Sunday, July 23, 2023

One Man's Maple Moon: Headstones Tanka by Paul Williamson

English Original

in pale sunshine
granite boulders dot the paddocks ... 
I remember
the headstones for miners
who once rushed here for gold

Paul Williamson


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

在蒼白的陽光下
花崗岩巨石點綴著牧場 ...
我記得
曾經趕往這裡淘金
的礦工墓碑

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

在苍白的阳光下
花岗岩巨石点缀着牧场 ...
我记得
曾经赶往这里淘金
的矿工墓碑


Bio Sketch

Paul Williamson is an Australian poet who has published poems on eclectic topics in magazines including Neverending StoryEucalypt, Tanka Music AnthologyRagged EdgesPoems to Wear, Poetry Bridges, Atlas Poetica, Gusts, Skylark, RibbonsQuadrant and Cordite.  He writes poems to clarify feelings and impressions, and record them. He has five collections: The DNA Bookshelf, Moments from Red HillTo the Spice IslandsEdge of Southern Bright and Ties to Red Hill  in 2018.

1 comment:

  1. The contrasts, thematic and visual, between the two parts of the tanka are emotionally poignant, effectively carrying socio-historical significance.

    And it reminds me of the third tanka of my tanka sequence, "First Year in the Maple Land," which was first published in "Ribbons," 13:2, Spring/Summer 2017, accessed at https://chenouliu.blogspot.com/2017/10/first-year-in-maple-land.html

    I walk jumbled ground
    above the bones
    of Gold Mountain men ...
    searching for the pieces
    of a broken dream

    Note: After gold was found in the Sierra Nevada in 1848, thousands upon thousands of Chinese began to travel to the West in search of gold and riches. Gold Mountain, the Chinese version of the Promised Land, is historically used broadly to refer to western regions of North America.

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