English Original
in frangipani breezes
along the white-walled
Key West street
a cat moves and with it
part of the night
The One That Flies Back, 2015
Barry George
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
在瀰漫雞蛋花香的微風中
沿著白牆環繞
的基韋斯特街
一隻貓在走動隨它而來
是夜色的一部分
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
在弥漫鸡蛋花香的微风中
沿着白墙环绕
的基韦斯特街
一只猫在走动随它而来
是夜色的一部分
Bio Sketch
Barry George is the author of Wrecking Ball and Other Urban Haiku and The One That Flies Back, a tanka collection. A regular contributor to haiku and tanka journals, he has won numerous short-form competitions, including First Prize in the Gerald R. Brady Contest. He lives and teaches in Philadelphia.
Ls 1-3 anchor the tanka in a specific place, Key West, a vibrant, southernmost island city in the Florida Keys, giving a clean, sun-bleached multi-sensory visual, then the tanka pivots with a cat moving with part of the night in Ls 4&5, which suggests the idea that night is not static but displaced by a living thing.
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