that night
I wandered to the top
of a mesa
beneath a billion stars
alone and exploding
Bright Stars, 1, 2014
Carole Johnston
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
那一夜
我漫步到臺地
的頂端
站在十億顆星星之下
孤單一人並且情緒爆炸
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
那一夜
我漫步到臺地
的顶端
站在十亿颗星星之下
孤单一人并且情绪爆炸
Bio Sketch
Carole
Johnston has been writing Japanese short form poetry for five years and
has published haiku and tanka in various print and online journals.
Her first chapbook, Journeys: Getting Lost, is forthcoming from
Finishing Line Press. Retired from teaching, she drives around writing
poems about landscape. Visit her on Twitter (@morganabag) to read more
of her poetry.
Without the closing words, "and exploding,' this tanka could be read as a Romantic poem that conveys a sense of oneness with nature (just think about the iconic image of a 19th century German Romantic standing on top of a mountain (not a mesa)).
ReplyDeleteThe word, exploding, successfully makes a thematic and emotional shift to enhance the psychologically suggestive power of the poem.