in this squalid
hole-in-the-wall
rented for a day,
an inch of sky enough
through this dirty window
Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka, 1, 2009
Sanford Goldstein
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
在這個骯髒
牆上有洞的房間
租住一天，
經由這個骯髒的窗口
看到一寸的天空就足夠了
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
在这个肮脏
墙上有洞的房间
租住一天，
经由这个肮脏的窗口
看到一寸的天空就足够了
Bio Sketch
Sanford
Goldstein has been publishing tanka for more than fifty years. He was
born in 1925 and is now 94 years old. Long ago, he wrote haiku, but
decided to focus on tanka. His latest books, three in the last two
years, have each said this would be his last.
The upper verse sets the scene while the shift, thematic and emotional, in the lower verse reveals the narrator's optimistic view of life. And the lower verse works well on two levels, literal and symbolic.
ReplyDeleteThis uplifting tanka reminds me of one of my tanka:
home sweet home
in the promised land:
this attic room
ten-square with a fifth
corner of the sky
NeverEnding Story, October 11, 2016