English Original
how it shines
white on the ground
the fresh snow ...
I will step
into this new year
I’m a Traveller, 2011
Kozue Uzawa
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
剛下過的雪
在地上它是多麼
白花花地閃耀 ...
我將步入
這個新的一年
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
刚下过的雪
在地上它是多么
白花花地闪耀 ...
我将步入
这个新的一年
Bio Sketch
Kozue Uzawa is a retired university professor. She works as editor of the English tanka journal GUSTS. She composes tanka both in Japanese and English. She also translates Japanese tanka into English and co-published Ferris Wheel: 101 Modern and Contemporary Tanka (Boston: Cheng & Tsui, 2006), and Kaleidoscope: Selected Tanka of Shuji Terayama (Tokyo: Hokuseido Press, 2008). Ferris Wheel received the 2007 Donald Keene Translation Award for Japanese Literature from Columbia University.
The opening image, Ls 1-3, of fresh falling snow, is visually and emotionally evocative, setting the tone and mood of the tanka while the concluding statement of L4&5 provides a glimpse of hope, this "new year."
ReplyDeleteAnd my tanka below could be read as a prequel to Kozue's:
written on the last day of this surreal year, 2021
I lift my leg high
as the Time Beast approaches ...
kick after kick
at the snowy darkness
until it bleeds daylight
FYI: Ls 1&3 allude to the fierce Bruce Lee kicks.