thinking about
everything I lost
and gained
a song from my childhood
in a foreign tongue
A Hundred Gourds, 4:2, March 2015
Maria Tomczak
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
深刻地思考
我所失去並獲得
一切的東西
一首來自我童年的歌
用外語來吟唱
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
深刻地思考
我所失去并获得
一切的东西
一首来自我童年的歌
用外语来吟唱
Bio Sketch
Maria
Tomczak lives in Opole, Poland. She enjoys writing haiku, poems and
short stories. As a mother she also writes fairy tales for her son. She
is interested in Japanese culture and poetry, especially haiku and related forms.
The unexpected yet thematically significant and emotionally powerful last lines elevates this little poem about personal reflection on memory to a broader, sociolinguistic framework where a life in transition (ls 2&3) and translation (Ls 4&5)is explored in this heartfelt tanka.
ReplyDeleteMaria's fine tanka reminds me of one of my haibun on a similar topic:
ReplyDeleteA Transplanted Life
Since I opened the pages of Being and Time, his words, "Death is a way to be, which Dasein takes over as soon as it is," have lingered in the back of my mind for a week, like a silent check on my immigration dream: being a poet who can write in an adopted tongue and find his own way by moonlight.
At twilight, while walking on a wooden path around Lake Ontario, I hear the sound of the grass growing beneath my feet, and the air is filled with the scent of wild flowers. Just a stone's throw away, two seagulls take flight for the lake.
dewdrops on a leaf
the notes of an erhu
come from afar
Haibun Today, 6:4, December 2012