Tuesday, December 1, 2020

One Man's Maple Moon: Insomniac Poet Tanka by Aya Yuhki

English Original

an insomniac poet
looking for words at midnight --
through the window
a tower glazed with rain
at the end of town

Gusts, 31, Spring/Summer 2020

Aya Yuhki 


Chinese Translation (Traditional) 

失眠的詩人
在午夜尋找書寫材料 --
眼望窗外
看到在小鎮的盡頭
被雨水洗淨的塔樓

Chinese Translation (Simplified) 

失眠的诗人
在午夜寻找书写材料 --
眼望窗外
看到在小镇的尽头
被雨水洗净的塔楼


Bio Sketch

Aya Yuhki was born and now lives in Tokyo. She started writing tanka more than thirty years ago and has expanded her interests to include free verse poetry, essay writing, and literary criticism. Aya Yuhki is Editor-in-Chief of The Tanka Journal published by the Japan Poets’ Society. Her works are featured on the homepage of the Japan Pen Club’s Electronic Library.

1 comment:

  1. Ls 1&2 depict a familiar yet frustrating scene from a poets's writing life while visually and emotionally evocative Ls 3-5 might carry metonymic significance in the state of a poet's mind/mood.

    The following is my solution to writer's block/ creative constipation:

    the muse’s face
    in the lake of my mind
    I fish for words
    rippling
    from our ancient past

    Atlas Poetica, 18, 2014

    ReplyDelete