English Original
ten thousand
cherry blossoms
floating
I wonder where
your ashes are now
Moonbathing, 28, Spring/Summer 2023
Lafcadio
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
難以計數
漂浮
的櫻花
我想知道
你的骨灰在哪裡
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
难以计数
漂浮
的樱花
我想知道
你的骨灰在哪里
Bio Sketch
Lafcadio is a writer and poet living in eastern Tennessee. Her haiku, senyru, tanka and haibun have been exhibited in journals and anthologies. During the full moon she dreams of rabbits.
The symbolically rich jux. of floating "cherry blossoms" and human "ashes" is visually and emotionally poignant, and allusive L1 adds emotional weight to this heart-wrenching tanka.
ReplyDeleteAnd it might be interesting to do a thematic comparative reading of my tanka below:
a girl
pirouetting alone
in the cherry blossom rain
as if tomorrow
has yet to find her
Chrysanthemum, 28, 2020
FYI: This allusive, symbolically rich phrase, "ten thousands," is often found in classical tanka; such as "The Man'yōshū (万葉集, literally Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves)," the oldest extant collection of Japanese waka/tanka.