Sunday, June 10, 2018

One Man's Maple Moon: Twilight Sky Tanka by Kozue Uzawa

English Original

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.

1 comment:

  1. 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.

    Her 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

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