Saturday, May 31, 2014

One Man's Maple Moon: Shells Tanka by Simon Hanson

English Original

returning
these shells to the sea
at long last
a turning tide
a new moon

A Hundred Gourds, 2:3, June 2013

Simon Hanson


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

終於
將這些貝殼
送回大海
潮流轉向
一個新月

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

终於
将这些贝壳
送回大海
潮流转向
一个新月


Bio Sketch

Simon Hanson lives in country South Australia enjoying the open spaces and nearby coastal environments.  He is excited by the natural world and relishes moments of the numinous in ordinary things. He is published in various journals and anthologies and never realised how much the moon meant to him until he started writing haiku.

Friday, May 30, 2014

Butterfly Dream: Homecoming Haiku by Ken Sawitri

English Original

homecoming --
a yellow butterfly
circles my feet

Presence, 49, 2013

Ken Sawitri


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

衣錦還鄉 --
一隻黃蝴蝶盤旋
在我的雙腿間

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

衣锦还乡 --
一只黄蝴蝶盘旋
在我的双腿间


Bio Sketch

Ken Sawitri was born in Blora, Central Java, Indonesia, and completed her degree in psychology at the University of Indonesia. She was the Psychology & Education editor of  Ayahbunda (1995-1998). She had the first publication in Indonesian national mass media when she was in junior high school.

Poetic Musings: Bruise Tanka by Susan Constable

You have to understand what the form is doing, how it works, before you say, “Now we’re going to make it different ..., we're going to turn it upside down, we're going to move it so it includes something which isn't supposed to be there, we're going to surprise the reader."

-- Margaret Atwood, interview with Geoff Hancock


a large bruise
deep inside the mango
unexpected
the way you turned away
when I needed you most

Simply Haiku, 8:3, Autumn 2011

Susan Constable


Modeled on traditional Japanese tanka, this heartfelt poem is made up of five poetic phrases (equivalent to five ku of 5-7-5-7-7) 1 and structured into two parts (“jo,” the preface, and the main statement) with a pivot (L3). It can be read as either of the following:

a large bruise
deep inside the mango
unexpected

the way you turned away
when I needed you most

or

a large bruise
deep inside the mango

unexpected
the way you turned away
when I needed you most

Structurally speaking, the jo, is typically a natural image or image cluster (“long jo”) that precedes the “main statement” of the poem (Cranston, xxiii). It is common in love poetry, where the jo performs a “valuable imagistic function” (ibid.). In the case of Susan’s tanka, the prefatory image of “a large bruise/ deep inside the mango” is visually stunning and psychologically suggestive. It prepares readers to see  what's lying under the surface.

Jo  may be of two types. In one there is no logical connection between the jo and the main statement of the poem. The connection is “solely based on wordplay” (ibid.). This type is called “mushin” (meaningless) 2. In the other, called “ushin” (meaningful), the prefatory image is “logically metaphorical or at least resonates closely with the emotional point of the poem” (ibid., xxiii-xxiv). In the case of her tanka, Susan uses the ushin jo, combined with the emotionally effective pivotal line, “unexpected,” to build up a metaphoric relationship between the two parts of the poem and to uncover two “big bruises:” one is visible and portrayed in the jo (Ls 1&2), and the other invisible and left on the psyche of the speaker as implied in the main statement (Ls 3-5).

Strategically speaking, through a pivot on the unexpected (L3) to uncover the human relations aspect, Susan’s tanka effectively builds, poetic phrase/line (ku) by poetic phrase/line (ku), to an emotionally powerful ending that has the most weight and reveals the theme of betrayal.

There is no doubt in my mind that Susan's beautifully crafted tanka can be used as a model for beginning poets. It skillfully tells a personal story with a universal theme, reminding me of the following remarks:

To me, the thing that is worse than death is betrayal. You see, I could conceive death, but I could not conceive betrayal. -- Malcolm X

There is no betrayal more wounding than the betrayal of love. It touches us in our most vulnerable spot, that of the helpless child who is totally dependent on another. This child always emerges in any relationship where the possibility of trusting in another person exists. -- Jacqueline Wright


Notes:

1 "The syllabic units of Japanese prosody are known as ku, a term traditionally translated into English as "line," I too call them lines and treat them as such, though this practice has recently been called into question, at least as it applies to tanka... There is ample evidence, however, that the Japanese have always -- or at least since the first treatments on the subject in the eighth century -- thought of the ku as meaningfully distinct units, to which different formal criteria might apply....
-- excerpted from Edwin Cranston, A Waka Anthology: Volume One, The Gem-Glistening Cup, xix

ku (prosodic units of 5 or 7 syllables) ...
-- excerpted from Edwin Cranston, A Waka Anthology: Volume Two, Grasses of Remembrance, xxi

2 Below is an example in which the mushin jo is used:

Azasayumi                        A catalpa bow --
Oshite harusame             Bend it, string it, it will spring
Kyo furinu                        Rain fell today;
Asu sae furaba                 If it rains tomorrow too,
Wakana tsumitemu           I'm off to pick young greens

[This] poem pivots on the word haru, which means "spring" in the sense of putting spring into a bow by stringing it, but also is the name of the season. The jo here is of the type called mushin ("meaningless"); the point of the poem is the pun.
-- excerpted from Edwin Cranston, A Waka Anthology: Volume Two, Grasses of Remembrance, xxiv


References:

Edwin Cranston, A Waka Anthology: Volume One: The Gem-Glistening Cup,  Stanford University Press, 1998
--, Volume Two, Grasses of Remembrance, Stanford University Press,2006

Thursday, May 29, 2014

Butterfly Dream: Smell of Cedar Haiku by Pamela Cooper

English Original

snow pellets…
the smell of cedar
in our winter coats

Pamela Cooper


Chinese Translation (Traditional)
  
雪球散落...
西洋杉的味道
在我們的冬季大衣

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

雪球散落...
西洋杉的味道
在我们的冬季大衣


Bio Sketch

Pamela Cooper has been writing haiku since the turn of the century.  Her daily walks through the colourful neighbourhoods of Montreal are a constant source of inspiration for her.  The Canadian landscape, with its everchanging seasons, provides the backdrop for many of her poems.  Pamela’s haiku have appeared in various anthologies and have earned her numerous awards.

