Wednesday, February 2, 2022

One Man's Maple Moon: Cliff's Edge Tanka by Brian Zimmer

English Original

I would walk
through the snow
to the cliff’s edge --
a young man dashed
on the rocks below

Sketchbook, 4:6, Nov./Dec. 2009

Brian Zimmer


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

我會穿過雪地
走到懸崖邊 --
從這裡
一個年輕人跳下去
撞到下面的岩石

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

我会穿过雪地
走到悬崖边 --
从这里
一个年轻人跳下去
撞到下面的岩石


Bio Sketch

Brian Zimmer wrote from the banks of the Mississippi River in St. Louis, Missouri. His work had appeared in various international print and online journals. He took inspiration from a variety of sources, including the ancient Japanese poetic-diary (utanikki) and free-form, poetic "essay" (zuihitsu).

1 comment:

  1. Brian's tanka effectively builds, poetic phrase (ku)/line by poetic phrase (ku)/line, to a thematically significant and emotionally poignant ending that reveals the theme of "death instinct" (Thanatos). One important question left to the reader's reflection is why: [the speaker] would walk/ through "the snow"to the "cliff’s edge."

    And it might be challenging to do a comparative reading of my tanka below:

    alone
    on the edge
    of a cliff...
    behind my back
    the shadow

    Honorable Mention, Tanka Section, 2017 British Haiku Society Awards

    Judge's commentary: Reading this was almost unbearable. It came with bleak, stark, shock

    FYI: "death instinct" (Thanatos), American Psychological Association (APA) Dictionary of Psychology, https://dictionary.apa.org/death-instinct

    in psychoanalytic theory, a drive whose aim is the reduction of psychical tension to the lowest possible point, that is, death. It is first directed inward as a self-destructive tendency and is later turned outward in the form of the aggressive instinct. In the dual instinct theory of Sigmund Freud, the death instinct, or Thanatos, stands opposed to the life instinct, or Eros, and is believed to be the drive underlying such behaviors as aggressiveness, sadism, and masochism.

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