Monday, March 24, 2014

One Man's Maple Moon: Moonlight Tanka by Joyce Wong

English Original

moonlight
upon the water --
why do we
give ourselves over to
beautiful illusions?

Selected Tanka, GUSTS, 15, Spring/Summer 2012

Joyce Wong


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

月光
在水面上 --
為什麼我們
將自己交
美麗的幻想?

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

月光
在水面上 --
为什麽我们
将自己交付给
美丽的幻想?


Bio Sketch

Joyce Wong is a quiet artistic soul who loves reading, writing, music, and poetry. She began writing tanka in 2010, inspired by Machi Tawara’s Salad Anniversary. Her tanka have been published in GUSTS, Moonbathing, and Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka, Volume 4. One of her tanka was honored with a Certificate of Merit from the Japan Tanka Poets' Society in the 7th International Tanka Festival Competition, 2012. She lives in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

1 comment:

  1. Joyce’s effective use of a rhetorical question emotionally enhances the suggestive power of the poem, especially of the upper verse, which alludes to a Chinese idiom: “flowers in the mirror and the moon on the water (Chinese: 鏡花水月; Japanese: Kyōka Suigetsu)”

    It reminds me of Jenny`s tanka below, which employs the same image to achieve different effects, thematic and emotional;

    the self
    I’ve clung to
    all these years
    moonlight
    on water

    Skylark, 1:1, summer 2013

    ReplyDelete