Monday, February 4, 2013

One Man's Maple Moon: Crystal Glass Tanka by Keitha Keyes

English Original

a crystal glass
on a granite bench
no surprise
when it shatters …
still my sister dies too soon

Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka, Vol. 3, 2010

Keitha Keyes


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

一個水晶杯
在花崗石長椅上
當它粉碎時
我並不感到意外 ...
我的妹妹仍然死得太早

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

一个水晶杯
在花岗石长椅上
当它粉碎时
我并不感到意外 ...
我的妹妹仍然死得太早


Bio Sketch

Keitha Keyes lives in Sydney but her heart is still in the Australian bush where she grew up. Keitha mostly writes haiku and tanka and related genres, revelling in the inspiration, friendship and generosity of these writing communities. Her work appears in Eucalypt, Kokako, Moonbathing, Simply Haiku, GUSTS, Ribbons, red lights, A Hundred Gourds, Take Five, Atlas Poetica, Lynx, FreeXpression, Evening Breeze, Windfall and several other anthologies.

1 comment:

  1. The reality-shattering image in the upper verse and the heart-breaking summary statement in the lower verse (especially "not surprise,.... still") form an emotionally dialectical relationship. Why the sister dies so soon could be inferred from the symbolic connotation(s) of Ls 1&2.

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