what spirit flew
out of this hole
in winter’s snow?
on the other side
a flock of wild geese
January, a Tanka Diary, 2013
M. Kei
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
什麼樣的精靈
從冬天雪地的洞穴
飛出來了？
在另一側
有一群野鵝
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
什么样的精灵
从冬天雪地的洞穴
飞出来了
在另一侧
有一群野鹅
Bio Sketch
M. Kei is a tall ship sailor and award-winning poet who lives on Maryland’s Eastern shore. He is the editor of Atlas Poetica: A Journal of World Tanka. His most recent collection of poetry is January, A Tanka Diary. He is also the author of the award-winning gay Age of Sail adventure novels, Pirates of the Narrow Seas. He can be followed on Twitter @kujakupoet, or visit AtlasPoetica.org.
... Technically speaking, this is a good example of what American poet Archibald MacLeish calls "coupled images:" One image is established by words which make it sensuous and vivid to the the eyes or ears or touch-to any of the senses. Another image is put beside it. And "a meaning appears which is neither the meaning of one image nor the meaning of the other nor even the sum of both but a consequence of both -- a consequence of both in their conjunction, in their relation to each other" (Krishna Rayan, Suggestion and Statement in Poetry, p.69). It is in the "space between'" that the poem grows...
ReplyDelete-- excerpted from my "To the Lighthouse" post, "Coupled Images," which can be accessed at http://neverendingstoryhaikutanka.blogspot.ca/search?q=coupled