English Original
sea breeze ...
I breathe in
your accent
First Prize, 2019 Sharpening the Green Pencil Haiku Contest
Martha Magenta
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
海風拂面 ...
我深深吸入
你的口音
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
海风拂面 ...
我深深吸入
你的口音
Bio Sketch
Martha Magenta lived in England, UK. Her haiku and tanka had appeared in a number of journals, and anthologies. She was awarded Honourable Mentions for her haiku in The Fifth Annual Peggy Willis Lyles Haiku Awards, 2017, and in the 71st Basho Memorial English Haiku Contest, 2017, and for her tanka in UHTS “Fleeting Words” Tanka Contest 2017.
...Everything about this poem is charming: who does not welcome a sea breeze? And what is so winsome as a foreign accent (at least when we deem it so)? And what astute reader does not appreciate that slight slip from “breeze” to “breathe” that is at the heart of this poem? So many elements have been piled up to beguile us.
ReplyDeleteBut the poem is not about charm, but foreignness: what can it mean to “breathe in” an accent? We might convince ourselves we know what the poet intends, but in fact it’s impossible to be certain. Doesn't the poem, then, enact itself? This seamless and streamlined packet of words slips by us before we hardly have time to think. We rely upon its charm — trust it, even — to steer us through that which cannot be fully comprehended, to bring us face to face with what we might not be willing to face if we were to think it through. Breathe in an accent? Charming... and then what? So much implicit in a little dalliance beside the sea... excerpted from the judge's commentary, accessed at https://sharpeningthegreenpencil.blogspot.com/2019/03/2019-results.html
And it might be interesting ro do a thematic comparative reading of my haiku below:
Pacific shore...
a tidal wave speaking
my mother tongue
Wednesday Haiku, May 30, 2012
Commentary by aditya: Chen-ou Liu's haiku moved me on a personal level, English not being my own mother language. But of course.. the diasporic element (Pacific shore/a tidal wave..) present in his haiku makes it even more engaging.
Note: My late friend and NeverEnding Story contributor, Martha Magenta, was also moved by my Pacific shore haiku, and wrote her award-winning haiku to cheer me up.