Sunday, August 20, 2023

Butterfly Dream: Crack Haiku by Margaret Chula

English Original

Mother’s dementia
moonlight shines through
a crack in the blinds


Margaret Chula 


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

母親的癡呆症
透過百葉窗的間隙
月光照射進來

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

母亲的痴呆症
透过百叶窗的间隙
月光照射进来


Bio Sketch
 
Margaret Chula has published two collections of tanka: Always Filling, Always Full and Just This. She has promoted tanka through her one-woman dramatization, “Three Women Who Loved Love”, which traveled to Krakow, New York, Boston, Portland, Ottawa, and Ogaki, Japan. Maggie currently serves as president of the Tanka Society of America.

1 comment:

  1. L1 sets the theme and mood while visually evocative and symbolically rich Ls 2&3 offer a glimpse of hope, reminding me of the following powerful lyrics:


    Ring the bells that still can ring
    Forget your perfect offering
    There is a crack, a crack in everything
    That’s how the light gets in.

    Leonard Cohen, "Anthem," 1992

    FYI: The moon is a Buddhist symbol of enlightenment.

    And it might be interesting to do a thematic comparative reading of my haiku below:

    Father slipping
    through the cracks in words ...
    patchy fog

    Commended, 2016 New Zealand Poetry Society Haiku Competition

    ReplyDelete