English Original
a thousand reasons
to leave him
a thousand reasons
to stay ...
withering bamboo
A Thousand Reasons, 2009
Pamela A. Babusci
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
有一千個理由
離開他
有一千個理由
要留下...
一棵枯竹
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
有一千个理由
离开他
有一千个理由
要留下...
一棵枯竹
Bio Sketch
Pamela A. Babusci is an internationally award winning haiku, tanka poet and haiga artist. Some of her awards include: Museum of Haiku Literature Award, International Tanka Splendor Awards, First Place Yellow Moon Competition (Aust) tanka category, First Place Kokako Tanka Competition,(NZ) First Place Saigyo Tanka Awards (US), Basho Festival Haiku Contests (Japan). Pamela has illustrated several books, including: Full Moon Tide: The Best of Tanka Splendor Awards, Taboo Haiku, Chasing the Sun, Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka, and A Thousand Reasons 2009. Pamela was the founder and now is the solo Editor of Moonbathing: a journal of women’s tanka; the first all women’s tanka journal in the US.
The hesitation in this tanka could last a life time. It is the way the withering bamboo is a symbol of indecision – that peach never eaten – which so entrances the reader. Again, there is a space of negativity which is the heart of the tanka. The juxtaposition of reasons and a withering bamboo tells the reader what the poet's heart is trying to express: go for it, seize the joy before it flies!
ReplyDelete-- excerpted from Dripping Golden Light: An examination of Pamela Babusci’s first collection of tanka, "A Thousand Reasons," Marjorie Buettner, Lynx, XXIV:3, October, 2009, accessed at https://www.ahapoetry.com/ahalynx/243bookreviews.html
Pamela's effective use of syntactic parallelism in Ls 1-4 enhances this state of "being hesitant" discussed in Marjorie Buettner's review.