Umashimenkana (Let us bring life)

Written by Sadako Kurihara

Night in the basement of a concrete structure now in ruins.
Victims of the atomic bomb jammed the room;
it was dark - not even a single candle.
The smell of fresh blood, the stench of death,
the closeness of sweaty people, the moans.
From out of all that, lo and behold, a voice:
"The baby's coming!"
In that hellish basement, at that very moment,
a young woman had gone into labor.
In the dark, without a single match, what to do?
People forgot their own pains, worried about her.
And then: "I'm a midwife. I'll help with the birth."
The speaker, seriously injured herself,
had been moaning only moments before.
And so new life was born in the dark of that pit of hell.
And so the midwife died before dawn, still bathed in blood.
Let us bring life !
Let us bring life !
Even if we lay down our own lives to do so.

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