Friday, February 7, 2020

One Man's Maple Moon: An Inch of Freedom Tanka by Sanford Goldstein

English Original

walls
surround me
in my life,
so much to break through
to find an inch of freedom

American Tanka, 24, 2015

Sanford Goldstein


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

在我的生命中
四面牆
包圍著我
這麼多困難要突破
以便找到一點的自由

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

在我的生命中
四面墙
包围着我
这么多困难要突破
以便找到一点的自由


Bio Sketch

Sanford Goldstein has been publishing tanka for more than fifty years.  He was born in 1925 and is now 95 years old.  Long ago, he wrote haiku, but decided to focus on tanka. His latest books, three in the last two years, have each said this would be his last.

1 comment:

  1. Sanford's tanka is structured into two parts (the prefatory image & the main statement), and the thematic point of view expressed in Ls 4&5 effectively enhances the suffocating image of Ls 1-3.

    It might be interesting to do a comparative reading of my tanka below:

    living alone
    in a four-walled attic
    the fifth corner
    built with bricks of dream
    I feel a lightness of being

    Ribbons, 7:3, Fall 2011

    ReplyDelete