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AI (Midjourney) generated this art from prompts created from lines of poems published in Tokyo Poetry Journal volume 12 "Now Translating." Guess which art is from which poem... (See inside Tokyo Poetry Journal volume 12 to read the poems and make educated guesses. Available on Amazon, Barnes &amp; Noble, etc.).

AI Art Translations Of Poetry

Once upon a time, I was a young girl    
made of gelatin roses    
so that when I laughed   
the air smelled sweet   
Little by little,   
time jangled its vajra bells  
to distance me from my naiveté

**Nagae Yuki, "The Platinum Princess" (Tr. Jordan A. Y. Smith)**

They called in a specialist who began to treat it,   
And from the whale’s mouth  
Removed a massive number of tablet computers.   
One by one, they switched on the power,   
And each booted up smoothly.

**Aoyagi Natsumi, "Log" (Tr. Jordan A. Y. Smith)**

I had completely lost all my words  
and so   
by gathering bits and pieces from a pile of rubble  
pulling them out, fitting them together  
I made shapes from whatever came to hand.  
At first it was really just a child’s game   
and as for what I made,  
it was nothing, just the kinds of little things you could easily fit in the palm of your hand…but  
while I was in the flow of it, making one after another,   
I realised I could do more than just line them up in a row, I could layer them on top of each other  
I went on, soon I got so I could build things that were bigger even than my own body  
Gradually the number of sightseers began to grow  
Among them, some appeared who kindly said they liked what I had made  
Perhaps I, too, can build a tall tower, perfectly straight, I thought  
At some point, looking up, looking only at the sky,  
I forgot that the ground is a thing which can shake.

**Fukazawa Rena, "Start Here" (Tr.  Melinda Smith & Rina Kikuchi)**

An umbrella in the smoldering autumn  
tells of a pair of beautiful birds.  
We don’t know their sex, or age, or where they are from.  
It might be a sandy beach in a ramshackle fishing village  
or the center of Ginza itself in Tokyo.

**Yamazaki Shūhei, "An umbrella in the smoldering autumn" (Tr. Kendall Heitzman)**

Trick question! This poem has not been translated, and wasn't in ToPoJo v12. We got you! Sorry, that was not nice of us.

**Fuzuki Yumi, "How to Build an Ocean"**

On that Earth   
flowers bloom profusely  
a steam whistle echoes and   
a single strand of solitude   
continues its descent…

**Misumi Mizuki, "A Planet Each" (Tr. Andrew Gebert)**

I myself am turning thinner and lighter  
where the hell am I?  
taken away by the blackened fluffy strikethroughs  
of a vanished April

**Kawaguchi Harumi, "Saturday, April 18" (Tr. Mat Chiappe)**

It may even be a renewal that knows no limit, able to produce infinitely,   
just because nearly all the things that have ever lived have already met their deaths,   
that no guarantee that your own death is being prepared,   
you squeeze a slice of lemon    
the warmth from your fingertip transfers to the lemon,   
and one moment of pure gold dissipates

**Sakisaka Kujira, "Dinner Table" (Tr. Jordan A. Y. Smith)**

Like a song, these are but words recited to the sky.  
Under unspoken petals that dance down  
fluttering and thrilled  
a man and a woman  
wrapped by the anonymity of their ceremonial kimonos  
hug each other  
as if there was no room for  
even a single particle of the virus to creep in

**Yotsumoto Yasuhiro, "Monday, January 4" (Tr. Mat Chiappe)**

The river that flows south some call the river of forgetting,  
As I swim across its surface, countless fruits splashing down around me,  
Spraying rains of plump droplets   
On my head when I swim breaststroke, and on my face with backstroke,  
Alligators by the score, but they don’t scare me,   
They are all as small as my pinky fingers,    
And piranhas all around, but they don’t scare me either,   
Because ultimately their appetites are for physical flesh  
And the more I swim the more metaphysical my existence becomes –  
A river with this kind of powerful effect, what can it mean?

**Suga Keijiro, "Sichuan / Four Rivers" (Tr. Jordan A. Y. Smith)**

<p>More about ToPoJo and how to pick up the journal...</p>

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AI Art Translations Of Poetry

Guess which poem from Tokyo Poetry Journal inspired Midjourney's image "translation"...

Tokyo Poetry Journal volume 12 - Now Translating

AI Art Translations Of Poetry

Guess which poem from Tokyo Poetry Journal inspired Midjourney's image "translation"...

Tokyo Poetry Journal volume 12 - Now Translating

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