Thursday, June 15, 2023

One Man's Maple Moon: Possibilities Tanka by Richard St. Clair

English Original

morning breeze
too cool for comfort
I close the door
to myriad possibilities
this early autumn day

Gusts, 28, Fall/Winter 2018

Richard St. Clair 


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

早晨的微風
太涼爽了感到不舒服
在這個初秋的日子
我關上
有無數能性的大門

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

早晨的微风
太凉爽了感到不舒服
在这个初秋的日子
我关上
有无数能性的大门

 
Bio Sketch

Richard St. Clair (b. 1946) is a New England poet and composer of some renown. In addition to writing haiku and tanka, he also writes haibun and is an enthusiastic sonneteer. As a composer he has set the works of many haiku and tanka poets (living and deceased) to music.

1 comment:

  1. The contrasting, thematically and emotionally, juxposition of "morning breeze/too cool for comfort/ this early autumn day" and "clos[ing] the door/to myriad possibilities" reveals something more significant about the speaker than about this "early" "autumn" weather.

    And it might be interesting to do a thematic comparative reading of Richard's another autumn tanka punlished in the same issue of Gusts

    singing the blues
    not sure whether they're joyful
    or sad
    a flood with motley memories
    a crazed autumnal chorus

    ReplyDelete