Friday, March 6, 2020

One Man's Maple Moon: Bridge Tanka by Martha Magenta

English Original

two otters
float across the moon
holding hands
on the bridge we watch
the world flow by

My Haiku Pond, January 21,  2019

Martha Magenta


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

兩隻水獺
漂浮穿過月亮
手牽著手
在橋上我們觀看
世界流過

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

两只水獭
漂浮穿过月亮
手牵着手
在桥上我们观看
世界流过 


Bio Sketch

Martha Magenta lived in England, UK. Her haiku and tanka had appeared in a number of journals, and anthologies. She was awarded Honourable Mentions for her haiku in The Fifth Annual Peggy Willis Lyles Haiku  Awards, 2017, and in the 71st Basho Memorial English Haiku Contest, 2017, and for her tanka in UHTS  “Fleeting Words” Tanka Contest 2017.

1 comment:

  1. A tanka 短歌 (‘short poem’) with a classic and timeless aftertaste focused on love (ai 愛), the main theme of this poetic genre along with nature (shizen 自然). The reader is gently brought into an emotional scene, where the two lovers, holding their hands, look down to the river and follow the movement of two otters (kawauso 川獺) floating across the moon’s reflections. The author also skillfully plays on the contrast between transience (the trail of water left by the otters) and immanence (the eternity of the lovers’ feelings), giving the work as a whole an undeniable depth and value...

    -- excerpted from the editor's commentary, accessed at https://hi-in.facebook.com/MyHaikuPond/photos/-lucas-lily-pad-a-weekly-column-my-haiku-pond-dear-pondies-and-haiku-friends-luc/2061214597298385/

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