And remember that you're a star.

If there are so many people on earth past and present
Then surely every star must be special to someone;
Someone, who will look up each night
To whisper his thoughts in a voice so soft that
It can only be heard by the very star he is talking to.

Surely every star has a story to listen to each night -
The story of a busy day, the story of a day lost in the streets,
The story of a sudden joy in the heart, the story of deep grief -
Surely, in the wide vacuum of space,
Someone is out there to paint your universe with the colors of the earth, because
Space is so cold, it's hard to stay alive
Out there all alone, trying to shine
If there isn't a someone to shine for.

Yes, there are the brighter stars
Who have a larger following
But remember that you are less bright
Only because you are a little further away,
A little more special,
And a little more precious,
Casting your light through the distances of space -
The same distance that stretches out your light so thin,
Is the only ruler long enough to measure
The inspiration you give that someone, so precious,
You had chosen to shine all your life for
But just haven't met.

見送りの　朝はどうやら　肌寒い

I always come to the
Same dark corner and seat myself so deep
Into the darkness
Scribbling into random pages
Of my memory sentences
I do not really know how to punctuate though
I do break the lines so I can breathe
In the fragments and the air in between
One dark corner and another perhaps half
Hoping some transcendence can bring
All the corners of the earth
Into a room I hope
Will have a window or two
So we can let in a little air,
From the outside.

Fragments

I always come to the
Same dark corner and seat myself so deep
Into the darkness
Scribbling into random pages
Of my memory sentences
I do not really know how to punctuate though
I do break the lines so I can breathe
In the fragments and the air in between
One dark corner and another perhaps half
Hoping some transcendence can bring
All the corners of the earth
Into a room I hope
Will have a window or two
So we can let in a little air,
From the outside.

途切れそう　スカイプで聞く　母の歌

Butterfly Fridays
E.E.K.

Friday evening
No date for the night
Feeling sorry for
My single life
Gonna hit the pool and to see if I can
Cry with my face
Hidden in the water
Following the deep blue line

I'm gonna swim my twenty laps
And work'em tired arms
Flippin' right and left and wonder
Why on every lane on a Friday evening
There's another sweet faced boy
Chasing flipping abs

Summer nights are
Kinda cooling
Still the water
Calls to me
Every muscle feels the rhythm
Of the music in my head
Melted in the water
All along the deep blue line

I'm gonna do my crawl and breast
And maybe butterfly
Flip on every lap and wonder
How I would describe the heat under my skin
If the summer heat is killing -
This is even hotter.

Friday evening
Is just the night
For a date with
some random guy.

I'm gonna swim my twenty laps
And work'em tired arms
Flippin' right and left and wonder
Why on every lane on a Friday evening
There's another smiling boy
Ready for his lap

I don't know if I am swimming my laps
Or my laps are swimming me
But does it matter?

(preliminary recording of tune available on request)

Going in, Alone

Maybe some like boys like girls
Maybe some like girls like boys
And maybe some going into life need to unlearn Loneliness
In a world that cannot match them to a similar passion.
If everything were arbitrary,
Let's assume that life equals happiness
And then invent the theories that can help us make
What's left right.

Another weekend
spent.
The nights filled with endless laughter
And conversations that do not add up.
You down the drinks as if you're trying to fill
The Emptiness that'll come the day after;
Let the drinks keep on coming
So Tomorrow would delay
To bring on you his fierce daylight -
Lonely nights, shredded and remolded, now new, shining and empty -
Oh bother,
Another brand new day.

リサイクルできないもの

朝。日光にまだなれてない覚めたばかりの目で見上げてみたら、空は細かった。灰色だったけど眩しかった。そして見えるところまでほど太い黒い線が、上から下へと引かれている。まっすぐな揺らぎのない油性マジックで描いた線は、色をなくした虹のように、虚しかった。この世界の虹は、使い捨てだね。なんてもったいない。

Tonight the moon is neither full
Nor wearing her crescent smile
But she shines, bright like a star, at mid-height
Against a starless sky, layered with
Watercolored clouds, each layer fading into another.
But the winds are so strong
The clouds that frame the moon into a picture
Do not stay still long enough for you to figure out
What's on her mind.

