Wednesday, July 9, 2014

One Man's Maple Moon: Snowmobile Tanka by Lynda Monahan

English Original

a snowmobile
goes screaming through
this quiet day --
I see my brother
blue-lipped in a blizzard

Lynda Monahan


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

在這平靜的日子
雪地車
尖聲呼嘯而過 --
在暴風雪中我看到
我弟弟的嘴唇變藍

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

在这平静的日子
雪地车
尖声呼啸而过 --
在暴风雪中我看到
我弟弟的嘴唇变蓝


Bio Sketch

Lynda Monahan is a Canadian poet living in the Nesbit Forest in Saskatchewan.She is the author of two poetry collections,A Slow Dance in the Flames and What My Body Knows, both published by Coteau Books. Her third collection,Verge, is forthcoming in spring of 2015 with Guernica Editions.She has seen her tanka published in Atlas Poetica, Gusts and Ribbons and has published several tanka sets co-written with British poet Joy McCall.

1 comment:

  1. This tanka builds, line by line, to an unexpected yet powerful ending that speaks volumes about the speaker's brother's state of mind or personality.

    The "illness" described in L5 is called cyanosis, which can be caused by not getting enough oxygen to a body part.

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