Poetic Musings: Ulysses Butterfly Tanka by Chen-ou Liu

shadowing

a Ulysses butterfly

to this mountain trail

of many twists and turns ...

at last Time leaves me alone

外国語短歌佳作, 富士山大賞2025

Honorable Mention, 2025 Fujisan Tanka Contest

Japanese Translation:

幸運の瑠璃蝶追いて山道をゆけども時間にとり残されて

Chen-ou Liu

Commentary: The tanka frames pursuit as a meditative act, with the speaker “shadowing” a Ulysses butterfly whose vivid, elusive flight draws attention away from the self and into motion. The butterfly’s name invokes Odysseus, subtly transforming the mountain trail’s “many twists and turns” into a miniature odyssey shaped by wandering rather than destination. As the trail mirrors both the butterfly’s erratic path and a life’s nonlinear course, time stretches and loosens through sustained attention. The ellipsis marks a pause of duration and effort, allowing the reader to feel the long following before the poem’s quiet turn. When “Time leaves me alone,” the moment reads as a hard-won release, achieved through immersion in beauty, movement, and myth-inflected presence.