Saturday, April 9, 2022

One Man's Maple Moon: Mourning Doves Tanka by Barry George

English Original

this morning
two mourning doves
call as in childhood
their echoing songs
become one

Gusts, 30, Fall/Winter, 2019

Barry George 


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

今天早上
兩隻哀鴿像在童年一樣地
相互呼叫
它們迴響的歌曲
成為一首和諧的歌曲

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

今天早上
两只哀鸽像在童年一样地
相互呼叫
它们回响的歌曲
成为一首和谐的歌曲
  

Bio Sketch

Barry George is the author of Wrecking Ball and Other Urban Haiku and The One That Flies Back, a tanka collection. A regular contributor to haiku and tanka journals, he has won numerous short-form competitions, including First Prize in the Gerald R. Brady Contest. He lives and teaches in Philadelphia. 

1 comment:

  1. Thematically and emotionally speaking, there is an implicit simile established between mourning doves' songs becoming one, Ls 4&5 and the N's past/childhood and present/this morning, Ls 1&3.

    And it might be interesting to do a comparative reading of my tanka below, which could be read as a prequel to Barry's tanka:


    the cooing
    of a dove by my window --
    I try to decipher
    the Morse code sent from you
    an ocean away

    First published in Concise Delight, Winter 2009
    Anthologized in 140 And Counting

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