English Original
zombie fires
come back from the dead ...
this wilderness
haunted by skeletons
and memories of trees
Blithe Spirit, 35:4, 2025
Debbie Strange
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
殭屍之火
死而復生
這片荒野
被骷髏和樹木的記憶
纏繞不止
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
僵尸之火
死而复生
这片荒野
被骷髅和树木的记忆
缠绕不止
Bio Sketch
Debbie Strange is a chronically ill Canadian short form poet, haiga artist, and photographer. Snapshot Press released her first full-length haiku collection, Random Blue Sparks, in 2024. It received 3rd Place honours in the 2025 Haiku Society of America’s Merit Book Awards. An archive of awards and publications can be accessed at http://debbiemstrange.blogspot.ca/ and you are welcome to follow her @Debbie_Strange on X and @debbiemstrange on Instagram.
This tanka bridges climate science and Gothic imagery. In L1, “zombie fires,” refers to overwintering peat fires that smoulder underground through freezing winters before reigniting in spring. By framing this ecological phenomenon as a literal haunting in L2, the tanka emphasizes the lingering trauma climate change inflicts upon natural landscapes.
ReplyDeleteIn L4, “skeletons” operates as a powerful double entendre, evoking both charred tree trunks and traditional images of the dead. L5, “memories of trees,” deepens the sense of grief and absence, suggesting ecosystems that survive only as traces or recollections. Nature is irrevocably altered: the once-living forest has become a graveyard of skeletons that refuses to rest in peace.