English Original
early morning
the dew still resting
where it settled
would we could wake refreshed
to look at things in new ways
Now and Here, 2021
Naomi Beth Wakan
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
這個清晨
露水仍靜止
在原地
我們能夠醒來後精神煥發
以新的方式看待事物嗎
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
这个清晨
露水仍静止
在原地
我们能够醒来后精神焕发
以新的方式看待事物吗
Bio Sketch
Naomi Beth Wakan is the inaugural Poet Laureate of Nanaimo (2014–16) and the Federation of British Columbia Writer’s Inaugural Honorary Ambassador. She has published over fifty books. Her most recent book of essays, On the Arts, came out in 2020 (Shanti Arts). Her trilogy, The Way of Tanka, The Way of Haiku, and Poetry That Heals was published by Shanti Arts in 2019. Wakan is a member of The League of Canadian Poets, Haiku Canada, and Tanka Canada. She lives on Gabriola Island, British Columbia, Canada, with her husband, the sculptor Elias Wakan.
Naomi's tanka effectively builds, poetic phrase (ku)/line by poetic phrase (ku)/line, to a thematically significant ending that reveals the theme of ways of "seeing the world anew," which is framed in a rhetorical question, to which the answer is NOT about yes or no, but about HOW. -- that's the REAL question left to each reader to answer.
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