Monday, August 3, 2020

One Man's Maple Moon: Black Pearl Tanka by Pamela A. Babusci

English Original

inside her chest
all the accumulated
pain
of a black pearl
that once was her heart

Pamela A. Babusci


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

在她的胸腔內
一顆黑色珍珠
那曾經是她的心
累積了所有
的痛楚

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

在她的胸腔内
一颗黑色珍珠
那曾经是她的心
累积了所有
的痛楚


Bio Sketch

Pamela A. Babusci  is an internationally award winning haiku, tanka poet and haiga artist. Some of her awards include: Museum of Haiku Literature Award, International Tanka Splendor Awards, First Place Yellow Moon Competition (Aust) tanka category,  First Place Kokako Tanka Competition,(NZ) First Place Saigyo Tanka Awards (US), Basho Festival Haiku Contests (Japan).  Pamela has illustrated several books, including: Full Moon Tide: The Best of Tanka Splendor Awards, Taboo Haiku, Chasing the Sun, Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka, and A Thousand Reasons 2009. Pamela was the founder and now is the solo Editor of Moonbathing: a journal of women’s tanka; the first all women’s tanka journal in the US.

2 comments:

  1. Pamela's tanka effectively builds, line by line, to a visually poignant and symbolically rich ending that reveals the theme of the wounded heart/black pearl (a symbol surrounded by a mysterious aura and perceived by some people as a symbol of hope for wounded hearts).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. My tanka below could be read as a sequel to Pamela's:

      all the bitterness
      locked inside her heart ...
      the clicking
      of grandma’s needles
      late into the night

      Atlas Poetica, 34, 2018

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