[chichi no kao oboeru mae ni funade suru kaeri ya hige-dura soba niha yoranu]

Dad's face
sailing to sea before remembering
bearded man gotting home
my girls not get close to dad





遠洋漁業の漁師さんは、

一旦漁に出ると、
数ヶ月は家には戻ってきません。


ハワイ沖などで漁をして帰ってきた磨さんは、

こんがり小麦色に日焼けして、
髪も髭も伸び放題。


まだ幼い私たちは、

数ヶ月前に見送った時とは違う父の姿に、

なんか見たことあるような、
ないような。。。と

すぐには近寄らず、
遠くから様子を伺うのでした。


以前、母から聞いた話ですが、

私がまだ幼い頃、

父が帰ってきて
玄関に荷物を置いたり、
色々やっている姿をみて、

台所にいた母に、
「なんか、おんちゃんきたよ」と言っていたそうで。。。

玄関を見に行った母は、
「あら~なんだべ、お父さんだっちゃ~」と
私に呆れていました。

父の気持ちを思うと、
なんとも切ない思いです。

そんな当時の心情を、
磨さんは短歌に詠みました。






When deep-sea fishermen go out to fish, they don't come home for several months.

After returning from fishing off the coast of Hawaii and other places,
Migaku-san has a deep tan and lets his hair and beard grow out of control.

As young children, we saw our father looking different from when we'd seen
him a few months earlier, and we wondered if we'd seen him before or not.

We didn't go near him right away, but instead watched from far.

This is a story I once heard from my mother.
When I was little, I saw my father come home and put his things down
at the entrance and do other things, and I said to my mother in the kitchen,
"Oh, someone is at the door, mom".

When my mother went to check on the entrance,
she was surprised and said, "Oh, what's that? It's Dad!"

When I think about how my father must have felt, I feel very sorry.

Migaku-san wrote this tanka poem expressing the feelings he had at the time.