English Original
a drizzling rain ...
washing their blood
into their blood
Light Run, 1971
Michael McClintock
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
一場毛毛細雨 ...
洗淨他們的血
然後融入他們的血
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
一场毛毛细雨 ...
洗净他们的血
然后融入他们的血
Bio Sketch
Michael McClintock's lifework in haiku, tanka, and related literature spanned over four decades. His many contributions to the field included six years as president of the Tanka Society of America (2004-2010) and contributing editor, essayist, and poet for dozens of journals, anthologies, landmark collections and critical studies. McClintock lived in Clovis, California, where he worked as an independent scholar, consultant for public libraries, and poet. Meals at Midnight [tanka], Sketches from the San Joaquin [haiku] and Streetlights: Poetry of Urban Life in Modern English Tanka, were some of his recent titles.
The use of repetition in this haiku about the Vietnam War is thematically significant and visually and emotionally poignant, and when juxtaposed with symbolically rich L1, it hints at the inevitable conclusion: nothing can clean/wash away the Blood of War.
ReplyDeleteFYI: There is a set of five haiku called 'Vietnam: Five Poems' in "Light Run."