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Politics/Poetics of Re-Homing, XXXI

Ajax night
and Taipei morning...
New Year's blue moon
in the bedroom window
of my childhood house

Atlas Poetica, 15, July 2013

Note:You can read its preceding tanka or the whole sequence here.

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Hot News: New Milestone Reached -- 100,000 Pageviews

My Dear Friends:

NeverEnding Story just crossed the 100,000 view mark with 242 pageviews per day (2014 stats). And the most-read posts are Hot News: 66 Haiku Selected for 2013 Butterfly Dream Anthology (997 pageviews, posted on March 7) and Hot News: 66 Tanka Selected for 2013 One Man's Maple Moon Anthology (643 pageviews, posted on March 26).

I am grateful to everyone who has been a part of this poetry journey. And look forward to reading your new haiku/tanka (see 2014 anthology submission guidelines)


the scent of moonlight ...
drunk on reading
NeverEnding Story

Chen-ou

Butterfly Dream: Doe Haiku by Robert Kania

English Original

cold morning --
a doe is running
from shot to shot

Asahi Haikuist Network, January 31, 2014

Robert Kania


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

寒冷的早晨 --
一隻母鹿在槍響中
到處奔逃

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

寒冷的早晨 --
一只母鹿在枪响中
到处奔逃


Bio Sketch

Robert Kania lives in Warsaw, Poland. He began writing poetry in 2011. His haiku and haiga have appeared in The Heron's Nest, The Mainichi, Asahi Haikuist Network, A Hundred Gourds, World Haiku Review, KUZU, Diogen, DailyHaiga and World Haiku Association. He is the prize winner of the 15th HIA Haiku Contest 2013, and currently the co-editor (with Krzysztof Kokot) of the European Quarterly Kukai. His blog is: http://bliskomilczenia.blogspot.com

Monday, May 26, 2014

Cool Announcement: Memorial Day Gift, The Prism of Mokichi

I received a precious gift from Aya Yuhki, the editor of The Tanka Journal. It's a copy of The Prism of Mokichi translated by Fusako Kitamura, Reiko Nakagawa and Aya Yuhki and published in 2013, which was to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the publication of Mokichi Saito's collection of tanka, Shakko (Red Lights: selected tanka sequences from Shakko, translated from the Japanese with an introduction and notes by Seishi Shinoda and Sanford Goldstein, Purdue University Press,1989), a book that "created a great impression not only on tanka poets but on the literary world in general"(Donald Keene,  Dawn to the West: Japanese Literature of the the Modern Era - Poetry, Drama, Criticism, p.61)

From this well-crafted collection of 150 tanka, I chose the following tanka structured into a rensaku (poem sequence, a poetic form for which Mokichi Saito is best known) to commemorate this Memorial Day with our American poets/readers:


surviving
the days of our country
in defeat,
where does this longing
come from?

a year has passed
since the end of the war --
living longer
I fear the world,
and death, too

I'm not sure
about my remaining years,
going upstairs
and sleeping
even in the daytime

coming to
a bombed place
I feel pity
for the simplicity
of karatachi flowers

do lament
when you fly in the sky
above this country --
geese heading south
on a rainy evening

a demobilized soldier's story,
spoken in a low voice,
came to the end
before I added wood
to the fire outdoors

Sunday, May 25, 2014

Butterfly Dream: Floating Breasts Haiku by Neal Whitman

English Original

in the hot tub
my eyes on her floating breasts
Hunter's Moon

Honorable Mention, 2013 Harold G. Henderson Haiku Contest

Neal Whitman


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

在熱水浴缸裡
我的眼睛盯著她上下浮動的乳房
獵人的月亮

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

在热水浴缸里
我的眼睛盯著她上下浮动的乳房
猎人的月亮


Bio Sketch

Neal Whitman began to write general poetry in 2005, haiku in 2008, and tanka in 2011. He writes to be read and believes that the reader is never wrong. With his wife, Elaine, he combines his poetry with her Native American flute and photography in free public recitals with the aim of their hearts speaking to other hearts.

One Man's Maple Moon: Fish Tanka by Kurt F. Svatek

English Original

in the pond
a lot of koi carp
and one goldfish ...
nevertheless
there is peace

Gusts, 18, Fall/Winter 2013

Kurt F. Svatek


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

池塘中
有許多錦鯉魚
和一條金魚
然而它們還是
和平共存   

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

池塘中
有许多锦鲤鱼
和一条金鱼
然而它们还是
和平共存 


Bio Sketch

Kurt F. Svatek, born in 1949 in Vienna, has published 54 books, including  poetry,  aphorisms, essays, short stories, haiku, and one novel. He also published several papers on aspects of philology and one textbook. His works were featured in  numerous magazines and translated into many different languages, and they earned him 154 awards.

