English Original
my body
out of a million mothers --
budding leaves
plum afternoon, 2017
Kristen Deming
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
我的身體
源自百萬母親 --
剛萌芽的嫩葉
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
我的身体
源自百万母亲 --
刚萌芽的嫩叶
Bio Sketch
Kristen Deming was an accomplished haiku poet and lover of literature. Her haiku collection, Plum Afternoon was a finalist in the Haiku Society of America's Merit Book Award in 2017. As a past president of the Haiku Society of America and active member in the haiku community in Japan for many years, one of Kristen's enduring contributions to the haiku communities around the world was a weekly poetry column in the Japan Times called "Haiku Moments" that she co-wrote with a Japanese colleague for six years, helping to open the world of haiku to English speakers and to give glimpses of Japanese culture through the lens of haiku.
This haiku works exceptionally well. It successfully honors traditional haiku mechanics (3-line, short-long-short layout) while delivering a powerful, modern ecological statement.
ReplyDeleteLs 1 & 2, "My body / out of a million mothers," evokes deep ancestral lineage, evolution, and maternal history, and the em-dash after L2 creates a conceptual leap between human ancestry and nature.
L3, "budding leaves," serves as a traditional spring kigo, and it instantly reframes that human lineage as part of the broader Earth ecosystem. This haiku effectively equates human birth with the seasonal rebirth of the forest.