风，吹不动风铃，今夜雨声不相伴，本意欲听雨声吵，不吵更不静。日恨春雨来的早，夜卷夜长思绪多，坐待丑时；恨睡意敌不过心情。

笔，写不出书信，独对电脑打律句，千言万语话不清，断句的心境。幼时常说好学好：红尘如烟不惜要；手伸出去，才发觉自己捉不到。

between breezes
everything is still
and a little warm, even,
just warm enough for mum to walk through the streets
feeling cooled by the air
familiar, yet strange.
this is her forth trip, i think -
it's been so many years since i started going on my own trips and
we stopped traveling together.
the last trip we went on together must have been China.
Five of us. That was before sister got married
and we were still living in the same house.
Eighteen years I was in the house,
(we moved there when I was twelve,)
now that I've moved out, 
I learnt that it's called the "Real House" over here -
the house of one's parents. Indeed, life back then
seemed so real, yet,
here,
now,
"Real" seems like a passing breeze
A motion, even just an idea
     that i trade
for something similarly transient, until
I have nothing left and trade myself in, I guess.
It's strange, how it feels to be living so far away -
But this is what most of my relatives do -
I see it as a rite of passage, though
nothing now seems "right" or "wrong".
Everything just seems so far away -
The breeze that used to cool me in the tropical sun,
And the breeze that i hope will come and cool me through the grilling summer
but for now,
between breezes,
everything is still.
The world outside must still be running.
The new flu, must be causing quite a stir,
but for now,
just let me let everything be a little far away
while i hide for a little while
and pull myself together.

心里有数

那么简单却又那么复杂
好像一般却无人能解答
谁能明白这心理状态
又有谁能看见我藏在心底的无奈

其实从头我心里有数
只是不想看得太过清楚
看破了红尘我依然孤独
不如让我选择这生糊涂

爱我的人我也留不住
尝试去爱也是晚霞朝露
瞬间依在，瞬间幸福
瞬间永远只剩一霄一宿

还没开始就忽然结束
每次走到这里我就不服
看见周围双对谈笑啼哭
我也会想体会平凡幸福

有时想起谁曾让我喜怒
好想永远都不要醒悟
就是无缘能够遇见
能骗我到入土那天的诱人谎言

那么简单却又那么复杂
好像一般却无人能解答
谁能明白这心理状态
又有谁能看见我藏在心底的无奈

词/曲 逸励 (c)Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.

the world is held together
by a piece of string
its ends tied together
with a butterfly knot inside you
and sometimes you feel like
everything is just going to fall apart

the nights are long
when you lie alone in bed
with a sore throat
and there's nothing really interesting on TV
on nights when all your friends seem far away
and you cannot remember what made the other day so fun
you can't sleep
but that's what you tell yourself when
you can't get yourself to turn the tv off
afraid that once the last lights go out
whatever presence you are left with might also disappear just like that
as if the remote control would switch the whole world off
and leave nobody to switch it back on
in the morning

columns of wood planks
lined up into a beige wall
stand tall, unmoving,
and the smell of sawdust
fills the air in front of the wood dealer.
every time i pass by i would stop
and try to fit this image of the wood dealer
into my memory of the smell of sawdust
balming the cool air in the Old House
that i cannot anymore recall in detail.
but this smell of raw wood
calls to me to go in and sit
at its feet, like your cat would,
curled up beside you while you stroke her fur
promising to protect her from storms of the world;
but no, the walls of wood themselves do not speak
and this is private property -
but i would always steal one breathful of the fragrant air,
breathing it in deep,
and cycle on.

どこかで嗅いだにおいの空気が
肺に満ちる。
早朝のちょっと寒い
すがすがしさの中に
異国の匂いがなく、懐かしい元気さが
肌から染み入る。
そうだ、中学時代のセントウサだ。

そして上で広がる
雲の無い星空も
あの時のまんま。
テントの中があつくて、
みんな懐中電灯をもって
星空の下で
未知の大人の世界のことを論じ
夜を更かしーー
あの頃の時間は
永遠に流れるように感じたな。
卒業なんて、永遠が終わってからのことさ。

なのに今は社会人人生6年目
永遠が終わった今も
どこかに
永遠が続く僕がまだいる、
今日星空を見上げて
そう感じた。
そうだ、中学時代のセントウサだ、
いまだに元気をくれている。

tired eyes
and ears that want to hear again
the songs that make my mind wander the distances
and make the repetitive calls of cicadas suddenly quiet;
songs that remind me there's a sky and a sea farther than the horizon
and worlds that spin each with a different pulse, waiting to be discovered again -
if, and only if,
the child within is still capable of curiosity -
songs that remind me why i so struggle to keep alive
that child; songs that
breathe life into moments
and make it seems that
the past and the future have come together again.

Walk,
When the walls on your left, and your right are cold,
When you're not sure if there's a hand in front reaching out to hold yours,
When the only place you still hear the song is in your head.

Walk,
Even when you seem to be going in circles,
Even when you don't see a light in miles,
Even when you're not sure if you're going to make it.

Walk,
And recall the song that warmed you and sing it,
And let your voice reach out like hands into a darkness feeling just as lost
And remember the light that bathed you, is inside you waiting to be born.

Black walls, under a black ceiling,
Not like the four walls of a room
But like a maze
Just a little too tall for one to see what's on the other side.
The windows covered with opaque paper,
Black too, but now full of holes;
And in the morning these tiny holes light up
With a light that seems to be the only thing that belongs
To a world where time still moves.