Saturday, May 24, 2014

Butterfly Dream: Earth Day Haiku by LeRoy Gorman

English Original

Earth Day
the world in a grain
of polymer

tinywords, 14:1,  22 April 2014

LeRoy Gorman


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

地球日
世界在一粒聚合物
之內

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

地球日
世界在一粒聚合物
之内


Bio Sketch

LeRoy Gorman writes mostly minimalist and visual poetry.  His most recent book, fast enough to leave this world, is one of tanka published by Inkling Press, Edmonton.  More information on his writing can be found at the American Haiku Archives where he served as the Honorary Curator for 2012-2013.

Friday, May 23, 2014

Politics/Poetics of Re-Homing, XXX

old-age home
in winter twilight
I listen
to his Hockey Night stories
for minimum wage

Atlas Poetica, 15, July 2013

Note:You can read its preceding tanka or the whole sequence here.

Thursday, May 22, 2014

Poetic Musings: First Yamato Uta (First Japanese Poem)

yakumo tatsu            here, where eight clouds rise1
Izumo yaegaki          in the land of Izumo
tsumagomi ni            I will house my beloved
yaegaki tsukuru       inside an eightfold fence
sono yaegaki wo      inside an eightfold fence

Translated Makoto Ueda ("Introduction," pp. x-xi)


Historically speaking, no Japanese text of any kind was written down before the early 5th century, when the Chinese writing system was introduced, and the earliest surviving texts of Japanese literature are from the early 8th century (Kamens, pp. 45-6). Surely, there was a culturally rich oral tradition prior to that, but our picture of it is “deeply colored by the fact that it was first preserved in writing carried out under the auspices of a central governing elite seeking to create its own self-justifying cultural ‘history,’ and doing so with a strong consciousness of how this had been done in China” (p. 46). According to a myth 2 recorded in Kojiki (The Record of Ancient Matters, which was completed in 712 A.D.), Japan’s oldest book, a brother of the sun goddess intoned the above-mentioned 31 syllables for celebrating his wedding and his new house (Ueda, pp. x-xi), which is considered to be the first Yamato uta, the first Japanese poem (Kamens, p. 46), “formally a perfect tanka in its 5-7-5-7-7 structure and thus not archaic in its present form” (Cranston, p.7)

The use of repetition with a strong rhythmical beat shows a sign of this poem that is rooted in an oral tradition. And in its juxtaposed images of rising clouds (that represent an eruptive force) and the land enclosed with fencing, the poem is “appreciate to its nuptial context, and gives Japanese poetry a start on its most ancient subject – the relations between men and women” (Cranston, p.7)


Notes:

1 Ya (“eight," a lucky number) often refers to large quantities (Cranston, p.7)

2 Below is the myth mentioned above and excerpted from “YamatoGlossary/Characters: Susanowo
           
Susanowo, Amaterasu's brother, figures prominently in Book One of Kojiki. According to the myths in Kojiki, Susanowo and Amaterasu were both born when Izanagi bathed in a river to rid himself of the pollution of Yomi, land of darkness and the dead, after chasing after and then away from his sister/wife, Izanami. Susanowo was born from Izanagi's nose and is a complex deity originally sent by his father to rule the Sea Plain. He is also associated with storms, winds, and water.

In the myths, Susanowo does not take up his duties as god of the seas but rather weeps uncontrollably causing the trees to wither and the seas to dry up. When Izanagi asks his son why he weeps so, Susanowo says that he wishes to go visit his mother, Izanami, in the land of Yomi. This enrages Izanagi who expels his son. Before leaving the realm of the deities, however, Susanowo goes to say farewell to his sister, Amaterasu. Amaterasu, suspicious of her brother's intentions, prepares for a confrontation. The siblings engage in an odd competition to prove the sincerity of their intentions, and Susanowo claims victory. However, Susanowo proceeds to reek havoc in Amaterasu's domain; for example, he throws excrement in the sacred hall that Amaterasu uses to taste the new rice of the fields. Amaterasu tries to be conciliatory, but her brother continues his cruel acts, until out of fear she flees his terrors by hiding herself in a cave and throwing the world into darkness. After Amaterasu finally reemerges and restores light and order to the world, she and the other deities impose punishments on Susanowo and then expel him.

After being expelled from Amaterasu's realm, Susanowo descends to earth and settles in Izumo in western Japan (MAP). The stories of his feats there take up a good portion of Book One in Kojiki. The Izumo clan (uji) was a powerful clan that resisted and then finally submitted to the central rule of the Yamato clan and its imperial lineage. Susanowo becomes the hero and ancestral deity of this clan. He slays dragons, rescues maidens, and gradually becomes a much more likable character. According to the myths, he presents his sword to Amaterasu as a sign of his submission and the submission of the Izumo clan to Yamato rule. This sword becomes one of the imperial regalia and is the same sword Yamatohime, the Ise Priestess (see Ise Shrine), gives to her nephew Yamato Takeru before he sets out to subdue the eastern clans. Susanowo is also credited with composing the first Japanese poem, a simple poem composed in praise of his new palace at Izumo:

Eight clouds arise.
The eight-fold fence of Izumo
To dwell with my wife
I make an eight-fold fence;
Oh, that eight-fold fence.


References:

Makoto Ueda, Modern Japanese Tanka: An Anthology, Columbia University Press, 1996
Edward Kamens, Utamakura, Allusion, and Intertextuality in Traditional Japanese Poetry, Yale University Press, 1997
Edwin Cranston, A Waka Anthology: Volume One: The Gem-Glistening Cup,  Stanford University Press, 1998

One Man's Maple Moon: Wind Tanka by Susan Constable

English Original

the wind
tugs at my umbrella
time and again
I must choose between
holding on and letting go

Ribbons, 7:1, Spring 2011

Susan Constable


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

大風
扯著我的傘
一次又一次
我必須選擇
緊握和放手

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

大风
扯著我的伞
一次又一次
我必须选择
紧握和放手


Bio Sketch

Susan Constable’s tanka appear in numerous journals and anthologies, including Take Five. Her tanka collection, The Eternity of Waves, was 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.

