑ夫人は１９１３年北海道の寺族にお生まれになり、１９３７年に大正先生とご結婚された後、１９３８年に渡米されました。最初はバークレーに住んでおられ、その後はロンポックで暮らされていました。

太平洋戦争が始まると、１９４２年３月に大正先生は逮捕され、戦争が終わるまでニューメキシコ州のサンタフェーとローズバーグにあった戦時敵国人抑留所に収容されていました。

Continue reading “み仏のみこゑかのごと”