English Original
father's gold watch
sits unused
in a top drawer ...
time ceases to matter
in the dementia ward
Unfinished Conversations, 2021
Anne Curran
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
在最上面的抽屜裡
父親的金表
擺著未使用 ...
在失智症病房裡
時間不再重要了
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
在最上面的抽屉里
父亲的金表
摆着未使用 ...
在失智症病房里
时间不再重要了
Bio Sketch
Anne Curran lives in Hamilton, New Zealand. She has been writing Japanese short verse forms for about eleven years. She is grateful for the inspiration provided by editors, fellow poets and friends. Like a good wine she hopes only to improve her writing with age.
Anne's tanka highlights the difference between time (measured by a gold watch) and temporality (experienced by a dementia patient, the speaker's father).
ReplyDeleteFYI: Time and temporality are distinct things. While time is related to the pass or the flow of time occurring in the present, temporality is related with the concept of past, present and future.
And my tanka below could be read as a sequel to Anne's:
dewdrops
in winter twilight
Father slips
into a world of his own
there ... but not there
take 5ive, 2, 2022