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Butterfly Dream: Smell of Rain Haiku by Asni Amin

English Original

smell of rain ...
a dream unfolds in the chatter
of sparrows

Simply Haiku, 10:3, Summer 2013

Asni Amin


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

雨的味道 ...
夢在麻雀喋喋不休中
逐漸開展

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

雨的味道 ...
梦在麻雀喋喋不休中
逐渐开展


Bio Sketch

Asni Amin lives in Singapore and works as a librarian in a school.  She started writing haiku in 2012 and has her works published in Simply Haiku and various other ebooks online. 

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

One Man's Maple Moon: Dark Wisps Tanka by Paul Williamson

English Original

to the west
dark wisps rise from hills
sunset glows fire
then we remember
our breathless escape

Gusts, 18, Fall/Winter 2013

Paul Williamson


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

縷縷黑煙
從山丘升起漂向西方
夕陽像似著火
然後我們記得
氣喘喘地逃生

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

缕缕黑烟
从山丘升起漂向西方
夕阳像似著火
然後我们记得
气喘喘地逃生


Bio Sketch

Paul Williamson is an Australian poet who has published poems on eclectic topics in many magazines, including Eucalypt, Gusts, Skylark, Ribbons, Quadrant, FiveBells, and Melaleuca and Magic Cat.  His poetry arrived after three research degrees (two in Science and one nominally in Arts but apparently in Sociology). He writes poems to clarify feelings and impressions, and record them.

Butterfly Dream: Crickets Haiku by Pat Tompkins

English Original

the night's crickets
never silent
never seen

The Heron’s Nest, 13:4, Dec. 2011

Pat Tompkins


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

夜晚的蟋蟀
從來沒有不出聲
從來沒有被看見

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

夜晚的蟋蟀
从来没有不出声
从来没有被看见


Bio Sketch

Pat Tompkins is an editor in the San Francisco Bay Area. She likes combining haiku with prose in haibun, which have appeared in bottle rockets, Thema, Haibun Today, and Contemporary Haibun Online.

Monday, May 19, 2014

A Room of My Own: I must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy me

Alone in the darkness of this May Day morning, I can hear the droning of my muse's air-raid sirens. Waiting for the next explosion of words drives me crazy like a moth flying into the summer fire.

word-bombs
slash the alleyways
of my mind...
the feel of a black tip
moving across the page

Sunday, May 18, 2014

Poetic Musings: Best Known and Most Controversial Tanka by Masaoka Shiki

(Updated, May 19: Shiki's 10-tanka sequence and Donald Keene’s comment added below)

Shiki worked with the small, the finite, the close to home.
 -- Janine Beichman, author of Masaoka Shiki: His Life and Works

To see into the reality of things and represent the life where nature and the self are unified in the original one. This is shasei, drawing from life, in tanka poetry.
-- Saito Mokichi


Kame ni sasu            a tuft of wisteria
fuji no banabusa       arranged in a vase
mijikakereba             was too short
tatami no ue ni          it couldn't reach
todokazarikeri           the surface of the tatami

Masaoka Shiki


Saito Mokichi's Comment:

This poem of wisteria may be considered "objective" in the ordinary sense of the term. But if someone says that there is not enough subjectivity in it to be a poem, he simply does not understand it. People are not aware that mijikakereba/ tatami no ue ni/ todokazarikeri is a voice of subjectivity the poet could not hold. He complains that the tuft could not reach the tatami as though this were important. It was his true inner voice. The poet, who was totally unable to see the grandeur of mountains or the agitation of the ocean, faced instead a tuft of wisteria at his pillow side and made this song. A deep tune comes from inside the poet and appeals to our mind.

-- excerpted from Haga Toru's "Saito Mokichi's Poetics of Shasei," Japanese Hermeneutics: Current Debates on Aesthetics and Interpretation, edited by Michael F. Marra, p. 210)

Shiki's tanka above was written in 1901, the year before he died. It is the opening poem of his famous sequence of 10 tanka about the wisteria, which is prefaced by the following prose:

After finishing dinner I was lying on my back looking to the left when I noticed that the wisteria arranged on my desk had responded to the water in the vase and were now at their peak. I murmured to myself, "How charming, how lovely!" and vague nostalgic recollections of the Heian romances flitted through my head. I felt strangely moved to write some tanka. Considering how neglectful I have lately been of the art of poetry. I took up my brush with some uncertainty (cited in Donald Keene, Dawn to the West: Japanese Literature of the Modern Era, p. 53).

According to Haga Toru, this is Shiki's "best known and most controversial" tanka (p. 210). Despite its high reputation among Shiki's readers in Japan, on the surface this tanka appears rather plain or even banal in expression, and for many critics, it is merely about an objective description of the wisteria hanging down not far enough to reach the tatami (the straw matting on the floor of the room) where Shiki lies (as stated in the opening sentence of his prefatory note). However, in the commentary above, Saito Mokichi, the "most representative and the greatest poet of modern Japan" (Toru, p. 207), takes the reader to "see" beyond what Shiki describes in the poem and points out that the key to understanding this poem is: that  why the tuft not reaching the tatami is so important. This urge to see beyond the "what" and look into the "why" stirs the reader's reflection on the gap, thematic and emotive, between what Shiki describes in and intends for the poem.

Evaluated in the biographical and compositional context of the prefatory note, "a deep tune [of sadness] comes from inside [Shiki] through this concrete image of the wisteria hanging down not far enough to reach the tatami where he lies. In the poem, Shiki observes two separate entities (himself and the wisteria) and his thematic concern is the separation between him and the wisteria, a metonym for nature, which he is unable to see ("the grandeur of mountains or the agitation of the ocean" as stated in Saito Mokichi's comment) because of being bedridden. This tanka successfully sets the tone and mood for the whole sequence.

