house clearance
room by room by room
my mother disappears
Blithe Spirit, 26:1, March 2016
Alan Summers
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
收拾屋子
一間房間接著一間房間
我的母親不見了
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
收拾屋子
一间房间接著一间房间
我的母亲不见了
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
Alan's use of repetition is visually and emotionally effective, showing what it takes to get house clearance done.
ReplyDeleteThank you for showcasing this haiku and translating it!
ReplyDeleteI was delighted to have this haiku picked out of 660 nominations around the world to become a winner for a Touchstone Individual Poem Award for 2016 awarded by The Haiku Foundation.
From the panel of judges:
“When I read haiku, I’m looking for an unexpected view on the well-known. I’m curious to learn about an open secret (after Robert Spiess). I’m looking for a simple (but not banal) and lucid language that expresses something extraordinary within the ordinary, something which I never read before in that way as well as something that is of beauty beyond time.
‘house clearance’ represents the pure power of haiku. Layers of meaning ascending from deeper layers of the mind (‘room by room by room’) in relation to existential truth (‘my mother disappears’). Perhaps one finds a human contradiction: memories can only get preserved vividly after “clearance.”
“An emotional and vivid image that brings sadness at first reading while effectively pointing out that taking away the physical doesn’t remove the memory.”
Dear esteemed poet,greetings! delighted to read the original and
ReplyDeleteneedless to mention the poignancy of meaning behind the layers and how compressed ! Like and reread the same.
with regards
S.Radhamani
Thank you!
Deletewarmest regards,
Alan