something
of my energy toward life
gone astray,
I look in endless puzzlement
at the tsunami debris

all Japanese
keep saying eternally gambatte
be strong, do not fail --
I marvel at this attitude
even among the suffering old

Sanford Goldstein has been writing tanka for more than 50 years. He is also a co-translator of several Japanese novels and several collections by famous Japanese tanka writers. Among the latter are Akiko Yosano's Tangled Hair and Takuboku Ishikawa's Sad Toys.