English Original
one robin
drinking water
at the puddle
I will start the engine
after he finishes
I’m a Traveller, 2011
Kozue Uzawa
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
一隻知更鳥
正在水坑旁
喝水
我將等它喝完之後
才會發動引擎
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
一只知更鸟
正在水坑旁
喝水
我将等它喝完之后
才会发动引擎
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.
Kozue's tanka effectively builds, poetic phrase (ku)/line by poetic phrase (ku)/line, to an unexpected yet thematically and emotionally significant ending that reveals the timely, environmentally conscious theme of human kindness toward birds (and animals).
ReplyDeleteHer heartfelt tanka reminds me of the following one:
more war news ...
I feed a stray cat
and flip
the overturned beetle
back onto its feet
Modern English Tanka, 1:1, Autumn 2006
Margarita Engle
And her tanka could be read as a sequel to the following one included in the same collection:
one robin here
another robin there
and one more …
they bring spring
to my winter eyes
I’m a Traveller, 2011
Kozue Uzawa