English Original
tears flow
around my death bed
as that dread door
opens, at last,
I find my smile
Denis M. Garrison
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
在臨終的時刻
我的眼淚直流
那一刻那扇可怕的門
終於打開了
我找到了我的笑容
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
在临终的时刻
我的眼泪直流
那一刻那扇可怕的门
终于打开了
我找到了我的笑容
Bio Sketch
Denis M. Garrison, from Iowa, now lives in Maryland. His childhood was spent in Japan, youth in Europe, Africa and western Pacific. His poetry’s widely published. Garrison’s print collections include First Winter Rain, Eight Shades of Blue, Hidden River, Sailor in the Rain and Other Poems, and Fire Blossoms.
Enhanced by the effective use of a twist/surprise ending, Denis's tanka builds, line by line, to a thematically significant and visually and emotionally powerful ending that reveals the theme of "death in life and life in death."
ReplyDeleteDenis's heartfelt and thoughtful tanka functions well as a nisei (death poem).
FYI: To the Lighthouse: Twist/Surprise Ending, accessed at http://neverendingstoryhaikutanka.blogspot.com/2021/06/to-lighthouse-twistsurprise-ending.html