A Room of My Own: Drifting in White Ribbons Tanka

Re-Homing in the Maple Land, XLIII

written on Canada Day Eve

twilight mist

drifting in white ribbons

over the river ...

thoughts of staying or going

tangled in my immigrant past

FYI: This could be read as a sequel to the following gembun

Re-Homing in the Maple Land, XLII

A new life in this promised land of milk and honey, where my veil of forgetfulness drapes like a shroud.

shoppers come and go

“I used to be” in the folds

of my Walmart smile

NeverEnding Story, December 14 2025

This gembun could be read as a sequel to my tanka below:

at winter twilight

should have, could have, would have

are a boulder

rolling down the hill of life

I push it up, and yet ...

Gusts, 39, Spring/Summer 2024

And this tanka could be read as a sequel to my tanka prose below:

The Point of No Return

On the day of my emigration to Canada, a land of maple leaves and snowflakes that will eventually bury my past.

a parting

of summer clouds

mother

lets go of my hand

. . . and of my heart

Ribbons, 16:1, Winter 2020

Added: Re-Homing in the Maple Land, XLIV

a fork in the road —  

thoughts of returning

to my homeland

as a blue butterfly veers

into the narrower trail

Butterfly Dream: Mountain Path Haiku by Dave Read

English Original

mountain path ...

I slip a little

into the past

Fifty at Fifty: My Haiku, 2021

Dave Read 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

山路 ...

我漸漸地回到

過去

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

山路 ...

我渐渐地回到

过去

Bio Sketch

Dave Read is a Canadian poet living in Calgary.  He writes short poems with an emphasis on the Japanese genres of haiku, senryu, tanka, and haibun.  His work has been published in many journals, including dust devils: The Red Moon Anthology of English-Language Haiku 2016.  You can visit his blog, davereadpoetry.blogspot.ca.

Butterfly Dream: Twilight Campfire Haiku by Keitha Keyes

English Original

twilight campfire

spirits of the past

envelop us

Echidna Tracks, 11, 2023

Keitha Keyes 


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

暮色營火

過去的幽魂

籠罩著我們

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

暮色营火

过去的幽魂

笼罩着我们

Bio Sketch

Keitha Keyes lives in a tiny house in Sydney, filled with her husband’s model ships and her many antique irons and trivets. She enjoys writing haiku, senryu, gembun, tanka, cherita, sequences and tanka prose. Her work is published in many print and online journals in Australia and overseas.

Poetic Musings: It is always three o'clock in the morning by Chen-ou Liu

It is always three o'clock in the morning

day after day.

the ghostly past

lurking around the corner

of my mind ...

with a scalpel of words

I stab into its heart

However, my immigrant past is never ...dead -- gone and forgotten. It is not even past.

 

Distressed and alone by the bedroom window, in the wake of a dream about a Taiwan blue magpie disappearing into the dark forest, I hear Time passing in the sound of snow.

Ribbons, 19:1, Winter 2023

contemporary haibun, 19, 2024

(annual anthology showcasing a "state-of-the-art selection of haibun, tanka prose, and haiga from journals around the world")

Chen-ou Liu

Commentary (emailed to me by Tanka Prose Editor, Liz Lanigan):

A short and powerful piece of self reflection where the poet seems to be preparing themselves for an intense look-back at family history.

Love the final sentence… “I hear Time passing in the sound of snow”  -- Carole Harrison.

I think you published a little masterpiece: Chen-ou Liu’s  “It is always three o’clock in the morning”. It is the piece I am copying into my journal. I don’t feel like analysis, but it’s haunting and meaningful and I love the format which is innovative I think. -- Gerry Jabobson

Note: The run-on title alludes to the following remark:

But at three o'clock in the morning, a forgotten package has the same tragic importance as a death sentence, and the cure doesn't work-- and in a real dark night of the soul it is always three o'clock in the morning, day after day.

― F. Scott Fitzgerald, "The Crack-Up"

And “The dark night of the soul” was a phrase first used by the Spanish mystic St John of the Cross in 16th century.

One Man's Maple Moon: Surgical Knife Tanka by Fumiko Nakajo

English Original

as the surgical knife

slowly slits open

the past

my fetuses appear

kicking each other in the dark

Breasts of Snow, 2004

Fumiko Nakajo 

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

當手術刀

慢慢地切開

我的過去

一對胎兒浮現了

並在黑暗中相互踢打

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

当手术刀

慢慢地切开

我的过去

一对胎儿浮现了

并在黑暗中相互踢打

 

Bio Sketch

Fumiko Nakajo (中城ふみ子, 1922-54) was a strong-willed woman who lived a tragic life. She died from breast cancer at the age of 32, just few months after her first collection of 50 tanka, titled Chibusa Soshitsu (The Loss of Breasts), won the first prize in a nationwide contest sponsored by a major magazine. She is, though almost unknown outside of Japan, considered to be the third in the three most famous Japanese female poets in the last century, right up there with Akiko Yosano and Machi Tawara.

