English Original
the last of his tribe
an old man in velvet trousers
whistling a Beatles' song
shuffles down the street
a flower in his hand
Gusts, 27, Sprint/Summer 2018
Susan Mary Wade
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
氏族最後的倖存者
一個穿絲絨長褲的老人
吹著披頭士的歌
拖著腳步走在街上
手裡拿著一朵花
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
氏族最后的幸存者
一个穿丝绒长裤的老人
吹着披头士的歌
拖着脚步走在街上
手里拿着一朵花
Bio Sketch
Susan Mary Wade's tanka have appeared in The Tanka Journal, International Tanka, Gusts, Ribbons, Moonbathing and Frameless Sky. Her work has been anthologised and she has received an award from The International Tanka Competition in Japan on three occasions.
Susan's "character tanka" effectively builds, poetic phrase (ku)/line by poetic phrase (ku)/line, to a thematically significant and visually and symbolically powerful ending that reveals the theme of "flower power" (L5 held by one of flower children, L1, whistling "All Your Need Is Love," L3).
ReplyDeleteFYI: Flower power was a slogan used during the late 1960s and early 1970s as a symbol of passive resistance and nonviolence.[1] It is rooted in the opposition movement to the Vietnam War.[2] The expression was coined by the American Beat poet Allen Ginsberg in 1965 as a means to transform war protests into peaceful affirmative spectacles.[3][4][5] Hippies embraced the symbolism by dressing in clothing with embroidered flowers and vibrant colors, wearing flowers in their hair, and distributing flowers to the public, becoming known as flower children.[6] ...
... A July 7, 1967, Time magazine cover story on "The Hippies: Philosophy of a Subculture", and an August CBS News television report on "The Hippie Temptation",[31] as well as other major media exposure, brought the hippie subculture to national attention and popularized the Flower Power movement across the country and around the world. That same summer, the Beatles' hit single "All You Need Is Love" served as an anthem for the movement.[32] On 25 June, the Beatles performed the song on the Our World international satellite broadcast, ensuring that the pacifist message reached an audience estimated at 400 million.[33]...
-- excerpted from the Wikipedia entry, "Flower Power," accessed at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flower_power