Thursday, January 22, 2015

One Man's Maple Moon: ICU Tanka by Ignatius Fay

English Original

at night
lying in the ICU
with death
lurking in the shadows
I find reasons to live

Ignatius Fay


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

夜晚
我躺在加護病房
死亡
潛伏在暗處
我找理由要活下去

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

夜晚
我躺在加护病房
死亡
潜伏在暗处
我找理由要活下去


Bio Sketch

Ignatius Fay is a retired invertebrate paleontologist. His poems have appeared in many of the most respected online and print journals, including The Heron’s Nest, Modern Haiku, Ars Poetica, Gusts, Chrysanthemum and Eucalypt. Books: Breccia (2012), a collaboration with fellow haiku poet, Irene Golas; Points In Between (2011), an anecdotal history of his first 23 years. He is the new editor of the Haiku Society of America Bulletin. Ignatius resides in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada

1 comment:

  1. As shown, this tanka builds, poetic phrase ("ku")/line by poetic phrase ("ku")/line, to a thematically and emotionally powerful ending that has the most weight and reveals the theme of an existential crisis ([find]ing "reasons" to live).

    This tanka reminds me of the key theme explored in Viktor Frankl's "Man's Search for Meaning:"

    It is the striving to find a meaning in one's life that is the primary, most powerful motivating and driving force in humans.

    ReplyDelete