Wednesday, February 12, 2020

One Man's Maple Moon: Wound Tanka by Kozue Uzawa

English Original

washed
by moonlight
my eyes
can see clearly now
a wound in his heart

Moonbathing, 3, Fall/Winter 2010-2011

Kozue Uzawa


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

月光
洗淨我的眼睛
現在我可以
清楚地看到
他心中的傷口

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

月光
洗净我的眼睛
现在我可以
清楚地看到
他心中的伤口


Bio Sketch

Kozue Uzawa is a retired university professor. She works as editor of the English tanka journal GUSTS. She composes tanka both in Japanese and English. She also translates Japanese tanka into English and co-published Ferris Wheel: 101 Modern and Contemporary Tanka (Boston: Cheng & Tsui, 2006), and Kaleidoscope: Selected Tanka of Shuji Terayama (Tokyo: Hokuseido Press, 2008). Ferris Wheel received the 2007 Donald Keene Translation Award for Japanese Literature from Columbia University.

1 comment:

  1. Enhanced by the cultural significance of moonlight (symbolizing "enlightenment"), the shift (from the natural scene to the inner world; from the romantic to the traumatic)in the last line of this relationship tanka is visually and emotionally effective.

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