English Original
across the black sky
the constellations dimming:
the moon, its fullness
Across the Windharp, 1999
Elizabeth Searle Lamb
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
穿過黑色的天空
一座又一座的星座變暗:
月亮, 最圓的時刻
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
穿过黑色的天空
一座又一座的星座变暗:
月亮, 最圆的时刻
Bio Sketch
Elizabeth Searle Lamb (January 22, 1917 – February 16, 2005) was an American poet, a major voice in the world of English-language haiku. She won more than 150 awards in the haiku field and her work was translated into many languages. She served as president of the Haiku Society of America in 1971, and she was involved in the establishment of the American Haiku Archives (AHA) and was its first Honorary Curator (1996–1998).
The opening word, "across," effectively creates a seemingly boundless image of the night sky, and L2 leaves a question for the reader to ponder: why are the constellations dimming?
ReplyDeleteIn L3, the visual focus shifts to the moon, and then the concluding phrase, "its fullness," gives a hint to one of the possible answers to the question raised after L2.