Friday, February 22, 2013

One Man's Maple Moon: Sister Tanka by Ignatius Fay

English Original

five years old
emotionless
my sister
stays precisely two steps
behind our step-mother

Ignatius Fay


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

五歲大
面無表情
我的妹妹
站在我們的繼母
兩步之後

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

五岁大
面无表情
我的妹妹
站在我们的继母
两步之後


Bio sketch

Ignatius Fay is a retired invertebrate paleontologist. His poems have appeared in many of the most respected online and print journals, including The Heron’s Nest, Modern Haiku, Ars Poetica, Gusts, Chrysanthemum and Eucalypt. Books: Breccia (2012), a collaboration with fellow haiku poet, Irene Golas; Points In Between (2011), an anecdotal history of his first 23 years. He is the new editor of the Haiku Society of America Bulletin. Ignatius resides in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada.

1 comment:

  1. In his well-crafted relationship tanka, Ignatius give readers an emotionally appealing character sketch (of the five-year-old sister who has a strong personality revealed in his word choices: "emotionless" and "precisely")

    Thematically speaking, what's left unsaid is more important than what's said. As time passes by, will the distance ("precisely two steps") between sister and step-mother will be shortened?

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