English Original
from the river's edge
a blend of warbled songs
highs and lows
the harmony we share
despite different notes
Thelma Mariano
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
來自河邊
婉轉的歌聲交織融合
有高亢與低沉
儘管音符不同
我們卻共享和諧
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
来自河边
婉转的歌声交织融合
有高亢与低沉
尽管音符不同
我们却共享和谐
Bio Sketch
Thelma Mariano is the author of Night Sky: a Selection of Tanka Poetry. She lives in Montreal and has published her tanka in literary journals as well as in various anthologies including Fire Pearls and Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka.
In the tanka, the movement from the external image of a messy, “warbled” natural scene in Ls 1&2 to the internal emotional clarity of “harmony” in Ls 4&5 creates a highly satisfying emotional arc.
ReplyDeleteThe pivotal turn in L3, “highs and lows,” is particularly effective. On the surface, it describes the literal variations in the birds’ pitches, but it immediately shifts the tanka toward a metaphor for human relationships and the fluctuations of human experience.
What makes this arc especially satisfying is that “warbled” never actually disappears. Instead, the final “harmony” reinterprets it. What initially sounds messy or discordant turns out to contain the possibility of music and coherence.
Furthermore, “despite” does subtle emotional work. It initially suggests that difference is an obstacle to harmony, yet the tanka ultimately implies almost the opposite: harmony is possible precisely because the notes are different. This gives the ending greater depth than simply suggesting that “we are all harmonious.” The tanka celebrates not the erasure of difference, but the possibility of finding connection within it.