ワレリー・レガノフ氏、チェルノブイリ事故回想録

For the Sake of the Future

We Must Not Forget the Past

Nina Michailovna Vasilenko

ニーナ　ミカイロヴァナ　ヴァシレンコ

To Hiroshima….

From Chernobyl in the distant Ukraine

From the banks of the Dnieper, flowing on since time immemorial

I bear greetings, flying through the realm of the imagination

To come face to face with your sorrow-laden past

Quietly, quietly…the breeze sighs

Quietly, quietly…leave whisper in the trees

A sorrow-laden sun sets over Hiroshima

Through empty, paneless windows

The Atomic Dome gazes sadly upon river and town

Its rooftop will never forget August 6, 1945

The atomic bomb exploding, the fear, the screams, the children’s cries

The horror of war and death, death, death…

Scores of lanterns like tine houses float down the river

Inside those tiny houses burn the souls of Shoji, of Yasushi

Ripples breaking on the shore, the river sighs and quietly weeps

There was a school here

Four hundred children burned to death in an instant

Name after name is engraved on stone tablets

Red salvia blooms like blood filling the flower beds

Sadako flew off to the stars on the wings of a crane

Leaving what might have been a happier future on earth

Scorched trees sprout young buds

Like those trees Numata-san was scorched, yet lives on

And now she greets us

The atomic bomb destroyed Hiroshima

But it could not destroy Numata-san’s heart

Today sweet oleander blooms everywhere

Rising from the ruins, the town boasts proud rows of tall buildings

People who have never known war fill the streets

Quietly, quietly…

If you listen you will hear

The victims of the bomb sleeping under every footstep

Six rivers carry the tears of Hiroshima to the sea

The sea grows salty and bitter with those tears

People of the earth, let us not ignore this warning

Let us overcome war

Let us put a curse on war

Let us have peace and happiness on earth!

Nuclear and the Humankind cannot Co-exist / Nuclear Victims Forum  / 竜安寺石庭　Ryoan Temple Stones Garden