English Original
Margaret Chula
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
再一次
我幫母親
寫訃告
縷縷薄霧
籠罩著楓樹
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
再一次
我帮母亲
写讣告
缕缕薄雾
笼罩着枫树
Bio Sketch
Margaret Chula has published two collections of tanka: Always Filling, Always Full and Just This. She has promoted tanka through her one-woman dramatization, “Three Women Who Loved Love”, which traveled to Krakow, New York, Boston, Portland, Ottawa, and Ogaki, Japan. And from 2011 to 2015, Maggie served as president of the Tanka Society of America.
Margaret's tanka effectively builds line (poetic phrase/ku) by line (poetic phrase/ku) to a visually evocative and symbolically rich ending that reveals the theme of writing an "advance obituary. "
ReplyDeleteCombined with L1, Ls 4&5 not only imply the difficulty in writing such an obituary, but also add emotional weight and psychological depth to the tanka.
What's left unsaid is at least as potent as what's stated.