One Man's Maple Moon: from Rooftop to Rooftop Tanka by Brian Zimmer

English Original

crows cawing

from rooftop

to rooftop ...

no answer

but the past

Brian Zimmer

Chinese Translation (Traditional)

從一座屋頂

到另一座屋頂

烏鴉在哀鳴 ...

沒有答案

但是只有過去

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

从一座屋顶

到另一座屋顶

乌鸦在哀鸣 ...

没有答案

但是只有过去

Bio Sketch

Brian Zimmer wrote from the banks of the Mississippi River in St. Louis, Missouri. His work had appeared in various international print and online journals. He took inspiration from a variety of sources, including the ancient Japanese poetic-diary (utanikki) and free-form, poetic "essay" (zuihitsu).

One Man's Maple Moon: Driftwood Tanka by Martha Magenta

English Original

I try to make sense
of my half-forgotten past
I begin to resemble
the driftwood
cast out of the sea

Ribbons, 13:1, Winter 2017

Martha Magenta


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

我試圖理解

一半已遭被遺忘的過去

我開始看起來

像是一根浮木

被拋出大海

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

我试图理解

一半已遭被遗忘的过去

我开始看起来

像是一根浮木

被抛出大海

 

 

Bio Sketch

Martha Magenta lived in England, UK. Her haiku and tanka had appeared in a number of journals, and anthologies. She was awarded Honourable Mentions for her haiku in The Fifth Annual Peggy Willis Lyles Haiku  Awards, 2017, and in the 71st Basho Memorial English Haiku Contest, 2017, and for her tanka in UHTS  “Fleeting Words” Tanka Contest 2017.

A Room of My Own: Inner Child Tanka

this tinge of pink
in the gray evening sky ...
I murmur
to my inner child
let go of past hurts

One Man's Maple Moon: Sign of Trouble Tanka by Marilyn Fleming

English Original

white rump
of a flicker in flight
hightailing it
at the first sign of trouble
my past comes back to haunt me

A Hundred Gourds, 5:1, 2015

Marilyn Fleming


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

在拼命飛逃時
一隻鳥的白臀
左右晃動
在麻煩顯現第一個跡象時
我的過去回過頭來困擾我

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

在拼命飞逃时
一只鸟的白臀
左右晃动
在麻烦显现第一个迹象时
我的过去回过头来困扰我 


Bio Sketch

Marilyn Fleming is a Wisconsin short form poet and sumi-e haiga artist. Her special interests are Asian forms of poetry (haiku tanka and haibun.) She is widely published in US as well as internationally.  To see some of her recent work, visit  her website or follow her on twitter: @mflem9811

One Man's Maple Moon: Knothole Tanka by Rebecca Drouilhet

English Original

the knothole
where a branch once grew ...
I carry
the scars of a past
that isn't past at all

Moonbathing, 17, 2017

Rebecca Drouilhet


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

這個樹幹結洞
曾有一根樹枝長出來 ...
我仍背負
尚未結束之過去
的一些傷疤

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

这个树干结洞
曾有一根树枝长出来 ...
我仍背负
尚未结束之过去
的一些伤疤


Bio Sketch

Rebecca Drouilhet is a retired registered nurse whose haiku and tanka have appeared in numerous print journal and ezines.  She won a Sakura Award in the 2012 Vancouver Cherry Blossom Haiku Invitation and an Honorable Mention in that same contest in 20`7.  The Japanese Tanka Poets Society has awarded her a Certificate of Fine Tanka.  In her free time, she enjoys reading, playing word games and spending time with her large family in Picayune, Mississippi.

One Man's Maple Moon: Tire Swing Tanka by H. Gene Murtha

English Original

even now
decades later
I wait
on the tire swing
hanging in the elm

Biding Time: Selected Poems 2001-2013, 2013

H. Gene Murtha


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

即使幾十年後
的此時此刻
坐在掛在榆樹
的輪胎鞦韆上
我仍在等待

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

即使几十年後
的此时此刻
坐在掛在榆树
的轮胎鞦韆上
我仍在等待


Bio Sketch

H. Gene Murtha, a naturalist and poet, sponsored and judged the first haiku contest for the inner city children of Camden, NJ., for the Virgilio Group, of which he was a lifetime member. He was widely published for his work in haikai literature from the USA to Japan.