One Man’s maple Moon: Pink Sky Tanka by Helen Buckingham

English Original

Mum calls
just to tell me
the sky is pink...
I peel back the curtains                     
with gratitude

Little Purple Universes

Helen Buckingham


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

媽媽打電話
只是告訴我
天空是粉紅色...
懷著感恩的心
我打開窗簾

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

妈妈打电话
只是告诉我
天空是粉红色...
怀著感恩的心
我打开窗簾


Bio Sketch

Helen Buckingham lives in Bristol, England. She has been writing tanka for about the last decade or so, and in 2009 took third place in the annual Saigyo Awards. In 2011 she had a tanka collection published alongside (and produced by) Canada's Angela Leuck, titled Little Purple Universes. Buckingham's most recent work is a solo collection comprising a mix of western and Japanese forms (including tanka) titled Armadillo Basket (Waterloo Press, UK, 2012).