waiting for
the fireworks to begin
on the beach
I look up into the twilight sky
with my childhood loneliness
Gusts, 24, Fall/Winter 2016
Kozue Uzawa
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
在沙灘上
等待煙花
開始怒放
我仰望暮色天空
想到我的童年孤獨
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
在沙滩上
等待烟花
开始怒放
我仰望暮色天空
想到我的童年孤独
Bio Sketch
Kozue Uzawa is a retired university professor. She works as editor of the English tanka journal GUSTS. She composes tanka both in Japanese and English. She also translates Japanese tanka into English and co-published Ferris Wheel: 101 Modern and Contemporary Tanka (Boston: Cheng & Tsui, 2006), and Kaleidoscope: Selected Tanka of Shuji Terayama
(Tokyo: Hokuseido Press, 2008). Ferris Wheel received the 2007 Donald
Keene Translation Award for Japanese Literature from Columbia
University.
Kozue's tanka builds, line/poetic phrase (ku) by line/poetic phrase (ku), to an unexpected yet emotionally powerful ending that has the most weight, making the contrast between the two parts of the poem thought-provoking and poignant.
ReplyDeleteHer heartfelt tanka reminds me one of my award-winning tanka about the fireworks:
Roma boys
rummage through the dump site
for scrap metal
riverside fireworks
light the summer sky
Runner-Up, British Haiku Society Tanka Anthology Competition, 2014