English Original
a bullet was fired
in the center of his forehead
yet his face
still moving as it haunts
this eerie summer!
White Letter Poems, 1998
Fumi Saito
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
一顆子彈射入
他的額頭正中央
然而他的臉
卻依然在動, 它一直縈繞
這個詭異的夏天!
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
一颗子弹射入
他的额头正中央
然而他的脸
却依然在动, 它一直萦绕
这个诡异的夏天!
Bio Sketch
Daughter of a military officer who was noted for his verse-writing talent, Fumi Saito began writing poetry in the traditional 31-syllable tanka form in her early teens. Her first book of tanka, Fish Songs, published in 1940, immediately established her as a brilliant young poet. She was inducted into the Japan Art Academy in 1993 and invited to serve as meshiudo (a position similar to the Poet Laureate's) at the Imperial Palace in 1997.
This compelling tanka relies on unsettling, surreal imagery to explore the enduring nature of trauma. Its greatest strength lies in its stark juxtaposition of graphic violence of Ls 1&2 against the traditional backdrop of summer in L5 . While summer typically signifies warmth, life, and vitality, here it is subverted into something "eerie," suggesting that horrific events permanently stain and warp the natural world.
ReplyDeleteThis haunting atmosphere is driven by the metaphor of the face "still moving" in L4. Rather than representing physical survival, the moving face symbolizes the inescapable persistence of memory and guilt. The violence cannot be neatly buried; the image of the victim refuses to remain static or silent, continuously haunting the living. Ultimately, the final turn—"this eerie summer!"—masterfully shifts the tanka from a singular moment of violence into a pervasive, atmospheric state of grief that corrupts the very season around it.