English Original
the closed border
between mother and son
amid covid
no one attends the funeral
and yet ... shades of mountain trees
Foreign Language Tanka Excellence Award
Lavana Kray
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
母子之間的邊界
已經封閉
新冠状病毒感染期間
沒有人會參加葬禮
然而... 陰涼的山樹
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
母子之间的边界
已经封闭
新冠状病毒感染期间
没有人会参加葬礼
然而... 阴凉的山树
Bio Sketch
Lavana Kray is from Iasi, Romania. She has won several awards, including the status of Master Haiga Artist from the World Haiku Association. Her work has been published in many print and online journals. She was chosen for 2017 Haiku Euro Top 100. In 2018 she joined the United Haiku and Tanka Society as Haiga Editor of its journal, Cattails. This is her blog.
The first four lines of this heartfelt tanka deals with an emotionally poignant yet, tragically, familiar issue amid Covid-19: the death of a loved one without the proper mourning ritual/funeral. However, the shift in L5 reveals something important/insightful about the narrator's attitude towards/response to the "realities (of life) on the ground."
ReplyDeleteThis tanka reminds me of the "burnt house haiku" by Shokyu-ni:
On my return from Tsukushi at the close of March, I found that my hut had been destroyed by fire. Looking at the ruins, I composed this verse.
violets here and there
in the ruins
of my burnt house
Haiku Mind: 108 Poems to Cultivate Awareness and Open Your Heart
Shokyu-ni
The following is my commentary on the "burnt house haiku:"
DeleteCommentary: As her poetic response to a personal tragedy depicted in the joshi (prefatory note) , Shokyu-ni's haiku addresses centuries-old question: how to confront or deal with the adversity in one's daily life? We can't control what happens, but we can control our response to what happens. And our response depends on our way(s) of seeing the reality on the ground: "the paradox, the complexity, how the good and bad are often intertwined... violets in the ruins" (p. 14)...
-- excerpted from "Poetic Musings: Burnt House Haiku by Shokyu-ni," accessed at http://neverendingstoryhaikutanka.blogspot.com/2020/12/poetic-musings-burnt-house-by-shokyu-ni.html