English Original
a string quartet
pulls up so slowly
a heaviness
tied deep in a female body
feelings buried by the years
ATPO Special Feature: Chiaroscuro, 2012
Jane Reichhold
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
弦樂四重奏
如此緩慢地拉起他們的弦
一種沉重之感
深深地綁在女性身體裡
長期被歲月掩埋
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
弦乐四重奏
如此缓慢地拉起他们的弦
一种沉重之感
深深地绑在女性身体里
长期被岁月掩埋
Bio Sketch
Jane Reichhold was born as Janet Styer in 1937 in Lima , Ohio , USA . She had published over thirty books of haiku, renga, tanka, and translations. Her latest tanka book, Taking Tanka Home was translated into Japanese by Aya Yuhki. Her most popular book is Basho The Complete Haiku by Kodansha International. As founder and editor of AHA Books, Jane also published Mirrors: International Haiku Forum, Geppo, for the Yuki Teikei Haiku Society, and she had co-edited with Werner Reichhold, Lynx for Linking Poets since 1992. Lynx went online in 2000 in AHApoetry.com the web site Jane started in 1995. Since 2006 she had maintained an online forum – AHAforum
The comparison between the two parts ("string quartet," a special status and significance in Western musical culture vs "female body," objectified space of patriarchal surveillance) is fresh and thought-provoking, and L3, a"heaviness," is layered with multiple meanings.
ReplyDeleteIt might be interesting to do a comparative reading of the following tanka:
I’d like to be a man
not for a day
but for a night
just to take a walk
alone in it
Laura Maffei
the diary
under a floorboard
in his room
the broken mirror reflects
her breast binder
(for Ru-nas)
Chen-ou Liu
Note: Ru-na literally means “be/act like (ru) a man (na)” in Chinese