English Original
rolling thunder
the slippers he hates
slide under the bed
barefoot i tiptoe
around his anger
the slippers he hates
slide under the bed
barefoot i tiptoe
around his anger
Second Place, Where Tanka Prose Grows, 2019
Roberta Beary
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
陣陣雷聲
他討厭的拖鞋
滑到床底下
赤腳我踮著腳尖
繞過他的憤怒
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
阵阵雷声
他讨厌的拖鞋
滑到床底下
赤脚我踮着脚尖
绕过他的愤怒
Bio Sketch
Roberta Beary writes to connect with the disenfranchised, to let them know they are not alone. She coedited the women’s haiku anthology Wishbone Moon (Jacar Press, 2018.) Her collections, The Unworn Necklace (Snapshot Press, 2007) and Deflection (Accents, 2015) are multiple award winners. She is haibun editor for Modern Haiku.
L1, "rolling thunder," sets the tone and mood of this relationship tanka, and psychologically speaking, functions more like as a simile for the man's "temperament" in Ls 2&3, and the description of this stimulus (Ls 2&3)and response (Ls 4&5) episode in the marital/live-in relationship is symbolically rich and poignantly effective.
ReplyDeleteFYI: The rolling sound of thunder is caused by the "multiple reflections of the sound of lightning" between the clouds and the earth's surface. And temperament, in psychology, an aspect of personality concerned with "emotional dispositions and reactions and their 'speed and intensity.'"