I shuffle
along the street at dusk
among crowded people
talking and laughing aloud --
no sign of the sky falling
Ribbons, 12:1, Winter 2016
Aya Yuhki
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
黃昏時沿著街道
我拖著腳步行走
街上擁擠的人群
大聲地說笑 --
天空沒有崩塌的跡象
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
黄昏时沿着街道
我拖着脚步行走
街上拥挤的人群
大声地说笑 --
天空没有崩塌的迹象
Bio Sketch
Aya
Yuhki was born and now lives in Tokyo. She started writing tanka more
than thirty years ago and has expanded her interests to include free
verse poetry, essay writing, and literary criticism. Aya Yuhki is
Editor-in-Chief of The Tanka Journal published by the Japan Poets’ Society. Her works are featured on the homepage of the Japan Pen Club’s Electronic Library.
I delighted in the self-depreciating humor and lyrical description of social anxiety and panic. The subject finds her or himself surrounded by the feared throng only to realize that the sky isn't falling -- that the irrational fear that precluded going out in public hasn't occurred. Anxiety is treated by confronting the feared stimulus and learning that the dreaded expectation didn't come to pass and/or that it could be coped with. In this context, the ability to go outside and survive is nothing less than a world-changing event.
ReplyDelete-- excerpted from "The Tanka Cafe," Ribbons, 12:1, Winter 2016, p.9