Wednesday, June 12, 2024

One Man's Maple Moon: Prairie Motel Tanka by George Swede

English Original

a full moon 
and coyotes howling -- 
we're naked 
on our hands and knees 
in the prairie motel 

Fire Pearls, 2006

George Swede


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

一輪明月
和土狼的嚎叫 --
在草原汽車旅館裡
我們全身赤裸
並且四肢著地

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

一轮明月
和土狼的嚎叫 --
在草原汽车旅馆里
我们全身赤裸
并且四肢着地


Bio Sketch

George Swede's most recent collections of haiku are Almost Unseen (Decatur, IL: Brooks Books, 2000)Joy In Me Still (Edmonton: Inkling Press, 2010) and micro haiku: three to nine syllables (Inspress, 2014). He is a former editor of Frogpond: Journal of the Haiku Society of America (2008-2012) and a former Honorary Curator of the American Haiku Archives (2008-2009).

1 comment:

  1. Ls 1&2 set the tone and mood while wild and sensually Ls 3-5 enhance the alluring power of this tanka about a role/power play, (as implied from L2), a type of "kinky sex.'

    And it might be interesting to do a thematic comparison reading of my tanka below:

    a few shared glances
    by the motel ice machine ...
    this sultry night
    skin-to-skin and breath-by-breath
    filling a hole in our world

    The Bamboo Hut, Spring 2019

    ReplyDelete