English Original
moss-hung trees
a deer moves into
the hunter's silence
Moss-Hung Trees, 1992
Winona Baker
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
長滿青苔的樹
一隻鹿進入獵人射擊之前
的死寂
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
长满青苔的树
一只鹿进入猎人射击之前
的死寂
Bio Sketch
Winona Baker was born in March 18, 1924 and moved to British Columbia, Canada in 1930. Living in Nanaimo, she raised four children with her husban. A haiku specialist, she received the top global prize in the 1989 World Haiku Contest in honour of Matsuo Basho’s 300th anniversary. She published Moss-Hung Trees. The title came from her prize-winning haiku. Her work had been translated into Japanese, French, Greek, Croatian, Romanian, and Yugoslavian. She passed away in Nanaimo on October 23, 2020.
L1, "moss-hung" trees, depicts and accentuates the stillness of a forest scene while L3 shows that the hunter holds his breath, waiting for the right moment to shoot. Only the deer in L2 takes a few steps forward. This image of "killing silence" brings up the questions about hunter and hunted/predator and prey, stillness and movement, life and death, for the reader to ponder.
ReplyDeleteThe following is my poetic counter/response to Baker's "hunter's silence haiku:"
noonday heat a boar charging into the hunter's stillness
NeverEnding Story, March 10, 2017