Sunday, December 6, 2020

One Man's Maple Moon: Urge Tanka by Sonam Chhoki

English Original

deep winter
untrammelled by the urge
to sow, weed and reap
I let things be
revisit ancestral dreams

Otata, August 2017

Sonam Chhoki 


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

深冬
不受播種,除草和收割
慾望的驅使
我就讓事情隨它去
並重溫祖先的夢想

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

深冬
不受播种,除草和收割
欲望的驱使
我就让事情随它去
并重温祖先的梦想


Bio Sketch

Sonam Chhoki finds the Japanese short form poetry resonates with her Tibetan Buddhist upbringing.  She is inspired by her father, Sonam Gyamtsho, the architect of Bhutan's non-monastic modern education and by her mother, Chhoden Jangmu, who taught her: “Being a girl doesn’t mean you can’t do anything.” She is the principal editor, and co-editor of haibun for the United Haiku and Tanka Society journal, cattails.

1 comment:

  1. Ls 1-3 indicate the "cyclical nature" of a farming life scene that implies the end of the old year and the beginning of the new one while Ls 4-5 show the desire to re-connect to one's life source/ ancestral roots, symbolizing the "continuation" of one's family line.

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