on a high ledge
a squirrel is nervous
enough to jump --
you speak of
the discomforts of love
Lynx, 28:3, October 2013
Robert Annis
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
在高窗台上
松鼠緊張地
想要跳下去 --
你談到
愛的不適
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
在高窗台上
松鼠紧张地
想要跳下去 --
你谈到
爱的不适
Bio Sketch
Robert
Annis is a Florida born Tampa resident who teaches at the University of
South Florida. He has been nominated for the 2013 and 2014 AWP Intro
Journals Project and won the Bettye Newman Poetry Award in 2014. His
poetry has appeared in Lingerpost, Lynx, Gusts, Ribbons and is forthcoming in the summer issue of Atlas Poetica and Bright Stars, An Organic Tanka Anthology.
This tanka is modeled on a classical love waka that is structured into two parts: the "jo" (prefatory image; Ls 1-3), typically a natural image, and the “main statement” (Ls 4&5) of the poem (Cranston, xxiii). And the prefatory image is “logically metaphoric or at least resonates closely with the emotional point of the poem” (ibid., xxiii-xxiv).
ReplyDeleteRobert's well-chosen words, "nervous/enough" and "discomforts" (plural not singular) add emotional weight to the poem.
Note: Edwin Cranston, "A Waka Anthology: Volume One, The Gem-Glistening Cup," Stanford University Press, 1998.