Tuesday, October 14, 2025

Butterfly Dream: Writing Name Haiku by H. Gene Murtha

English Original

forty-six years
writing my name
yellow in snow

TempsLibre,  July, 2002

H. Gene Murtha


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

四十六歲
用尿液寫下我的名字
它在雪地裡泛黃

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

四十六岁
用尿液写下我的名字
它在雪地里泛黄


Bio Sketch

H. Gene Murtha, a naturalist and poet, sponsored and judged the first haiku contest for the inner city children of Camden, NJ., for the Virgilio Group, of which he was a lifetime member. He was widely published for his work in haikai literature from the USA to Japan. 

1 comment:

  1. L1, forty-six years (not forty-six years OLD, meaning: the speaker's been living forty-six years in this world), sets the theme and mood while unexpected yet visually and emotionally poignant L3 shows that this birthday, or maybe more importantly, this life makes the speaker so "pissed off."

    And my haiku below could be read as its prequel:

    birthday alone
    a pink slice of dawn
    on my bed

    NeverEnding Story, August 21, 2016

    ReplyDelete