English Original
sipping coffee
to the sound of dead leaves
sweeping across the path …
my definition of success
changing day by day
A Hundred Gourds, 3:1, December 2013
Kirsten Cliff Elliot
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
啜飲咖啡
聆聽枯葉橫掃過路面
的聲音 ...
我對成功的定義
每天都在改變
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
啜饮咖啡
聆听枯叶横扫过路面
的声音 ...
我对成功的定义
每天都在改变
Bio Sketch
Kirsten Cliff Elliot is a New Zealand poet and writer. She works in a high school library and is studying towards a BA in Information and Library Studies. Together with her husband, she blogs at Help! My husband has Asperger’s: Our life on the spectrum’s edge.
The multi-sensory prefatory image (Ls 1-3) of sipping coffee while listening to the sound of dead leaves is less about relaxing or enjoying the small things but more about attentive meditation. And the statement in Ls 4&5 is thought-provoking and leaving more interpretative space for the reader's reflection.
ReplyDeleteIt might be interesting to do a comparative reading of the following tanka:
Deletecovering
the ground between us
fallen leaves
I remember the changes
we never made
Ribbons, 12:1, Winter 2016
Martha Magenta