autumn metro
the tang of tobacco
and old news
Blithe Spirit, 27:3, 2017
Marietta McGregor
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
秋天地鐵
煙草的味道
和舊新聞
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
秋天地铁
烟草的味道
和旧新闻
Bio Sketch
Marietta McGregor is a retired botanist and journalist from Canberra, Australia. Her haiku, haibun and haiga appear in international journals and anthologies, have gained awards and featured on Japanese television. She belongs to the Australian and British Haiku Societies and the Haiku Society of America.
L1 sets the scene and the seasonal context while Ls 2&3 effectively enhance the tone and mood of this multi-sensory haiku. It might be interested to make a comparative reading of the following metro poem ("first published hokku in English"):
ReplyDeleteIn a Station of the Metro
The apparition of these faces in the crowd;
Petals on a wet, black bough.
Lustra, 1916
Ezra Pound
Note: For more information about Pound's "metro hokku," see my "To the Lighthouse" post, Haikuesque Reading of Ezra Pound’s “Metro Poem” (http://neverendingstoryhaikutanka.blogspot.com/2013/03/to-lighthouse-haikuesque-reading-of.html), and "Poetic Musings" post, Ezra Pound’s "Metro Poem" as a Yugen Haiku (http://neverendingstoryhaikutanka.blogspot.com/2013/04/poetic-musings-ezra-pounds-metro-poem.html)