tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-786207835641480928.post7085812266817987090..comments2024-03-27T11:10:57.384-04:00Comments on NeverEnding Story: One Man's Maple Moon: Borscht Tanka by Marian Olson Chen-ou Liu, 劉鎮歐http://www.blogger.com/profile/06235248170011255532noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-786207835641480928.post-39724534442109484132017-04-21T08:31:40.177-04:002017-04-21T08:31:40.177-04:00This tanka is a beautifully realized sketch portra...This tanka is a beautifully realized sketch portrait. The image is clear, and the use of beets and borscht gives cultural specificity to this image. This is not a generic “woman in the garden,” but a particular woman. The addition of borscht tells us about her ethnicity. Perhaps the woman is Russian American, or Jewish. She is young (“fresh”) but not a youth, and she is maintaining elements of her ancestral culture (“borscht”) while reflecting the modern United States or Australia or wherever it is that she lives (“floppy straw hat”). The lines balance well. Line 5 is shorter, but it works because most of us are not expecting “borscht.”<br /><br />-- excerpted from commentary by the judge, which can be accessed at http://www.tankasocietyofamerica.org/tsa-contest/winners-and-judges-comments/2016-sanford-goldstein-international-tanka-contest-winners<br />Chen-ou Liu, 劉鎮歐https://www.blogger.com/profile/06235248170011255532noreply@blogger.com