Thursday, January 26, 2017

Butterfly Dream: Hunter's Moon Haiku by Alan Summers

English Original

hunter's moon
the runes of mice
in its wake

Best of Mainichi, 2014

Alan Summers


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

獵人月亮
緊跟在它之後
老鼠腳印形成的符文

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

猎人月亮
紧跟在它之后
老鼠脚印形成的符文 


Bio Sketch

Alan Summers, Japan Times award-winning writer, is the incoming President of the United Haiku and Tanka Society. He enjoys French and Indian cuisine; and scrambled or poached eggs with spinach for breakfast. His book Writing Poetry: the haiku way is due out during 2017. Blog: http://area17.blogspot.com

4 comments:

  1. Comment:*I can acknowledge he has created something new in the second and the third lines, but here we have another "hunter's moon:" Arizona Zipper:

    Hunter's moon,
    A stick match lights up
    a hound's eye

    -- excerpted from "Annual Selection 2014: Selections and comments by Isamu Hashimoto," which can be accessed at http://mainichi.jp/english/english/features/haiku/etc/archive/selection2014.html

    "I can acknowledge he has created something new in the second and the third lines,..."

    I concur! L2 not only enhances the visual aspect of the poem but also adds one dimension of cultural meaning.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear Chen-ou,

    Many thanks for posting this haiku of mine, and delighted it was selected as one of the Best of Mainichi Shimbun published that year:

    hunter's moon
    the runes of mice
    in its wake

    Alan Summers

    From the Best of Mainichi Selections:

    Hisashi Inoue (1934-2010) once wrote about how to write: "Easily for things difficult, deeply for things easy, amusingly for things deep, seriously for things amusing."

    Isamu Hashimoto said:
    "...he has created something new in the second and the third lines..."

    Chen-ou Liu said:
    "L2 not only enhances the visual aspect of the poem but also adds one dimension of cultural meaning."

    Thank you! It's both literal, as I lived in Australia, where swarms of tens of thousands of mice have appeared as if from folklore, and of course it's both allegorical as well as touching on magical realism, the myths, lore, and fairytales built around our distrust of the great forests from twilight to night and into dusk before daylight relieves our fears, to an extent.

    warmest regards,

    Alan

    For anyone living in Britain or visiting, I have moved towns, and now live in Chippenham, Wiltshire, England, U.K. . :-)

    UPDATING MY BIO:

    Alan Summers, Japan Times award-winning writer, is the incoming President
    of the United Haiku and Tanka Society. He enjoys French and Indian
    cuisine; and scrambled or poached eggs with spinach for breakfast. His
    book Writing Poetry: the haiku way is due out during 2017. Blog:
    http://area17.blogspot.com

    - e n d -

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dear Alan:

      Many thanks for your helpful comment and backstory.

      And I've revised the bio.

      Chen-ou

      Delete
    2. Thank you, that is very kind!

      warmest regards,

      Alan

      Delete