In his insightful comment, Saito Mokichi applies his own theory of shasei in which "to see/ look into" (kannyu) the reality of things is one of the key concepts, which I will further discuss in the next "To the Lighthouse" post.


Updated, May 19

In his 1984 book, titled Dawn to the West: Japanese Literature of the Modern Era, Donald Keene thinks “the sixth poem of the sequence implies more” than the opening poem does:

Sprays of wisteria
arranged in a vase --
the blossoms hang down,
and by my sickbed
spring is coming to an end

Below is Shiki’s 10-tanka sequence about the wisteria, which was translated by Burton Watson (Masaoka Shiki: Selected Poems by Shiki Masaoka, Columbia University Press, 1997, pp. 105-110)


Sprays of wisteria
arranged in a vase
are so short
they don't reach
to the tatami

Sprays of wisteria
arranged in a vase --
on cluster
dangles down
on the piled-up books

When I look
at wisteria blossoms
I think with longing of far-off
times,
the Nara emperors,
the emperors of Kyoto

When I look
at wisteria blossoms
I want to get out
my purple paints
and paint them

If I were to paint
the purple
of wisteria blossoms,
I ought to paint it
a deep purple

Sprays of wisteria
arranged in a vase --
the blossoms hang down,
and by my sickbed
spring is coming to an end

Last year in spring
I saw the wisterias
in Kameido --
seeing this wisteria now,
I recall it

Before the
red blossoms
of the peonies,
the wisteria's purple
comes into blossom

These wisterias
have blossomed early --
the Kameido wisterias
won't be out for
ten days or more

If you stick the stems
in strong sake
the wilted flowers
of the wisteria
will bloom again like new


Donald Keene’s Comment:

At first reading, this tanka seems little more than a statement that consists of a single sentence; but if the reader is aware that at the time Shiki composed the poem he was lying immobile in a sickbed, unable to touch the wisteria because it did not reach as far as the tatami, the poem becomes unforgettably poignant. The unadorned plainness of the expression adds to the strength; this is not so much a poem as a cry. The remainder of the sequence is mainly in the same vein. Readers who do not know Japanese may find the sequence among the most difficult of Shiki's poems to appreciate fully, even with Burton Watson's excellent translation to assist them. The bareness of expression is likely to seem prosaic, but with time, as is true of minimalist music, the bareness may seem the essence of poetry…

… The ten wisteria tanka have been well translated by Burton Watson in Masaoka Shiki, 105-110. Robert Brower, in "Masaoka Shiki and Tanka Reform," 403-8, discusses the wisteria tanka, which taken by themselves are "very flat and prosaic," but which acquire other dimensions when one takes into consideration the time of composition.

-- excerpted from The Winter Sun Shines In: A Life of Masaoka Shiki, Columbia University Press, 2013

Saturday, May 17, 2014

Butterfly Dream: Northern Lights Haiku by kjmunro

English Original

northern lights
just beyond the reach
of my walking stick

(after Fay Aoyagi's "low winter moon")

Haiku Canada Review, 8:1, February 2014)

kjmunro


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

北極光
恰好在我的拐杖
未能觸及之處

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

北极光
恰好在我的拐杖
未能触及之处


Bio Sketch

Born & raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. kjmunro moved to the Yukon Territory in 1991. She is a member of Haiku Canada, and volunteers with The Whitehorse Poetry Society. She is currently working on a poetry manuscript.

Friday, May 16, 2014

One Man's Maple Moon: Blues Tanka by Tzod Earf

English Original

I'm a bird
watched by society.
My prison bars
are the blues
I sing.

Tzod Earf


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

我是一隻鳥
受到社會的監聽。
我的鐵窗
是我所唱
的藍調歌曲。

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

我是一只鸟
受到社会的监听。
我的铁窗
是我所唱
的蓝调歌曲。


Bio Sketch

Tzod Earf, from Cincinnati, Ohio U.S.A,. has appeared here and in Bright Stars I and II, Poetry Nook, and the online blog, Jar of Stars.  Visit him on Twitter, @Ear2Earf to see more of his poetry.

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Butterfly Dream: Cold Front Haiku by Polona Oblak

English Original

cold front
the edges
of loneliness

Polona Oblak


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

冷鋒
寂寞的
邊緣

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

冷锋
寂寞的
边缘


Bio Sketch

Polona Oblak lives and works in Ljubljana, Slovenia. For 40 odd years Polona thought she had no talent for writing. Then she discovered haiku. Her haiku and occasional tanka are widely published and a handful appeared in anthologies such as The Red Moon Anthology and Take Five.

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Politics/Poetics of Re-Homing, XXIX

sorry,
you're overqualified
for the job...

I crush the morning sun
in an icy puddle

Atlas Poetica, 15, July 2013

Note:You can read its preceding tanka or the whole sequence here.

Butterfly Dream: Dripping Faucet Haiku by Harry Rout

English Original

the faucet dripping ...
the silence
between each drop

Harry Rout


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

水龍頭在滴水 ...
每滴水之間
的沉默

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

水龙头在滴水 ...
每滴水之间
的沉默


Bio Sketch

Harry 'E.G.' Rout lives in Adelaide, South Australia. He has been writing poetry for many years, and has been published in Japan several times, including three haiku in the 2nd Mainichi Haiku Contest.

