time and again
I leave the nursing home
through a locked gate
fearing the code that lets me out
will one day hold me in
GUSTS, 12, 2010
Susan Constable
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
一次又一次
通過有安全鎖的門
我離開安養院
擔心有一天，讓我離開的代碼
會將我鎖在裡面
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
一次又一次
通过有安全锁的门
我离开安养院
担心有一天，让我离开的代码
会将我锁在里面
Bio Sketch
Susan Constable’s tanka appear in numerous journals and anthologies, including Take Five. She placed third in the 2010 Tanka Society of America Contest and her tanka collection, The Eternity of Waves, is one of the winning entries in the eChapbook Awards for 2012. She is currently the tanka editor for the international on-line journal, A Hundred Gourds. Susan lives with her husband on Canada’s beautiful west coast.
The narrative shift in L5 sparks the reader's emotions and reflection on aging and human fragility. And the effective jux. of well-chosen phrases (time and again, a locked gate, let me out, and hold me in) strikes a chord in the reader's heart.
ReplyDeleteSusan's heartfelt tanka makes me rethink the following remark made by Douglas Coupland:
“When you're young, you always feel that life hasn't yet begun—that "life" is always scheduled to begin next week, next month, next year, after the holidays—whenever. But then suddenly you're old and the scheduled life didn't arrive. You find yourself asking, 'Well then, exactly what was it I was having—that interlude—the scrambly madness—all that time I had before?”
Superb yet a very scary thought
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