English Original
under my daffodils
a land snail
stretches forward, forward
pearly house on its back ...
I forget my burdens
“Tanka of Flowing Tranquility,” Atlas Poetica, 2019
Susan Weaver
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
在我的水仙花下
一隻土蝸牛
向前伸展, 向前伸展
珍珠色的房子在它的背上 ...
我忘記了我的重擔
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
在我的水仙花下
一只土蜗牛
向前伸展, 向前伸展
珍珠色的房子在它的背上 ...
我忘记了我的重担
Bio Sketch
After a career as a magazine journalist specializing in bicycling and active travel, Susan Weaver began writing tanka in 2009. Her work appears regularly in Moonbathing, red lights, Ribbons, and elsewhere, and she is tanka prose editor of Ribbons. She lives in Pennsylvania with her landscape-painter husband and two cats.
Unexpected yet thematically significant and psychologically powerful L5 makes this "snail vs man" tanka emotionally effective as poetic food for thought.
ReplyDeleteAnd Susan's tanka remind me of the following one:
one snail
found in the morning
slowly and gently
I become happy
and kind to everyone
Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka, 2, 2010
Kozue Uzawa
FYI: A land snail can reach up to 20 cm (8 inches) in length and 10 cm (4 inches) in maximum diameter. This "pearly house on its back" is a "heavy burden."