English Original
in the corridor
of my heart
voices began to chatter
like the sound of a dripping tap
in an empty house
Ardea, 4, 2014
Aya Yuhki
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
在我內心
的走廊
有聲音開始喋喋不休
就像在一個空屋裡
水龍頭不斷滴水的聲音
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
在我内心
的走廊
有声音开始喋喋不休
就像在一个空屋里
水龙头不断滴水的声音
Bio Sketch
in the corridor
of my heart
voices began to chatter
like the sound of a dripping tap
in an empty house
Ardea, 4, 2014
Aya Yuhki
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
在我內心
的走廊
有聲音開始喋喋不休
就像在一個空屋裡
水龍頭不斷滴水的聲音
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
在我内心
的走廊
有声音开始喋喋不休
就像在一个空屋里
水龙头不断滴水的声音
Bio Sketch
Aya Yuhki was born and now lives in Tokyo. She started writing tanka more than thirty years ago and has expanded her interests to include free verse poetry, essay writing, and literary criticism. Aya Yuhki is Editor-in-Chief of The Tanka Journal published by the Japan Poets’ Society. Her works are featured on the homepage of the Japan Pen Club’s Electronic Library.
Employing three different literary devices (spacial metaphor, corridor of my heart; personification, voices chattering, and simile, like the sound of a dripping tap), Aya effectively conveys this sense of "noisy loneliness" through the hollow sound of a dripping tap, the sound that successfully echos in the hallway of this reader's mind.
ReplyDeleteAnd it might be interesting to do a comparative reading of the following tanka:
empty beds
in the old house
at night
the furnace whispers
its litany of names
Gusts, 16, Fall/Winter 2012
Brian Zimmer