English Original
after the hurricane
a tsunami
of mosquitoes
Haiku Laureate, 2022 Hexapod Haiku Challenge
Ali Znaidi
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
颶風過後
像海嘯一般強大
群聚的蚊子
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
飓风过后
像海啸一般强大
群聚的蚊子
Bio Sketch
Ali Znaidi (b.1977) is a Tunisian poet, haikuist, writer, and translator living in Redeyef, Tunisia. A former English teacher with a degree in Anglo-American studies, Znaidi published a haiku collection, Bye, Donna Summer! (2014), and his haiku have been included in top international haiku journals. His honors include a nomination for the Pushcart Prize in 2018, a silver medal in the UPLI Global Poetry Contest in 2015, the Grand Prize in the 8th Yamadera Bashō Memorial Museum English Haiku Contest in 2016, and a Special Recognition/Lauréates in the 2013 Fujisan Haiku Contest. Follow him on Twitter at @AliZnaidi.
The buildup to the last line is unexpected yet visually and emotionally poignant. Ali's shasei (sketch from life) haiku provides a realistically convincing and powerful take on an all-too-familiar human experience seen from a different lens: it's not about bodies buried in mud and rubble, or floating in water, which is obvious to us, but about "countless objects filled with still water – the perfect habitat for developing mosquitoes. Mosquitoes are not just a nuisance; they can also be incredibly dangerous, as disease vectors of medical and veterinary importance. In fact, vector-borne diseases kill more than 700,000 people annually, more than an order of magnitude more than die in natural disasters. This haiku piles disaster on disaster, skillfully referencing a second natural disaster, a tsunami, to metaphorically describe the onslaught of mosquitos that comes after a hurricane. The third line startles the reader, almost adding an element of humor through its surprise." (the quoted section from judge's comments).
ReplyDeleteThis is a fine example where the technique of twist/surprise ending is employed. For more, see "To the Lighthouse: Twist/Surprise Ending, accessed at https://neverendingstoryhaikutanka.blogspot.com/2021/06/to-lighthouse-twistsurprise-ending.html