The fires of the dead

The sea has for several days
been growing angrier; and now
the muttering of its surf sounds

far into the land. It always
roughens thus during
the Festival of the Dead.

And on the sixteenth day,
after the shōryōbune have been launched,
all the fishermen remain at home.

For on that day the sea
is the highway of the dead.
Upon that day is it called Hotoke-umi—

the Buddha-Flood—the Tide
of the Returning Ghosts.
And ever upon the night

of that sixteenth day—
all its surface shimmers with faint lights
gliding out to the open,

and there is heard a murmuring of voices,
like the murmur of a city far-off—
the indistinguishable speech of souls.

Then will the dead rise tall,
and reach long hands and murmur:
Tago, tago o-kure!—tago o-kure!