Friday, March 18, 2016

One Man's Maple Moon: Cold Afternoon Tanka by Kozue Uzawa

English Original

sensing
his loneliness
I hide my loneliness
in the tea cup
this cold afternoon

I'm a Traveler, 2011

Kozue Uzawa


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

這個寒冷的下午
感受到
他的寂寞
我將我的寂寞
隱藏在茶杯裡

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

这个寒冷的下午
感受到
他的寂寞
我将我的寂寞
隐藏在茶杯里


Bio Sketch

Kozue Uzawa is a retired university professor. She works as editor of the English tanka journal GUSTS. She composes tanka both in Japanese and English. She also translates Japanese tanka into English and co-published Ferris Wheel: 101 Modern and Contemporary Tanka (Boston: Cheng & Tsui, 2006), and Kaleidoscope: Selected Tanka of Shuji Terayama (Tokyo: Hokuseido Press, 2008). Ferris Wheel received the 2007 Donald Keene Translation Award for Japanese Literature from Columbia University.

1 comment:

  1. Through well-chosen words(sensing, hide, and cold)and the use of repetition (loneliness), Kozue effectively conveys the pathos of this intersubjective tanka.

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