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

One Man's Maple Moon: Jazz Singer Tanka by Rebecca Drouilhet

English Original

in street lights
the jazz singer alone
at the corner
this winter night breaks
into many shades of blue

Rebecca Drouilhet


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

路燈下
爵士歌手單獨
在街角處
這個冬夜破碎成
許多不同的藍色色調


Chinese Translation (Simplified)

路灯下
爵士歌手单独
在街角处
这个冬夜破碎成
许多不同的蓝色色调


Bio Sketch

Rebecca Drouilhet is a 58-year old retired registered nurse.  In 2012, she won a Sakura award in the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Haiku International.  Her haiku and tanka have appeared in A Hundred Gourds, Modern Haiku, Frogpond, World Haiku Review, Prune Juice, The Heron's Nest, and the Lakeview International Journal of Literature and Art.

Monday, May 12, 2014

Butterfly Dream: Apple Blossoms Haiku by Larry Kimmel

English Original

tired from a day
in the field, I close my eyes
apple blossoms

Still: two,  1998

Larry Kimmel


Chinese Translation (Traditional)
   
在田地工作一天
覺得疲憊,我閉上眼睛
蘋果花開

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

在田地工作一天
觉得疲惫,我闭上眼睛
苹果花开


Bio Sketch

Larry Kimmel is a US poet. He holds degrees from Oberlin Conservatory and Pittsburgh University, and has worked at everything from steel mills to libraries. Recent books are this hunger, tissue-thin, and shards and dust. He lives with his wife in the hills of Western Massachusetts.

Sunday, May 11, 2014

One Man's Maple Moon: Mother's Day Tanka by Rita Odeh

English Original

Mother's Day --
although I know she's gone,
I knock
and wait for the distant
mountain to grow green

VerseWrights, April 13,  2014

Rita Odeh


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

母親節 --
雖然我知道她走了,
我敲門
並等待遠處的山
轉變成綠色

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

母亲节 --
虽然我知道她走了,
我敲门
并等待远处的山
转变成绿色


Bio Sketch

Rita Odeh is from Nazareth, Israel. She comes from a christian Palestinian family. She has B.A. in English and Comparative Literature from Haifa University. She has published 6 books of poetry, one book of short stories, three electronic novels, and one e-book of haiku. Her poetry has been published in several international publications, and she started writing tanka in March, 2014. Rita is Co-Editor of International Haiku. Her haiku and haiga artwork are featured in her "Catching The Moment" blog.

Saturday, May 10, 2014

A Room of My Own: The Same Moon between Mother and Me

these hands
once reached for mother's breast ...
holding a gun

Pacific shore...
waves swishing through the sand
and mom's lullaby

mother squeezing
the side of my belly
first hometown visit

One Man's Maple Moon: Gentle Breast Tanka by Djurdja Vukelic Rozic

English Original

she fed me
from her gentle breast ...
this morning
she murmurs to herself ,
I don't want to go to school

Djurdja Vukelic Rozic


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

她溫柔的乳房
過去哺育我 ...
今天早晨
她低聲對自己說,
我不想去上學

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

她温柔的乳房
过去哺育我 ...
今天早晨
她低声对自己说,
我不想去上学


Bio Sketch

Djurdja Vukelic Rozic  was born on April 6, 1956, and now lives in Ivanić Grad, Croatia.  Editor in chief of bilingual haiku magazine IRIS, and deputy editor for haiku at Diogen pro cultura magazine, Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. She publishes humorous sketches, short stories, and poetry. For her work she received a number of awards and commendations in Croatia and abroad.

Friday, May 9, 2014

Dark Wings of the Night: Harold Gould Henderson's View of Haiku as Ink Sketches

Because the haiku is shorter than other forms of poetry it naturally has to depend for its effect on the power of suggestion, even more than they do. As haiku are studied further, it will be seen that they usually gain their effect not only by suggesting a mood, but also by giving a clear-cut picture which serves as a starting point for trains of thought and emotion. But, again owing to their shortness, haiku can seldom give the picture in detail. Only the outlines or important parts are drawn, and the rest the reader must fill in for himself. Haiku indeed have a very close resemblance to the "ink sketches" so dear to the hearts of the Japanese.

-- Harold Gould Henderson, Introduction to Haiku: An Anthology of Poems and Poets from Basho to Shiki, p.3


Below is Henderson's haiku, which is quoted from his December 21, 1970 letter to James W. Hackett:

House fronts in stiff rows ---
and all the trees bend from them
toward each other.

Thursday, May 8, 2014

Butterfly Dream: Pressed Butterfly Haiku by David McMurray

English Original

Turning to the page
where mother had left behind
pressed butterfly

David McMurray


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

翻到母親上次
所閱讀的那一頁
壓扁的蝴蝶

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

翻到母亲上次
所阅读的那一页
压扁的蝴蝶


Bio Sketch

David McMurray, professor of haiku in the graduate school at The International University of Kagoshima in Japan, editor of the Asahi Haikuist Network since 1995, and winner of The R.H. Blyth Award 2013.

Wednesday, May 7, 2014

One Man's Maple Moon: Mother Tanka by Neal Whitman

English Original

waiting on the dock
a woman holds a placard
with my name on it
I am put in her arms,
my mother, singing to me

Distinctive Scribblings Award, Eucalypt, 15, 2013

Neal Whitman


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

在碼頭等候
一個女人拿著告示牌
上面有我的名字
她的雙臂擁抱我,
我的母親,對我歌唱

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

在码头等候
一个女人拿著告示牌
上面有我的名字
她的双臂拥抱我,
我的母亲,对我歌唱


Bio Sketch

Neal Whitman began to write general poetry in 2005, haiku in 2008, and tanka in 2011. He writes to be read and believes that the reader is never wrong. With his wife, Elaine, he combines his poetry with her Native American flute and photography in free public recitals with the aim of their hearts speaking to other hearts.

