English Original
recurring dream --
on the stone steps to the house
my mother
in green and black brocade
how young, how alone
A Hundred Gourds, 1:1, December 2011
Sonam Chhoki
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
反覆出現的夢 --
在通往房子的石階上
我的母親
身穿綠色和黑色的錦緞
多麼年輕, 多麼孤獨
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
反覆出现的梦 --
在通往房子的石阶上
我的母亲
身穿绿色和黑色的锦缎
多么年轻, 多么孤独
Bio Sketch
Sonam Chhoki finds the Japanese short form poetry resonates with her Tibetan Buddhist upbringing. She is inspired by her father, Sonam Gyamtsho, the architect of Bhutan's non-monastic modern education and by her mother, Chhoden Jangmu, who taught her: “Being a girl doesn’t mean you can’t do anything.” She is the principal editor, and co-editor of haibun for the United Haiku and Tanka Society journal, cattails.
After L1 sets the theme ("dream") and mood ("recurring"), the rest of the tanka effectively builds, line by line, to a thematically significant and visually and emotionally poignant ending that reveals the counter-theme of the popular Victorian image of the ideal woman/wife/mother -- "the Angel in the House."
ReplyDeleteWhat's left unsaid, but hinted at in L1, is the lifetime impact of this lonely image of a young mother on the mother-and-child/the speaker relationship.