Thursday, March 30, 2017

One Man’s Maple Moon: Autumn Path Tanka by Brian Zimmer

English Original

as if on cue
insect song turns
adagio,
geese resume
their autumn path

Brian Zimmer

 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

彷彿接受提示
昆蟲的歌曲
轉為慢板,
野鵝飛回到
他們的秋天路徑

Chinese Translation (Simplified)


仿佛接受提示
昆虫的歌曲
转为慢板,
野鹅飞回到
他们的秋天路径


Bio Sketch

Brian Zimmer wrote from the banks of the Mississippi River in St. Louis, Missouri. His work had appeared in various international print and online journals. He took inspiration from a variety of sources, including the ancient Japanese poetic-diary (utanikki) and free-form, poetic "essay" (zuihitsu).

1 comment:

  1. This tanka is one of the tanka my late friend Brian shared with me (on 9/25/2009 via email) during my early learning of tanka composition

    The following is my comment accompanied by my response tanka:

    Structurally, musically, and thematically speaking, your word choice, adagio, is superb, and in music this word indicates a slow passage, movement, or work, and is chiefly used as a direction, resonant well the concluding lines the perfect juxtaposition ("as if on cue") of the aural and visual images.

    fly like geese
    never gaze back
    at your homeland
    but carry it
    in your heart

    ReplyDelete