(Note: I use AI to help me translate my stories from Japanese to English.)
Kazukiyo Imura (1947–1979) was a Japanese doctor who passed away at the age of 31 from cancer. Just before he died, he wrote a poem for his young child and for the daughter who was soon to be born.
After being diagnosed with cancer and told that he had only six months to live, he began writing notes for his wife and children.
These notes were later published as a book, which was eventually adapted into both a movie and a TV drama. Among his writings was a poem called Being Ordinary.
I’ve read many poems in my life, but this one is among my top three. I can truly feel the writer’s soul in it. It is deeply inspirational.
— — — — — — — — — — — — —
Being Ordinary
Being ordinary —
why is no one happy with it?
We have a father, we have a mother.
Two hands, two legs.
We can walk wherever we want to go.
We can reach out and take whatever is near.
We can hear, we can speak.
Is there any greater happiness than this?
Yet no one rejoices in it.
We laugh and call it “ordinary.”
We can eat our meals.
At night we sleep, and morning comes again.
We can fill our lungs with air.
We can laugh, we can cry, we can shout.
We can run.
Still no one delights in these ordinary,
wonderful things.
Only those who have lost them
know their true worth.
Why? Because they are “ordinary.”
— — — — — — — — — — — — —
This poem reminds me to be grateful for ordinary, everyday life. Normal life is like air or water — we rarely appreciate them. Instead, we take them for granted and forget their importance.
This poem helps me remember how precious ordinary things really are.