Blood Drips

Musical Influence:
Paganini: Caprice No. 24 (The frantic energy of the underground)

血潮したゝる／夢野久作

Drawn from Yumeno Kyūsaku’s Ryōkika (“Lays of Morbid Whimsy”)

English Translation

In the dark,
another dark—
and yet another.
From its core,
blood drips.

A skeleton
alone across the waste land;
from the clouds ahead—
blood drips.

Above the church,
just over its pointed spire,
from the blue sky,
blood drips.

Upon a china plate
the painted canary
splits in two—
from the crack,
blood drips.

The white woman I passed
turns and laughs—
from her smiling mouth,
blood drips.

In the middle of the night,
the mark of three—
the long hand passing—
blood drips.

Pouring medicine
into a vase, with a mocking sneer—
from the mouth of the consumptive,
blood drips.

From the wall of a storehouse
where sunlight clings
like a corpse—
blood drips.

Playfully plucking
a dandelion flower—
from its torn stem
milk-white blood drips.

The climax—
the beauty of that bastard—
from red ink,
blood drips.

Translation ©Tsukiyonokarasu, 2026
Original text by Yumeno Kyūsaku (Public Domain)

I’ve approached each poem with care and time—reading, translating, listening, and creating—always as a quiet collaboration with the poet.
These works reflect not just the poem itself, but also the moments of silence, discovery, and emotion that arose between us.

You’re invited into that space—not to copy, but to feel.

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Echoes of Ink