English Original
a dead brown seed
becoming in a muddy pot
a white flower
it is a lie you know
about death, I mean
A Gift of Tanka, 1990
Jane Reichhold
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
乾枯的棕色種子
在泥潭中生長成
一朵白花
我的意思是, 這是你所知道
關於死亡的謊言
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
干枯的棕色种子
在泥潭中生长成
一朵白花
我的意思是, 这是你所知道
关于死亡的谎言
Bio Sketch
Jane Reichhold was born as Janet Styer in 1937 in Lima , Ohio , USA . She had published over thirty books of haiku, renga, tanka, and translations. Her latest tanka book, Taking Tanka Home was translated into Japanese by Aya Yuhki. Her most popular book is Basho The Complete Haiku by Kodansha International. As founder and editor of AHA Books, Jane also published Mirrors: International Haiku Forum, Geppo, for the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society, and she had co-edited with Werner Reichhold, Lynx for Linking Poets since 1992. Lynx went online in 2000 in AHApoetry.com the web site Jane started in 1995. Since 2006 she had maintained an online forum – AHAforum
The contrasts (life vs death; natural truth, reality/a dead seed growing into a white flower vs lie, personal conviction) between two parts of the tanka are thought-provoking and visually and emotionally effective.
ReplyDeleteAnd it might be interesting to do a thematic comparative reading of the following tanka:
fallen into sleep
as if drawn to the bottom
of the water
I store one night's worth
of death within me
Gusts, 20, Fall/Winter 2014
Aya Yuhki