English Original
a poet's
greatest dilemma
a rosebud
about to bloom
civilians killed in battle
Bright Stars, 6, 2014
Eve Castle
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
一位詩人
的最大困境
是選擇描繪一朵玫瑰花蕾
即將開花
還是在戰鬥中喪生的平民
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
一位诗人
的最大困境
是选择描绘一朵玫瑰花蕾
即将开花
还是在战斗中丧生的平民
Bio Sketch
Eve Castle started writing short form poetry in 2012. Her poetry has been published with Bright Stars: An Organic Tanka Anthology, The Poetry Pea Journal, Fireflies’ Light, the Wales Haiku Journal, The Ghazal Page, Literary Juice, Gravel Magazine, and others. Find her on Twitter @Eve_Castle
Eve's tanka effectively builds, line by line, to a thematically significant and visually and emotionally powerful ending that reveals a thought-provoking, "seemingly unreconcilable"(greatest dilemma) issue about the theme of a poet's work, one that furthers challenges each and every "aspiring poet' to think long and hard about the role of a poet/the purpose of a poem.
ReplyDeleteThe following tanka (with a classic tanka scene, like Eve's Ls 3&4, in the upper part, and an effective twist in its lower part responding to Eve's L5) might give us a hint in the direction of where there is a creative way out of this "greatest dilemma:"
moonlight's silver glaze
on leaves and grass,
on the jungle stream,
on the faces of soldiers
prepared to kill
Dorothy McLaughlin