English Original
empty shelf --
dusty outlines of books
my parents read
The Heron's Nest, 3:4, April 2001
Kirsty Karkow
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
空架子 --
我父母讀過書籍所留下
佈滿灰塵的輪廓
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
空架子 --
我父母读过书籍所留下
布满灰尘的轮廓
Bio Sketch
Kirsty Karkow lived in Waldoboro, Maine, where she wrote haiku, sijo, tanka, and other short forms. Lyrical, poignant, and spare, her poetry reflected a rich and deep sense of place and spirit. Her haiku have won the Mainichi and the R.H Blyth Award and placed in other contests. And she had two best-selling books in print: water poems: haiku, tanka and sijo and shorelines: haiku, haibun and tanka , published by Black Cat Press.
The jux. of an "empty [book]shelf/L1" and "dusty outlines of books/L2" is visually evocative and L3, "my parents read [in long bygone years as implied from "dusty" in L2]," adds emotional weight to the haiku about [at least two] types of absence -- the absence of the speaker's parents and the absence of the books.
ReplyDeleteAnd it might be interesting to do a thematic comparison reading of my senryu below:
reading alone
a room of books filled
with dead voices
Failed Haiku, 2:23, 2017