Thursday, March 28, 2019

One Man's Maple Moon: Courtyard Tanka by Amelia Fielden

English Original

shall I sweep
the courtyard again,
will you come
before my summer ends ?
the crimson rose still blooms

Light on Water, 2010

Amelia Fielden


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

我將要再一次
清掃院子，
你會在我的夏天
結束之前來嗎？
深紅色的玫瑰仍然綻放

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

我将要再一次
清扫院子，
你会在我的夏天
结束之前来吗？
深红色的玫瑰仍然绽放


Bio Sketch

Amelia Fielden,M.A., is an Australian translator of Japanese literature.Widely published, she is also an enthusiastic writer of original Japanese form poetry in English and an editor of English tanka anthologies.
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1 comment:

  1. Chen-ou Liu, 劉鎮歐March 28, 2019 at 8:54 AM

    Grounded in this visually evocative and symbolically rich closing image of the blooming crimson rose, the opening rhetorical question adds emotional weight to the tanka.

    And there is an implicit simile established between the speaker (in the summer phase of her life, L4) and the crimson rose still blooming.

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