Happy Sorrow

 Listen, hey...are you there? Is it true that you—
 hurt?
 Is that why today,
 your heart weeps? Has happiness been—
 lost?
  
 Where is your heart?
 In the country of sorrow?
 If that's so, let it be!
 What's so terrible about coming and going!
  
 Ah, don't be angry, don't be angry...
 I'm telling you...listen,
 what fault is there in hurt itself?
 It too longs desperately...
 for many people—
 to stay close beside it...
 with salt-water grief,
 absorbed in stories of joylessness,
 to remain gathered in clusters—
 drawn by melancholy...
  
 If everyone
 drives away hurt,
 where, alas, will all the hurts go?
 They struggle so hard—
 to bring happiness!
 No one wants to go
 to their country, willingly...
 When they're alone too,
 they feel terribly, terribly lonely...
  
 Even hurt has—so much hurt,
 who can understand that?
 So I tell you, listen,
 let the hurts rise up laughing today...
 In the salt water of sorrow's river,
 let boats float by...
 Let even unwillingness's desires,
 in the sky of having-everything,
 fly with wings spread wide.
  
 Whether I remain or don't remain,
 still, let someone live in joy.
 At day's end, through my hurt—
 let someone else's day—go quite well!
 This sorrow—
 this itself is joy!