English Original
first rain releasing held breath of summer
tinywords, 13:3, 2013
Sonam Chhoki
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
第一場雨釋放夏日屏息的呼吸
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
第一场雨释放夏日屏息的呼吸
Bio Sketch
Sonam Chhoki finds the Japanese short form poetry resonates with her Tibetan Buddhist upbringing. She is inspired by her father, Sonam Gyamtsho, the architect of Bhutan's non-monastic modern education and by her mother, Chhoden Jangmu, who taught her: “Being a girl doesn’t mean you can’t do anything.” She is the principal editor, and co-editor of haibun for the United Haiku and Tanka Society journal, cattails.
This one-line haiku succeeds through its subtle personification. By imagining summer as holding its breath, the poem vividly captures the stillness, heaviness, and latent tension of peak heat. The arrival of the “first rain” becomes a sudden, visceral release, breaking that suspended tension in a single gesture. This elegant framing creates a powerful physical and emotional shift, transforming the parched anticipation of summer into an immediate and profound sense of relief.
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