Monday, October 31, 2016

Butterfly Dream: Halloween Haiku by Fay Aoyagi

English Original

Halloween --
I dress as the self
I left somewhere

In Borrowed Shoes, 2006

Fay Aoyagi


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

萬聖節 --
將自己打扮成為
已在別處捨棄的自我

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

万圣节 --
将自己打扮成为
已在别处捨弃的自我


Bio Sketch

Fay Aoyagi (青柳飛)was born in Tokyo and immigrated to the U.S. in 1982. She is currently a member of Haiku Society of America and Haiku Poets of Northern California. She serves as an associate editor of The Heron's Nest.  She also writes in Japanese and belongs to two Japanese haiku groups; Ten'I (天為) and "Aki"(秋), and  she is a member of Haijin Kyokai (俳人協会).

1 comment:

  1. As time passes, Ms. Aoyagi develops, matures into an awareness not only of the importance of existents other than her own, but to the fact that loss is ineluctable, that memory sustains, that "selves" that once were are now recognized as merely masks, personas of the ego, and not the real Subject/Self.

    -- excerped from "Jouissance: The Poetic Achievement of Fay Aoyagi" by Jack Galmitz, A Hundred Gourds, 1:3, June 2012

    Juxtaposed with "Halloween," the unexpected yet powerful last line sparks the reader's emotions and reflection on the dynamic relationship between role-play mask and identity/identification.

    ReplyDelete