mute swans
under a moon bridge
the things
I should have confessed
make no difference now
First Place, 2016 Fleeting Words Tanka Contest
Debbie Strange
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
在月橋下
一對靜默的天鵝
這些我早就應該承認
的事情
現在都不重要了
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
在月桥下
一对静默的天鹅
这些我早就应该承认
的事情
现在都不重要了
Bio Sketch
Debbie
Strange is an award-winning Canadian short form poet, haiga artist, and
photographer. Keibooks released her second full-length poetry
collection, Three-Part Harmony: Tanka Verses, in 2018, and Folded Word published her haiku chapbook, A Year Unfolding, in 2017. An archive of publications may be accessed at http://debbiemstrange.blogspot.com/
...Selected for the first place in this competition, is this tanka by a well known author from Canada, Debbie Strange. Smoothly composed, the words "mute swans" in line 1 and "under a moon bridge" in line 2 starts it off beautifully. Debbie creates a distinct pause before she goes into lines 2 and 3 which juxtapose with a human relationship. This tanka then finally spills over to line 5, in a flowing crescendo and the moment of closure. Simple images, and straightforward words make this tanka work for anyone and everyone who reads it...
ReplyDelete-- excerpted from the judge's commentary, accessed at http://cattailsjournal.com/backissues/cattails163A.pdf