English Original
subway cars
in the grey underground
run all night
how do I escape
this endless tunnel
Thelma Mariano
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
地鐵車廂
在灰色的地道中
整夜奔跑
我該如何逃脫
這條無盡的隧道
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
地铁车厢
在灰色的地道中
整夜奔跑
我该如何逃脱
这条无尽的隧道
Bio Sketch
Thelma Mariano is the author of Night Sky: a Selection of Tanka Poetry. She lives in Montreal and has published her tanka in literary journals as well as in various anthologies including Fire Pearls and Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka.
The shift from the train-riding scene of the physical world, Ls 1-3 to the endless struggle of the speaker's inner world, Ls 4&5, is visually and emotionally poignant. And this gray underground transit system portrayed in this heart-wrenching tanka takes on a symbolical significance.
ReplyDelete[The struggles in life are] a constant journey, from birth to death. The landscape changes, the people change, our needs change, but the train keeps moving. "[The struggles in life are] the train, not the stations."
― paraphrasing Paulo Coelho