Butterfly Dream: Pine Shade Haiku by Robert Epstein

English Original

in pine shade
for a while I forget
this life will end

Moonset, 7, 2010

Robert Epstein


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

在松蔭中
一時我忘了
此生將會結束

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

在松荫中
一时我忘了
此生将会结束


Bio Sketch

Robert Epstein, a psychologist and haiku poet/anthologist, lives and works in the San Francisco Bay Area. He has edited four anthologies:  The Breath of Surrender; Dreams Wander On; The Temple Bell Stops; and Now This.  He has written two books of haiku:  A Walk Around Spring Lake; and Checkout Time is Noon, as well as a chapbook titled, What My Niece Said in His Head:  Haiku and Senryu.

Tuesday, May 6, 2014

A Room of My Own: Imagine for John Lennon

A long line of Calliopes clad in lily-white, waiting in the hallway. Each is enveloped in the darkness of her own, screaming. Drops of sweat stream down my forehead, falling past my eyes onto the floor. I yell, "Push, baby, push ...." The last words holding on to the inside of my muse's womb for hours.

I'm a dreamer ...
a twinge
in my heart

Monday, May 5, 2014

To the Lighthouse: Denis M. Garrison's Dreaming Room and Roland Barthes's Writerly Text

(updated on May 6: Part III: The Pleasure of the Text and one tanka added)

Part I: Denis M. Garrison's Dreaming Room

mounted butterfly
hanging under hardened glass
floating over cork
just enough room for your dreams
meadow breeze . . . a sapphire flash

Denis M. Garrison


... How does one write tanka, once one recognizes the essence of tanka? Amongst many correct answers to this question, the one I wish to clarify in this case is: “Leave the reader dreaming room.”

By “dreaming room,” I mean some empty space inside the poem which the reader can fill with his personal experience, from his unique social context. To the degree that any poet makes a poem so specific that the poet’s intent is forced upon the reader (i.e., the reader is led to the poet’s preconceived notions and conclusions), the reader is limited by the degree of congruence between his and the poet’s life experiences and values. Such a poem means one thing and only that. Readers feel compelled to “get the poem,” to correctly “understand” it. Given the current (and longstanding) fad of obscurantism in English poetry, “getting the poem” is a heavy burden, indeed, for the reader and hardly a pleasant one.

Everyone “gets” a good poem. Obscurantism is cover for incompetence, pomposity, a paucity of insight, and a host of other poetic shortcomings. Obscurantism is a classic technique for the creation of an elite on the basis of a faux meritocracy.

Tanka are notable for their accessibility. Why? Because most good tanka have “dreaming room.” They have been composed with the technique of understatement, of suggestiveness, of open-endedness. Words and details which limit the universality of the tanka have been omitted with careful attention to what is not said. What remains is a poem that is a framework upon which readers from widely different contexts can hang their own experiences and values and discover meaning, experience epiphany. What tanka poet and translator, Amelia Fielden, has called “a certain haziness” in tanka translates into clarity for individual readers. Hence, ambiguity is a positive value for tanka.

Tanka has a special dynamic, a cognitive tension, which is called a turn, that multiplies meaning. Part of the attraction and value of tanka is its special quality of dealing with the ineffable. It is this quality of tanka which puts tanka in the category of high art. This is the quality that was being sought in the pursuit of the “objective correlative” in imagism. Tanka specializes in existential paradox, that is, it does what cannot be done; it says what cannot be said. The secret at the heart of it is knowing what to leave out (like the beginning and end of the story), so that the reader can complete the poem so that it speaks eloquently and directly to him.

There is another lens through which to look at this same technique: the concept of multivalency. “Valence” is used in biology to refer to the forces of reaction and interaction and is used in chemistry to refer to the properties of atoms by which they have the power of combination. This informs the use of the adjective, “ambivalent,” which refers to confusion and uncertainty. So, we use the term “multivalency” to refer to the property of words to react to one another, interact with one another, to be fungible and suggestive. A multivalent tanka is one with dreaming room. It is a poem which may be read in many different ways, all of them correct. It is this freedom for the reader that we refer to as making the reader a co-creator of the poem. The reader’s experiential context determines the true meaning of the poem, for that reader.

If, in your indulgence, you have read this far, please indulge me further and return to the poem at the head of this article. Let us do an exercise. Read the poem as a drug addict. Now, read it as a political prisoner. Now, as an abused wife. Now, as a soldier. Now as a concerned ecologist. Etc., etc. ad infinitum.

I certainly am not suggesting that a tanka, to be tanka, must be capable of a full range of alternate readings. I am suggesting that a tanka gains potency through multivalency; that ambiguity is a positive value; that readers need room to dream their own dreams.

-- excerpted from Denis M. Garrison’s "Dreaming Room," which was first published in Modern English Tanka, 1:3, Spring 2007 (Thank Dennis M. Garrison for his kind permission).


Part II: Roland Barthes's Writerly Text

The poetic ideal, “dreaming room,”  explored in Garrison’s article is close to that of what Roland Barthes did in his 1971 book, titled S/Z, a structuralist analysis of Honoré de Balzac’s short story, "Sarrasine" --  writerly text:

The writerly text is a perpetual present, upon which no consequent language (which would inevitably make it past) can be superimposed; the writerly text is ourselves writing, before the infinite play of the world (the world as function) is traversed, intersected, stopped, plasticized by some singular system (Ideology, Genus, Criticism) which reduces the plurality of entrances, the opening of networks, the infinity of languages (S/Z, p.5)

Based on the definition above, a writerly text is not fully complete, and it actively encourages the reader to take part in the creation of meaning(s) of the text, which means the reader is given "dreaming room" to fill in the gaps between the lines of the text, becoming  an active participant, co-author. In contrast to a writerly text, a readerly text does not locate the reader as a site of the production of meaning(s) (i.e., the reader as a co-producer), but only as the receiver of a fixed, predetermined reading as described in Garrison’s article:

To the degree that any poet makes a poem so specific that the poet’s intent is forced upon the reader (i.e., the reader is led to the poet’s preconceived notions and conclusions), the reader is limited by the degree of congruence between his and the poet’s life experiences and values. Such a poem means one thing and only that. Readers feel compelled to “get the poem,” to correctly “understand” it.

