all dark
and boarded up
this year
the storefront where
the gypsy read my palm
Gusts, 11, Spring/Summer 2010
Barry George
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
一片漆黑
曾經為我看手相的吉卜賽人
今年她的店面
窗戶和大門
全都釘上木板
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
一片漆黑
曾经为我看手相的吉卜赛人
今年她的店面
窗户和大门
全都钉上木板
Bio Sketch
Barry George’s tanka have appeared in journals including Gusts, Modern English Tanka, Chrysalis, and The Louisville Review, as well as the anthology, Streetlights. His essay, "Shiki the Tanka Poet," was published in The Writer's Chronicle. A tanka collection, The One That Flies Back, was published in 2015.
There's a kind of "tragic irony" in the juxtaposition of facts ("all dark", "boarded up," "this year," and "the gypsy read my palm:" the gypsy, a professional palm reader, can't find out what the future has "in store" for her.
ReplyDeleteBarry's thematically effective use of dramatic irony in a "personal tragedy" adds emotional weight and psychological depth to the poem.