kusa-nu-nuii and grass roots
This is an image I made of a Star Lily, the lilium auratum, which gets used interchangeably throughout both this story and histories of the Himeyuri.
When I started writing this poem I was fascinated with the Okinawa word kusa-nu-nuii; grass roots. Grass isn't as beautiful as lilies, of course, but the lilies are gone from this life for now and forever; it is you and I, the grass, that remains. Then I stumbled upon the phrase kaamii kee-sun; literally translated as “to forcefully flip a turtle over or on its back.”
That seemed more appropriate to the story, though I couldn't work the turtle and the grass into a 3-line haiku. As I understand it, the phrase can have several meanings; to commit an act of violation or rape, to brutally maim or, (perhaps my translation is poor but it is closer to the spirit of the poem I am working on) to annihilate completely.
Star Lilies all gone …
… so let our sleeping grass roots
have long memories.