I sway
with the tide
an anchored ship
knowing the length
of my tether
Ribbons, 13:1 Winter 2017
Marilyn Humbert
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
我隨著浪潮
而搖擺
一艘定錨的船
知道我的繫繩
的長度
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
我随着浪潮
而摇摆
一艘定锚的船
知道我的系绳
的长度
Bio Sketch
Marilyn
Humbert lives in the Northern Suburbs of Sydney NSW surrounded by bush.
Her pastimes include writing free verse poetry, tanka, tanka prose and
related genre. She is the leader of Bottlebrush Tanka Group and member
of the Huddle and Bowerbird Tanka Groups. Her tanka appears in
Australian and international journals.
The upper verse sketches a scene at the sea while the relationship between an anchored ship and the speaker described in the lower verse works well on two levels, literal and figurative.
ReplyDeleteThis is a fine tanka on life and could be read as a poetic response to the following remark:
The life of a man is a struggle for existence with the certainty of defeat.
-Arthur Schopenhauer