Yoshihara Sachiko

The Affair by Yoshihara Sachiko (情事/吉原幸子)

In the evening, while I was swimming
across from the shore to the diving board,
I happened to find myself heading
directly in the path of the setting sun.
The platform, completely enveloped in the halo,
became a slender bone in silhouette that looked like it would soon burn down,
and the tepid waves ahead
violently rose up and assaulted me,
just like the sunset drifting over,
coming to swallow me whole.
But I also swallowed the waves and the sun.
I became the water, became the salt,
became a golden fish,
and for the first time in a long while, I thought,
(I am alive).