English Original
a pile
of detective stories
by my chair
as if solving murders
can help me deal with death
Wind on the Heath, 2020
Naomi Beth Wakan
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
一堆
偵探故事
放在我的椅子旁
彷彿解決謀殺案
可以幫助我應對死亡
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
一堆
侦探故事
放在我的椅子旁
仿佛解决谋杀案
可以帮助我应对死亡
Bio Sketch
Naomi Beth Wakan is the inaugural Poet Laureate of Nanaimo (2014–16) and the Federation of British Columbia Writer’s Inaugural Honorary Ambassador. She has published over fifty books. Her most recent book of essays, On the Arts, came out in 2020 (Shanti Arts). Her trilogy, The Way of Tanka, The Way of Haiku, and Poetry That Heals was published by Shanti Arts in 2019. Wakan is a member of The League of Canadian Poets, Haiku Canada, and Tanka Canada. She lives on Gabriola Island, British Columbia, Canada, with her husband, the sculptor Elias Wakan.
Naomi's tanka effectively builds, line by line, to an unexpected yet thematically significant ending that reveals the theme of existential angst, which reminds me of the following remark:
ReplyDeleteLife is a mystery, not a riddle. It has to be lived, not solved.”
― Osho, "When the Shoe Fits: Stories of the Taoist Mystic Chuang Tzu"
And it might be interesting to do a comparative reading of Naomi's another tanka about life included in the same collection:
yet one more
self-help book ...
another trip
around myself, another trip
skirting the edge