One Man's Maple Moon: Glass Trash Tanka by Fumiko Nakajo

English Original

lingering daylight

becomes bluish

on glass trash

let me hear someone’s

words of brutality

Breasts of Snow, 2004

Fumiko Nakajo 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

反射在玻璃垃圾

白晝的餘暉

變成淡藍色

讓我聽聽別人

殘忍的話

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

反射在玻璃垃圾

白昼的余晖

变成淡蓝色

让我听听别人

残忍的话

 

Bio Sketch

Fumiko Nakajo (中城ふみ子, 1922-54) was a strong-willed woman who lived a tragic life. She died from breast cancer at the age of 32, just few months after her first collection of 50 tanka, titled Chibusa Soshitsu (The Loss of Breasts), won the first prize in a nationwide contest sponsored by a major magazine. She is, though almost unknown outside of Japan, considered to be the third in the three most famous Japanese female poets in the last century, right up there with Akiko Yosano and Machi Tawara.