Go to: Selected Poems of Kitasono Katue or Glimpses of Avant Garde Japan

 
 

KITASONO KATUE AND
THE COLORS OF THE WORLD'S WORDS
Translated by John Solt

 


from SMOKE'S STRAIGHTLINE (Kemuri no chokusen), 1959


MONOTONOUS SPACE

          1
white square
within it
white square
within it
black square
within it
black square
within it
yellow square
within it
yellow square
within it
white square
within it
white square

          2
white
within it
white
within it
black
within it
black
within it
yellow
within it
yellow
within it
white
within it
white

          3
blue
triangular
mustache
's glass

white
triangular
horse
's parasol

black
triangular
tobacco
's building

yellow
triangular
star
's handkerchief

          4
white square
within it
white square
within it
white square
within it
white square
within it
white square

 


BLACK CHURCH


a black ribbon
inside
a
black cylinder

is
morning's
prayer

a white dot
inside
a
blue square

is
noon's
solitude

a yellow book
inside
a
white circle

is
night's
food

a black straightline
for
a
green sound

is
shadow's
time
a fly
for
a
purple eye

is
Judas's
postcard

white sand
for
a
red glass

was
only
itself

 


WHITE GESTALT


blue
cylinder
was
black     wind

white
triangle
was
purple rain

yellow
square
was
black loneliness

curving
red line
was
blue heaviness

purple
straightline
was
yellow time

white square in
white cube
is
Brunelski's star

 


UNE AUTRE POÉME


a
black square
is
a
black square

a
red cylinder
is
a
red cylinder

a
blue triangle
for
a
yellow triangle
is
a
red triangle
for
a
black triangle

a
white square
is
a
white square
a
white
square
white
yellow

 


from BLUE, 1979


BLUE


now
inside
passing autumn's
blue
wind

just like a
Giacometti
blue bronze
sculpture

pulling
solitude's
gloom's
straightline's
long
blue
shade

suffused with
white and blue
stripes

ocean's
blue,
viewer's
thin back
also
blue

 


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