my whole life
a game of hopscotch --
harder at seventy
to hop from square to square
without stepping on the lines
Ripples in the Sand, 2016
Neal Whitman
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
我的一生
就是跳房子遊戲 --
人到七十歲很難
從一個方格跳到另一個方格
而不會踩到線
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
我的一生
就是跳房子游戏 --
人到七十岁很难
从一个方格跳到另一个方格
而不会踩到线
Bio Sketch
Neal
Whitman lives with his wife, Elaine, in Pacific Grove, California,
where he is a docent at Point Pinos Lighthouse. Visitors who come there
from near and far inspire him to write poetry that takes the
“particular" to convey the “universal". Neal is Vice President of the
United Haiku and Tanka Society.
The upper verse creates a simile of life as a "game of hopscotch" while the lower verse reveals the speaker's attitude for aging gracefully. And L5 is infused with symbolic significance, adding philosophical depth to the tanka.
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