English Original
used bookstore
a sunset beam lights a row
of forgotten authors
Almost Unseen, 2000
George Swede
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
二手書店
夕陽的光芒照亮一排
被遺忘的作者
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
二手书店
夕阳的光芒照亮一排
被遗忘的作者
Bio Sketch
George Swede's most recent collections of haiku are Almost Unseen (Decatur, IL: Brooks Books, 2000), Joy In Me Still (Edmonton: Inkling Press, 2010) and micro haiku: three to nine syllables (Inspress, 2014). He is a former editor of Frogpond: Journal of the Haiku Society of America (2008-2012) and a former Honorary Curator of the American Haiku Archives (2008-2009).
This haiku uses stark sensory contrasts to deepen its theme of fading legacy.
ReplyDeleteThe visual image of a sharp, golden "sunset beam" in L2 slicing through the dim, dusty atmosphere of a "used bookstore" in L1 creates immediate physical and emotional warmth.
This brief illumination acts as a literal and symbolic spotlight. It momentarily rescues a row of "forgotten authors" in L3 from the shadows of obscurity.
By contrasting the transient, living light of the setting sun with the cold, silent permanence of unread spines, the haiku powerfully evokes the bittersweet passage of time.
My haiku below could be read as a response poem:
DeleteCharles Dickens
in a bookstore window...
homeless youth's gaze
World Kigo Database, 2012