a solitary woman
knows a heartache
or two
tossing scarlet petals
into her evening bath
A Solitary Woman, 2013
Pamela A. Babusci
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
孤獨的女人
懂得一兩件
心痛的事
她將猩紅色的花瓣拋入
夜晚洗澡的浴缸
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
孤独的女人
懂得一两件
心痛的事
她将猩红色的花瓣抛入
夜晚洗澡的浴缸
Bio Sketch
Pamela
A. Babusci is an internationally award winning haiku, tanka poet and
haiga artist. Some of her awards include: Museum of Haiku Literature
Award, International Tanka Splendor Awards, First Place Yellow Moon
Competition (Aust) tanka category, First Place Kokako Tanka
Competition,(NZ) First Place Saigyo Tanka Awards (US), Basho Festival
Haiku Contests (Japan). Pamela has illustrated several books,
including: Full Moon Tide: The Best of Tanka Splendor Awards, Taboo Haiku, Chasing the Sun, Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka, and A Thousand Reasons 2009. Pamela was the founder and now is the solo Editor of Moonbathing: a journal of women’s tanka; the first all women’s tanka journal in the US
With the aid of sensually vivid imagery, the thematic and emotional turn in the lower verse lifts the poem up a notch, transforming the solitary woman portrayed in the upper verse into a woman who "will step with courage and longing toward new connections, bearing with her like scarlet petals the weight of loss, the awareness of risk, and the necessity of love." (Jenny Ward Angyal, "Net of Stars," Skylark, 2:1, Summer 2014, p. 151).
ReplyDeleteThis heartfelt tanka could be read as a sequel to the following one included in the same book, "A Solitary Woman:"
who knows
how to live with
heartache?
finishing my self-portrait
with layers of regret