Monday, January 21, 2019

One Man's Maple Moon: Cradled Loss Tanka by Brian Zimmer

English Original

infants' cemetery
the soft white
of fallen snow
blankets the grave
of her cradled loss

Spring's First Caress, 2015

Brian Zimmer


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

嬰兒墓地
落雪
的一片柔白
覆蓋她失去撫育
的墳墓

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

婴儿墓地
落雪
的一片柔白
覆盖她失去抚育
的坟墓


Bio Sketch

Brian Zimmer wrote from the banks of the Mississippi River in St. Louis, Missouri. His work had appeared in various international print and online journals. He took inspiration from a variety of sources, including the ancient Japanese poetic-diary (utanikki) and free-form, poetic "essay" (zuihitsu).
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1 comment:

  1. Chen-ou Liu, 劉鎮歐January 21, 2019 at 2:24 PM

    L1 sets the scene and emotional context while the rest of the tanka effectively builds, line by line, to a visually and emotionally powerful ending.

    And the middle lines (functioning like a snow blanket) adds something comforting to Brian's heart-wrenching tanka, which are bookmarked by "infants' cemetery" and "cradled loss."

    ReplyDelete