all my devices
plugged in for the night
I'm free to dream
of the years I had babies
and no screens to nurture
Honorable Mention, 2017 Sanford Goldstein International Tanka Contest
Sheila Sondik
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
晚上將所有的電子設備
都插入儲電
現在我可以自由地做夢
那些年我有孩子
卻沒有使用電子屏幕來養育他們
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
晚上将所有的电子设备
都插入储电
现在我可以自由地做梦
那些年我有孩子
却没有使用电子屏幕来养育他们
Bio Sketch
Sheila Sondik is a poet and printmaker in the Pacific Northwest. A long-time lover of haiku (and practitioner of several other Japanese and Chinese art forms), she began writing haiku and tanka in 2010. Her work has been widely published.
In the first two lines of this unique but relatable tanka, the poet reveals a contemporary setting and also hints of children (devices plugged, or “tucked,” in). She achieves a musicality appropriate for the subject matter through a strong use of assonance (my-devices-night, free-dream-screens) and alliteration (night-no-nurture) as well as a lulling metrical pattern in much of the poem. That particular pattern is temporarily interrupted in the middle line, as a shift occurs and the poet begins to reminisce about her “babies,” contrasting them with the various “screens” that tend to feature all too prominently in our lives nowadays. Personification is a literary device we don’t see all that often in tanka, but it’s used to good effect here.
ReplyDelete-- excerpted from judges' commentary, which can be accessed at http://www.tankasocietyofamerica.org/tsa-contest/winners-and-judges-comments/2017-sanford-goldstein-international-tanka-contest-winners