my friends tell me
that they are breaking up
I stand at the sink
-- rinse the cloudy rice over
and over again
Always Filling, Always Full, 2001
Margaret Chula
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
我朋友告訴我
他們正在分手的階段
我站在水槽邊
-- 沖洗混濁的米一遍
且又一遍
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
我朋友告诉我
他们正在分手的阶段
我站在水槽边
-- 冲洗混浊的米一遍
且又一遍
Bio Sketch
Margaret Chula has published two collections of tanka: Always Filling, Always Full and Just This.
She has promoted tanka through her one-woman dramatization, “Three
Women Who Loved Love”, which traveled to Krakow, New York, Boston,
Portland, Ottawa, and Ogaki, Japan. Maggie currently serves as president
of the Tanka Society of America.
Generally speaking, I think a poet should follow Voltaire's advice below:
ReplyDeleteAdjectives are frequently the greatest enemy of the substantive.
However, in the case of Margaret's well-crafted tanka, the adjective, "cloudy," is emotionally effectively used; thus it helps carry metaphoric significance and add one more layer of meaning to the poem.
And her use of repetition successfully adds emotional weight to the poem.