English Original
late autumn
cutting sprigs of bittersweet --
the harsh reality
of parents who survive
their children
Honorable Mention, 2022 San Francisco International Haiku/Senryu & Tanka Competition
Pamela A. Babusci
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
深秋時分
剪下苦樂參半的小枝 --
喪失孩子們
這些倖存父母面對
嚴酷的生活現實
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
深秋时分
剪下苦乐参半的小枝 --
丧失孩子们
这些幸存父母面对
严酷的生活现实
Bio Sketch
Pamela A. Babusci is an internationally award winning haiku, tanka poet and haiga artist. Some of her awards include: Museum of Haiku Literature Award, International Tanka Splendor Awards, First Place Yellow Moon Competition (Aust) tanka category, First Place Kokako Tanka Competition,(NZ) First Place Saigyo Tanka Awards (US), Basho Festival Haiku Contests (Japan). Pamela has illustrated several books, including: Full Moon Tide: The Best of Tanka Splendor Awards, Taboo Haiku, Chasing the Sun, Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka, and A Thousand Reasons 2009. Pamela was the founder and now is the solo Editor of Moonbathing: a journal of women’s tanka; the first all women’s tanka journal in the US.
...This poem seems to come from the perspective of an older parent looking back on their children. By cutting the sprigs of bittersweet, they’re acknowledging the good times they had with them, while they were alive, or before something else happened to make them feel estranged from their kids. It could be that these parents, through no fault of their own, had hellions as children who were hard to raise, or to the extreme - had kids who turned out to be murderers. I think that by using the word “survive” instead of “outlive,” it alludes to these and other ways of surviving. I also think it speaks to the dichotomy of wanting kids, and how sometimes things, people, or life, don’t turn out as we expect...excerpted from the judge's commentary, accessed at https://www.hpnc.org/2022
ReplyDeleteAnd the following tanka could be read as a poetic response or a prequel to Pamela's:
the old woman
with a walking stick
bent over
her daughter's grave
like a question mark
Ash Moon Anthology, 2008
André Surridge