English Original
ink stain
on the pillow slip --
what else but write
can I do
while you’re gone
Tangled Hair, 2, 2000
Michael Dylan Welch
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
墨漬
在枕套上 --
當你不在的時候
除了寫作之外
還有什麼事我可以做
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
墨渍
在枕套上 --
当你不在的时候
除了写作之外
还有什么事我可以做
Bio Sketch
Michael Dylan Welch is the founder of the Tanka Society of America (2000), and co-founder of Haiku North America conference (1991) and the American Haiku Archives (1996). In 2010 he also started National Haiku Writing Month (NaHaiWriMo), which takes place every February, with an active Facebook page. His personal website is www.graceguts.com, which features hundreds of essays, reviews, reports, and other content, including examples of his published poetry.
Michael's tanka effectively builds, poetic phrase (ku)/line by poetic phrase (ku)/line, to a thematically significant and emotionally powerful ending that reveals the theme of writing as a way of easing the pain of loneliness (as indicated in Ls 3-5, the last of which has the most weight)
ReplyDeleteAnd the following tanka could be read as a sequel:
waking half way
through the day
half the sunshine
half the pain
-- still time for a poem
Little Purple Universes, 2011
Helen Buckingham