English Original
from the dunes
watching red kites
duel
we rehash
the same affairs
Ripples in the Sand: TSA Members Anthology, 2016
Marilyn Humbert
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
站在沙丘上
觀看兩隻紅鳶
在天空中決鬥
我們老調重彈
同樣的事情
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
站在沙丘上
观看两只红鸢
在天空中决鬥
我们老调重弹
同样的事情
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.
Combined with visually and emotionally powerful verbs (duel and rehash), the "dialectical juxtaposition" between two striking birds of prey, who usually pair for life, dueling in the sky and a couple talking about the old affairs in almost the exact same way, lifts the poem up a notch.
ReplyDeleteNote: The red kite is a striking bird of prey with deep red plumage, a grey head and light eyes. They are recognisable in flight by their long and narrow, black-tipped wings and deeply forked tail. They usually pair for life, building large untidy nests out of sticks in the forks of trees. When the hatchlings are young the female can signal for them to play dead when a predator is near.
BBC: Wildlife, http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Red_Kite