A Gift of Poems from My Mother’s Sister

Quite a while ago, my mother's youngest sister in Sendai, Japan gave me a book of poems for children written by a poet named Kaneko Teru. I think the poems have a different feel than those written for children in the west.

I noticed the book again while rearranging my bookshelf and read through it. This one made me smile.

A Little Bird, a Bell, and Me

Even though I open my arms wide,

I still can't fly in the sky at all.

But a little bird who can fly,

Can't run on the ground as fast as me.

Even though I shake my body,

I still can't make a sound as beautiful as a bell,

But that ringing bell

Doesn't know as many songs as me.

A bell, a little bird, and me,

We're all different and wonderful.

When I looked at the information about the author, I noticed she died very young at 26. I found quite a bit of information about her. This was on Wikipedia:

"Misuzu Kaneko (金子 みすゞ, Kaneko Misuzu, April 11, 1903 – March 10, 1930) was a Japanese poet, known for her poetry for children. She was born Teru Kaneko (金子 テル, Kaneko Teru) in the fishing village of Senzaki, now part of Nagato, Yamaguchi prefecture. Motifs of fishing and the sea often make appearances in her poems. Celebrated during her lifetime, her works fell into obscurity after her death, until being rediscovered in the 1980s. Since then, she has been regarded as one of Japan's most beloved children's poets."

I wanted to know why she died so young and found this on the same Wikipedia page: 

"Kaneko's private life was not as fortunate, however. In 1926, she entered into a marriage arranged by her uncle, with a clerk in the family bookstore. A daughter, Fusae, was born in November. Her new husband was unfaithful and contracted a venereal disease, which he passed on to Kaneko, causing her lifelong physical pain. He also forced her to stop writing, while putting the family through the strain of four moves within two years to pursue failing business ventures. She finally divorced him in 1930, but this meant also losing custody of her daughter to her husband. Japanese law at the time automatically granted the father indisputable custody to the child.

On March 9, 1930, the day before her husband was due to take custody, Kaneko felt no recourse except to commit suicide in protest. After bathing Fusae and sharing a sakuramochi, Kaneko wrote a letter to her husband asking that he let her mother raise the girl instead, and overdosed on sedatives, dying the next day, only a month before her 27th birthday. Her daughter was ultimately raised by the grandmother."

Hearts

Even though my mother

Is big and grown up,

My mother's heart 

Must be small.

'Cause, my mother said,

It's been all filled up with little me.

But , even though I am little

And just a child,

My heart 

Must be big.

"Cause, my heart

Can hold my big mother

And still have room for lots more.

I found more information about her on the website, World Literature Today.

Somehow knowing about her life history brings more poignancy to her poetry. She had such sadness in her life, but she left a gift of beauty for the children that came after her.