Thursday, May 9, 2013

One Man’s Maple Moon: Death Tanka by Kirsten Cliff

English Original

on the morning
of her death, I sit
searching
for the small differences
between these wild finches

Simply Haiku, 10:1, Spring/Summer 2012

Kirsten Cliff


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

在她去世的早晨
我坐著

找尋
這些野生雀之間
的微小差異

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

在她去世的早晨
我坐著
找寻
这些野生雀之间
的微小差异


Bio Sketch

Kirsten Cliff is a New Zealand writer and poet whose work has been published in journals worldwide, and will soon appear in A New Resonance 8. She is currently working on her first collection, Patient Property, which explores her recent journey through leukaemia. Kirsten is editor of the haikai section of the New Zealand Poetry Society magazine, a fine line, and she blogs at Swimming in Lines of Haiku.

2 comments:

  1. What's left out is thematically and emotionally poignant: the BIG differences between life and death.

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  2. Pointing out the BIG differences helped me intellectually understand how the poem worked on an emotional level. Then it made sense. Thanks.

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