Thursday, February 20, 2014

One Man's Maple Moon: Murdered Child Tanka by M. Kei

English Original

motoring out
of the Port of Baltimore
on a winter day,
passing a dredge boat
searching for a murdered child

M. Kei


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

冬天某日
開車離開
巴爾的摩港,
經過一條挖泥船
在尋找一個被謀殺孩子

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

冬天某日
开车离开
巴尔的摩港,
经过一条挖泥船
在寻找一个被谋杀孩子


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

1 comment:

  1. The narrative twist at the end of the poem sparks the reader's emotions and reflection on a dark corner of urban America. This tanka reminds me of one of the iconic scenes from The Wire (especially from its season II).

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