Wednesday, October 13, 2021

Butterfly Dream: Fallen Totem Pole Haiku by Winona Baker

English Original

snowflakes fill
the eye of the eagle
fallen totem pole

Moss-Hung Trees, 1992

Winona Baker 


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

雪花填滿
一隻鷹的眼睛
倒下的圖騰柱

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

雪花填满
一只鹰的眼睛
倒下的图腾柱


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.

1 comment:

  1. The buildup to the last religiously/spiritually significant and symbolically rich line is visually and emotionally effective, and juxtaposed with the eagle's eye covered/blinded by snowflakes, L3 is layered with multiple meanings, and it could be read as a symbol of the fate of the native/indigenous people.

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