English Original
evening chill ...
a paper plane stuck
on barbed wire
Second Place, 2019 Sharpening the Green Pencil Contest
Kanchan Chatterjee
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
傍晚的涼意 ...
一架紙飛機卡住
在鐵絲網上
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
傍晚的凉意 ...
一架纸飞机卡住
在铁丝网上
Bio Sketch
Kanchan Chatterjee writes haiku, tanka and haibun, and has won several international awards. He has been published regularly in various online haiku and other poetry journals. His haiku appeared regularly in NHK’, Japan's "Haiku Masters." His poems were featured in a few Indian poetry anthologies, such as Beyond the Fields. His first book of haiku, Scattered Leaves, was published in January, 2020
I can’t be sure, but I expect the poet intends us to read “barbed wire” as an accoutrement of war, though it could be more normal — more mercantile — as simply a measure to keep the cattle penned in. In any case, these flights of childhood are no match to the stern realities of the adult world, and the telling image is an overt lesson to those who come upon it. If not for the slightly “telling” first line, this poem probably would have ranked higher for me... excerpted from the judge's commentary, accessed at https://sharpeningthegreenpencil.blogspot.com/2019/03/2019-results.html
ReplyDeleteIt might be interesting to do a thematic comparison reading of my two barbed fence haiku below:
barbed-wire fence …
a migrant climbs over it
to the moon
Haiku of Merit, Vanguard Haiku, World Haiku Review, Summer 2021
barbed wire fence
the scattered pieces
of a paper moon
German Translation
Stacheldrahtzaun
die verstreuten Fetzen
eines Papiermonds
Chrysanthemum, 25, 2019