English Original
a contrail
stretching straight
toward the sun
I was watching it
until I felt lonely
Gusts, 23, Spring/Summer 2016
Kozue Uzawa
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
凝視
飛機的凝結尾跡
一直延伸
朝向太陽
直到我感到孤獨
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
凝视
飞机的凝结尾迹
一直延伸
朝向太阳
直到我感到孤独
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.
Enhanced by a shift in verb tense (which indicates the passage of time), Kozue's tanka effectively builds, poetic phrase/line by poetic phrase/line, to an emotionally poignant ending that reveals the theme of separation/departure from one's loved one(s).
ReplyDeleteIt might be interesting to do a comparative reading of two of my "contrail tanka" (that could be read as sequels to Kozue's):
her plane leaves
a contrail in the sky
the scar
she inflicted on me
still visible
Ribbons, 14:3, Autumn 2018
I gaze up
at the white contrail
while writing tanka
as if there were magic words
to ground you in my world
Whispers, April 7, 2018