Saturday, August 11, 2018

One Man's Maple Moon: Crying Tanka by Sylvia Forges-Ryan

English Original

my new neighbor
can hear her crying
now and then --
my friend who lived there
before she took her own life   

Atlas Poetica Special Feature: Supernatural Tanka, 2013

Sylvia Forges-Ryan


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

我的新鄰居
不時地可以聽到
她的哭聲 --
在自殺之前我的朋友
曾經住在那裡

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

我的新邻居
不时地可以听到
她的哭声 -
在自杀之前我的朋友
曾经住在那里


Bio Sketch

Sylvia Forges-Ryan, a former Frogpond editor, is the author of Take a Deep Breath, The Haiku Way to Inner Peace. Her latest book, What Light There Is, consists of haiku, senryu, and tanka, with art work by Ion Codrescu. Both books have been selected for permanent inclusion in the Beinecke Library at Yale University.

1 comment:

  1. Sylvia's middle-of-the-story" tanka effectively builds, poetic phrase (ku)/line by poetic phrase (ku)/line, to an emotionally powerful and psychologically significant ending that reveals a haunting relationship between the living and the dead.

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