English Original
Kala Ramesh
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
一股突如其來的暖流
湧上心頭 ...
我的血液
來自我一無所知
的子宮
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
一股突如其来的暖流
涌上心头 ...
我的血液
来自我一无所知
的子宫
Bio Sketch
Kala Ramesh is the Founder and Director of Triveni Haikai India, the Founder and Managing Editor of haikuKATHA Journal, an anthologist, and an external faculty member of Symbiosis International University Pune, where she taught a 60-hour haikai course from 2012 to 2021 — a first in India. She has organised eight major haiku festivals and to bring haiku into everyday spaces, Kala has initiated several successful projects in India.
Ls 1&2, “a sudden spurt / of warm feeling ...,” anchor the tanka in an immediate bodily sensation. By leaving the source of this warmth initially ambiguous, the text creates an atmospheric tension, mimicking the sudden onset of an internal shift.
ReplyDeleteThe poem achieves its structural and emotional pivot in Ls 3&4: “my blood / from a womb.” This transition establishes a compelling, visceral connection between a fleeting present emotion and an unknown maternal origin. By grounding the abstract "feeling" in the undeniable biology of "blood" and "womb," the speaker transforms a momentary internal rush into an inheritance.
Finally, L5, “I knew nothing about,” lands with a quiet, devastating ache. The power of this concluding statement lies entirely in its restraint; because the speaker refuses to explain or pathologize this ignorance, the narrative void expands.
Ultimately, this tanka operates as a brilliant meditation on inherited emotion and ancestry. It captures the uncanny experience of discovering a foundational piece of the self that entirely predates one's own conscious history. The poem's deliberate ambiguity is its greatest strength, leaving a haunting, open-ended echo that lingers long after the final line.