English Original
halfway
up the mountain --
the silence
Haiku Studio, 1991
Patricia Donegan
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
爬到
一半的山路 --
這靜默
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
爬到
一半的山路 --
这静默
Bio Sketch
Patricia Donegan (1945 -- 2023) led a life of creative exploration, meditation, writing, translating and teaching haiku, and teaching haiku. Three of her most famous books of haiku Love Haiku: Japanese Poems of Yearning, Passion & Remembrance (co-translated with Yoshie Ishibashi), Haiku Mind: 108 Poems to Cultivate Awareness and Open Your Heart, and Chiyo-ni Woman Haiku Master (co-translated with Yoshie Ishibashi). In 2017 she was named the honorary curator of the American Haiku Archives.
Ls1&2 set the theme/scene while unexpected yet thematically and emotionally significant L3 reveals a moment of "sudden insight or realization," which makes this mountain climbing haiku meditatively effective.
ReplyDeleteThis haiku reminds me of the following classical English language haiku:
pausing
halfway up the stair --
white chrysanthemums
Across the Windharp: Collected & New Haiku, 1999
Elizabeth Searle Lamb