now Muslims
and immigrants but
-- the same white faces
-- the same white words
they used to point at me
M. Kei
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
現在是穆斯林
和移民，但是
-- 相同的白色面孔
-- 相同的白色用語
他們曾用來指摘我
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
现在是穆斯林
和移民，但是
-- 相同的白色面孔
-- 相同的白色用语
它们曾用来指摘我
Bio Sketch
M. Kei is a tall ship sailor and award-winning poet. He is the editor-in-chief of Take Five : Best Contemporary Tanka, and the author of Slow Motion : The Log of a Chesapeake Bay Skipjack (Recommend Reading by the Chesapeake Bay Project). He is the editor of Atlas Poetica : A Journal of Poetry of Place in Contemporary Tanka and compiler of the Bibliography of English-Language Tanka. He has published over 1500 tanka poems. He also published a gay Asian-themed fantasy novel, Fire Dragon. Twitter: @kujakupoet
Kei's use of repetition is socio-politically and emotionally effective, indicating the otherizing power of the dominant group (white faces)or the dominant ideology (white words).
ReplyDeleteAnd a biographical reading of this poem adds emotional weight to the poem.