silver bells
on baby slippers
tinkling
each step she takes
holding grandma’s hand
Gusts, 23, spring/summer 2016
Marilyn Humber
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
握住奶奶的手
她每走一步
嬰兒拖鞋
的銀鈴
叮噹響了起來
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
握住奶奶的手
她每走一步
婴儿拖鞋
的银铃
叮噹响了起来
Bio Sketch
Marilyn
Humbert lives in the Northern Suburbs of Sydney NSW surrounded by bush.
Her pastimes include writing free verse poetry, tanka, tanka prose and
related genre. She is the leader of Bottlebrush Tanka Group and member
of the Huddle and Bowerbird Tanka Groups. Her tanka appears in
Australian and international journals.
Marilyn’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 growth in familial love. And the lower verse works effectively on two levels, literal and metaphoric.
ReplyDeleteThat's one small step for a toddler, one giant leap for the family.
-- paraphrasing Neil Armstrong
It also serves as a highly poignant ending, about the absence of mother. Did she die while giving her the birth.
ReplyDelete