English Original
how you heave up
to the height of my eyes
pull up this darkness
and serve me tender dawn
O Sea, I want to know
Editor's Choice, Cattails, January 2016
Alegria Imperial
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
你振作站起來
達到我的視平線
並拉開黑暗
賜給我溫柔的黎明
哦海，我想知道這一切
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
你振作站起来
达到我的视平线
并拉开黑暗
赐给我温柔的黎明
哦海，我想知道这一切
how you heave up
to the height of my eyes
pull up this darkness
and serve me tender dawn
O Sea, I want to know
Editor's Choice, Cattails, January 2016
Alegria Imperial
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
你振作站起來
達到我的視平線
並拉開黑暗
賜給我溫柔的黎明
哦海，我想知道這一切
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
你振作站起来
达到我的视平线
并拉开黑暗
赐给我温柔的黎明
哦海，我想知道这一切
Bio Sketch
Alegria Imperial writes all forms of Japanese short poetry and mainstream poems with some appearing in international journals and a few gaining awards. Her first e-chapbook, counting star-bones, has just been published by Yavanika Press. Formerly a journalist in Manila, she now lives in Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Alegria Imperial writes all forms of Japanese short poetry and mainstream poems with some appearing in international journals and a few gaining awards. Her first e-chapbook, counting star-bones, has just been published by Yavanika Press. Formerly a journalist in Manila, she now lives in Vancouver, BC, Canada.
As an Editor’s Choice, I selected it because Alegria’s words build from line 1 to a crescendo in line 5. This is comparable to the technique an experienced singer uses from a slow quiet start to a grand finale at song’s end. Alegria’s tanka is filled with yugen, a Japanese word pertaining to a profound awareness of the universe, which evokes feelings that are inexplicably deep and too mysterious for words.
ReplyDelete— excerpted from the editor's commentary, accessed at http://cattailsjournal.com/backissues/cattails161.pdf
For further discussion about "yugen", see my "Poetic Musings: Ezra Pound’s "Metro Poem" as a Yugen Haiku," accessed at https://neverendingstoryhaikutanka.blogspot.com/2013/04/poetic-musings-ezra-pounds-metro-poem.html
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