Toro nagashi (Lantern-floating) (Peter Bird)

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• (Posted 2011-04-16)  CPDL #23379:        (Sibelius 5)

Editor: Peter Bird (submitted 2011-04-16).   Score information: Letter, 22 pages, 234 kB   Copyright: CC BY SA

Edition notes: Japanese and English text underlay. Text and piano part follow the 16-page choral score in the PDF file.

General Information

Title: Toro nagashi (Lantern-floating)
Composer: Peter Bird

Number of voices: 4vv   Voicing: SATB
Genre: Secular, Partsong

Languages: Japanese, English
Instruments: Piano

First published: 2011
Description: May be sung in either English or Japanese (Romaji). This piece is dedicated to the victims of the 2011 tsunami, and to their surviving relatives. The first two poems were selected because they serve as metaphors for the disaster, and the last three poems were selected because they serve as metaphors for the summer Obon festival observances that may provide a measure of healing for some.

External websites:

• Composer's website

Original text and translations

Five short tanka poems from the 13th-century “Ogura Hyakunin Isshu”. English translations (based on those of Clay MacCauley, 1917).

Japanese text Yama kawa ni Kaze no kaketaru Shigarami wa Nagare mo aenu Momiji nari keri (Harumichi no Tsuraki) Kaze o itami Iwa utsu nami no Onore nomi Kudakete mono o Omou koro kana (Minamoto no Shigeyuki) Wata no hara Yasoshima kakete Kogi idenu to Hito ni wa tsugeyo Ama no tsuri bune. (Sangi Takamura) Se o hayami Iwa ni sekaruru Takigawa no Warete mo sue ni Awan to zo omou (Sutoku In) Tachi wakare Inaba no yama no Mine ni oru Matsu to shi kikaba Ima kaeri kon (Chunagon Yukihira)

English text In a mountain stream There is a tangled barrier Built by busy wind. Yet it's only maple leaves, Powerless to flow away. Like a driven wave, Dashed by fierce wind on a rock, So am I: alone, Crushed and broken on the shore, Thinking of what used to be. Over the wide sea, T’ward its many distant isles, Sailing to the door. Those ahead will lead me on; Heavenly fleet of stars. Swiftly rushing stream, Divided by a boulder In its headlong flow: Though divided, on it runs, And at last unites again. Though we are parted, If on Mount Inaba's peak I should hear the sound Of the pine trees growing there, I will come back to you.