Sunday, June 21, 2015

One Man's Maple Moon: Boneyard Tanka by Marilyn Humbert

English Original

farm gate
rusted and bent
half buried
in the boneyard
of broken promises

A Hundred Gourds, 3:1, December 2013

Marilyn Humbert


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

農場大門
鏽蝕且彎曲
一半已埋在
破碎承諾
的墓地

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

农场大门
锈蚀且弯曲
一半已埋在
破碎承诺
的墓地


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.

1 comment:

  1. Technically speaking, the shift, from the realistic description of a "farm gate" (used as a synecdoche for farming life) in L2, "rusted and bent," to the metaphorical comment on it in Ls 3-5, "half buried/in the boneyard/of broken promises," successfully adds emotional weight and sociopolitical depth to the poem.

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