English Original
The days I did not sing
the nights I did not dance
their joy
spiraling out of the throat
of a hermit thrush
Words as Wings, 2007
the nights I did not dance
their joy
spiraling out of the throat
of a hermit thrush
Words as Wings, 2007
Carol Purington
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
這些我沒有唱歌的日子
這些我沒有跳舞的夜晚
他們的喜悅
從一隻隱士畫眉的喉嚨裡
盤旋而出
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
这些我没有唱歌的日子
这些我没有跳舞的夜晚
他们的喜悦
从一只隐士画眉的喉咙里
盘旋而出
Bio Sketch
Carol Purington used tanka to capture flashes of natural loveliness and psychological insight that drifted around her rural New England home. Her second collection of tanka, Faces I Might Wear, was published in 2013.
... The parallel construction of the opening two lines is that of a song. The strong accents on the final words in each line move the poem forward with a sense of “lifting.” The poem’s progression from the general “The days I did not sing” to the specific and beautiful “throat of a hermit thrush” is lilting—almost like a bird in flight. The staggered line arrangement visually assists this sense of movement. If its lines were all aligned left, how different this poem would read!...
ReplyDelete-- excerpted from "To the Lighthouse: Introduction to The Tanka Anthology by Michael McClintock, accessed at http://neverendingstoryhaikutanka.blogspot.com/2016/05/to-lighthouse-introduction-to-tanka.html