the light filling the air
is so mild this spring day
only the cherry blossoms
keep falling in haste --
why is that so?
Back Cover Tanka, Ribbons, 8:1, Spring/Summer 2012
Ki no Tomonori
Translated by Emiko Miyashita and Michael Dylan Welch
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
陽光瀰漫
這個春天如此地溫和
只有櫻花
不斷匆忙地飄落 --
為什麼會這樣呢 ?
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
阳光瀰漫
这个春天如此地温和
只有樱花
不断匆忙地飘落 --
为什麽会这样呢 ?
Bio Sketch
Ki no Tomonori (c. 850 – c. 904) was an early Heian waka poet of the court. He was a compiler of the Kokin Wakashū (Collection of Japanese Poems of Ancient and Modern Times), and several of his poems were included in this anthology.
Ls 1--4 is a simple statement of the narrator's observation while L5, the rhetorical question, lifts the poem a notch, sparking the reader's reflection on the ephemerality of beauty.
ReplyDeleteA haiku or a tanka without "rhetoric" was likely to be no more than a brief observation without poetic tension or illumination.
-- Donald Keene, The Winter Sun Shines in: A Life of Masaoka Shiki, p 57.