two stags
their antlers locked in a combat
only one may win
summer
hastily decamping
The Tanka Journal, 47, 2015
Susan Mary Wade
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
兩隻雄鹿的鹿角
在鬥毆中卡住
只有一隻可能會贏
夏季
正匆忙地消逝
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
两只雄鹿的鹿角
在斗殴中卡住
只有一只可能会赢
夏季
正匆忙地消逝
Bio Sketch
Susan Mary Wade has been a regular contributor to The Tanka Journal
(Japan Tanka Poets' Society) for several years now. Her tanka have
appeared worldwide in many magazines and been anthologized. In 2009 and
2016 she was awarded a Certificate of Merit at the 6th & 8th
International Tanka Festival Competitions in Japan.
Thematically speaking, the fierce fighting (vividly portrayed in Ls 1-3), the heat (implied from L4), and quickly disappearing summer (indicated by Ls 4&5) in this stags tanka function well on two levels, literal and figurative.
ReplyDeleteEquipped with the symbolic significance of decamping summer, the fighting scene could be read as an analogy for toxic masculinity.
Note: Below is a relevant excerpt from the wikipedia entry, "Antler:"
Antlers are shed and regrown each year and function primarily as objects of sexual attraction and as weapons in fights between males for control of harems...Antlers are considered one of the most exaggerated cases of male secondary sexual traits in the animal kingdom...