In accord with his proclamation made in a 1967 essay, titled “The Death of the Author,” Barthes insists, "the goal of literary work (of literature as work) is to make the reader no longer a consumer, but a producer of the text" (S/Z, p.4).


I conclude this post with the following tanka sequence written for Roland Barthes (12 November 1915 – 25 March 1980), which was first published in Lynx, 26:2, June 2011.

The Death of the Author

after opening
the envelop stuffed with my poems
I take out my heart
wash it clean
and start writing again

surrounded
by a swarm of buzzing words
I squash them
in the rhythm of
short, long, short, long, long

I keep
stacking blocks of stanza
suddenly
the poem collapses in silence
I am buried alive

under the gaze
of Calliope's love
my next poem
is about to take flight
but Heaven's window is shut

I skip
a stone of words
across the lake
of another time
another place


Note: For readers who like to know about Barthes's view of haiku explored in his 1970 book, titled Empire of Signs, see my Haijinx essay, "Breach of Meaning?: Roland Barthes’s View of Haiku"


Updated, May 6

Part III: The Pleasure of the Text

In his 1973 book, titled The Pleasure of the Text, Roland Barthes divides the effects of texts into two: "pleasure" (plaisir) and "bliss" (jouissance, which carries the meaning of "orgasm"). This distinction corresponds to a further distinction Barthes makes between "readerly text" (texte lisible) and "writerly text" (texte scriptable).

The “pleasure” of a readerly text is to devour a well-crafted piece of work, to experience the emotions the reader is supposed to feel, and to get the secrets/meanings the reader is supposed to find. The text doesn’t challenge the reader’s position as a subject. The reader takes in the text passively, acting like a consumer who enjoys what has been produced for him/her.

On the contrary, the “bliss” of a writerly text  is to allow the reader to break out of his/her subject position due to the indeterminacy of the text, and see the "text’s unity as forever being re-established by its composition, the codes that form and constantly slide around within the text." The text can always be written anew by a participating reader who reenacts the actions of the author. It is when the reader sees the text from the writerly (NOT authorial) perspective that the reading experience is blissful, even orgasmic -- la petite mort! (The French phrase for "the little death" is an idiom and euphemism for orgasm)

La petite mort
rolling off her tongue ...
for me now
there is no separation
between sex and poetry
(for Roland Barthes)

Sunday, May 4, 2014

Butterfly Dream: One-Line Haiku about Time by Al Fogel

English Original

time running out of time hourglass

Al Fogel


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

時間不夠時間沙漏

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

时间不够时间沙漏


Bio Sketch

Al Fogel , 68, began his haiku journey about 3 years ago and has been writing haiku, senryu, tanka and haibun ever since. Some of his work has appeared in leading haijin journals around the globe. He has recently published two books: So Little Time and  Holding Hand-helds: Senryu for the Cyber

Saturday, May 3, 2014

One Man's Maple Moon: Stars Tanka by S.M. Abeles

English Original

every night
exploding stars
on the river
I play god
with my stones

Skylark, 1:2, Winter 2013

S.M. Abeles


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

每天晚上
爆增的恆星
在河上
我用石頭
扮演神的角色

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

每天晚上
爆增的恒星
在河上
我用石头
扮演神的角色


Bio Sketch

S.M. Abeles lives and writes in Washington, D.C.  He composes poems on dog walks and train rides, and elsewhere when the moment strikes.  His work appears frequently in the usual haiku and tanka journals, and he posts at least one new poem daily on his website, The Empty Sky

Butterfly Dream: Twilit Sky by Marilyn Humbert

English Original

twilit sky ...
soldiers
lock and load

Marilyn Humbert


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

黎明的天空...
戰士們準備武器
去戰鬥

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

黎明的天空...
战士们準备武器
去战鬥


Bio Sketch

Marilyn Humbert lives in the Northern Suburbs of Sydney NSW surrounded by bush. Her pastimes include writing free verse poetry, tanka, tanka prose and related genre. She is the leader of Bottlebrush Tanka Group and member of the Huddle and Bowerbird Tanka Groups. Her tanka appears in Australian and International Journals.

Friday, May 2, 2014

Politics/Poetics of Re-Homing, XXVIII

swaying in dreams
Abandon your mother tongue,
all who enter here ...

midway through life I'm stuck
in a world of one color

Atlas Poetica, 15, July 2013

Note:You can read its preceding tanka or the whole sequence here.

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Butterfly Dream: Music Haiku by John Kinory

English Original

for a moment
Stravinsky drowns
the drilling next door

Envoi, 147:2007

John Kinory


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

只有一會兒
斯特拉文斯基的音樂
蓋過隔壁的鑽孔聲

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

只有一会儿
斯特拉文斯基的音乐
盖过隔壁的钻孔声


Bio Sketch

John Kinory is a translator and photographer, and former physics teacher. His work has been published extensively in haiku, tanka and general poetry journals worldwide. He is the founder and editor of Ardea, the multilingual short-form poetry journal. He lives in England.