遺骨を迎ふReceiving the ashes of the dead
しぐれつつしづかにも六百五十柱drizzle falling and how quietly six hundred fifty souls
しぐれつつ しずかにも ろっぴゃくごじゅうはしらshiguretsutsu shizuka ni mo roppyaku gojū hashira
昭和12年〜13年(1937-1938) 戦時の句1937–1938 · Wartime verses
『草木塔』銃後Sōmokutō · The Home Front (Jūgo)
時雨の降るなか、六百五十柱の遺骨が静かに迎えられる。柱と数えられる一つひとつが、一人の生涯だった。数の大きさと、あたりの静けさ。時雨の音だけが、弔いの言葉のかわりに降っている。In the falling drizzle, the ashes of six hundred fifty of the dead are quietly received. Each one, counted as a "pillar," had been the whole of a single life. The magnitude of the number, and the stillness all around. Only the sound of the drizzle falls, in place of words of mourning.