Saturday, November 26, 2016

One Man's Maple Moon: Ballerinas Tanka by Debbie Strange

English Original

ballerinas
rehearsing in the park
i never knew
there were so many
graceful ways to die

A Hundred Gourds, 3:3, June 2014

Debbie Strange


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

芭蕾舞演員
在公園裡排練
我一直都不知道
有這麼多
優雅的死法

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

芭蕾舞演员
在公园里排练
我一直都不知道
有这麽多
优雅的死法 


Bio Sketch

Debbie Strange is a Canadian short form poet and haiga artist. You are invited to view her published work at www.debbiemstrange.blogspot.ca and www.twitter.com/Debbie_Strange. Keibooks recently released her first collection, Warp and Weft, Tanka Threads, available through www.createspace.com/5520311 and at www.amazon.ca among others.

1 comment:

  1. Strategically speaking, through a pivot on the unexpected (L3) to uncover the existential/ inevitable aspect of the human condition, Debbie’s tanka effectively builds, poetic phrase (ku)/line by poetic phrase (ku)/line, to a thematically significant and emotionally powerful ending that has the most weight and reveals the theme of death (or more precisely, of the relationship between art and death).

    By the way, I think the ballet referred to in the upper verse might be "Swan lake."

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