Showing posts with label star. Show all posts
Showing posts with label star. Show all posts

Monday, November 2, 2026

Butterfly Dream: Kaleidoscope Haiku by Ellen Compton

English Original

kaleidoscope
the little sound of a star
shattering

Modern Haiku, 23:1, 1992

Ellen Compton


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

萬花筒
一顆破碎星星
的細微聲響

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

万花筒
一颗破碎星星
的细微声响


Bio Sketch

Ellen Compton was an award-winning haiku poet with a background in visual and theatre arts. Her haiku  collection, Gathering Dusk, received a Snapshot Press Book Award. And she was an editor emerita of The Red Moon Anthology series and a founding member of Towpath. Ellen credited her childhood in the Ohio River Valley for her deep love of the natural world and for her awareness of its fragility. 

Saturday, January 24, 2026

One Man's Maple Moon: Shooting Star Tanka by Aya Yuhki

English Original

in the wake
of a shooting star
a brightness
resembling love
shines in me awhile

White Flowers in the Sky, 2005

Aya Yuhki 


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

一顆流星
劃過天際之後
一道光芒
如愛般
在我心中閃耀片刻

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

一颗流星
划过天际之后
一道光芒
如爱般
在我心中闪耀片刻


Bio Sketch

Aya Yuhki was born and now lives in Tokyo. She started writing tanka more than thirty years ago and has expanded her interests to include free verse poetry, essay writing, and literary criticism. Aya Yuhki is Editor-in-Chief of The Tanka Journal published by the Japan Poets’ Society. Her works are featured on the homepage of the Japan Pen Club’s Electronic Library.

Tuesday, August 19, 2025

Butterfly Dream: Lanterns Haiku by Robert D. Wilson

English Original

starlight sky ...
the river lined
with lanterns

Mann Library’s Daily Haiku, July 3, 2021

Robert D. Wilson


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

星空 ...
河岸一排排
的燈籠

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

星空 ...
河岸一排排
的灯笼


Bio Sketch

Robert D. Wilson is Co-Owner of Simply Haiku.

Wednesday, June 25, 2025

Butterfly Dream: Fireflies Haiku by Lisbeth Ho

English Original

starless
and yet 
fireflies

Fireflies' Light, 24, September 2021

Lisbeth Ho 


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

Translation result

無星之夜
然而
螢火蟲的閃光

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

无星之夜
然而
萤火虫的闪光

 
Bio Sketch

Lisbeth Ho, whose complete name is Elisabeth Holidaya, is a housewife. She currently resides in Salatiga, Indonesia.  She loves reading and writing tanka, haiku, free verse poetry, and contemplative work. Her writings have appeared in various print and online journals and books. She also served as an editor of Antologi Tanka Indonesia 2019, the first tanka anthology in Indonesia.

Friday, March 28, 2025

Butterfly Dream: Father's Ring Haiku by H. Gene Murtha

English Original

shooting star -- 
father’s ring
slips off my finger

 The Heron’s Nest, 5:11, November, 2003

H. Gene Murtha


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

一顆流星 --
父親的戒指
從我的手指上滑落

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

一颗流星 --
父亲的戒指
从我的手指上滑落


Bio Sketch

H. Gene Murtha, a naturalist and poet, sponsored and judged the first haiku contest for the inner city children of Camden, NJ., for the Virgilio Group, of which he was a lifetime member. He was widely published for his work in haikai literature from the USA to Japan. 

Friday, January 31, 2025

Butterfly Dream: Snowshoe Hare Haiku by Chuck Brickley

English Original

a snowshoe hare
hops through its breath
morning star
Chuck Brickley


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

一隻雪鞋兔
跳躍穿過鼻息所形成的雲霧
一顆晨星

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

一只雪鞋兔
跳跃穿过鼻息所形成的云雾
一颗晨星


Bio Sketch

A native San Franciscan, Chuck Brickley lived in rural British Columbia for 35 years. His book of haiku, earthshine, won the THF Touchstone Award for Distinguished Books 2017; the HSA Merit Book Award 2017, Honorable Mention; and the inaugural Marianne Bluger Book Award 2020, Honourable Mention. His haibun,“Is Where The Car Is," was nominated for a Pushcart Prize 2018, and another haibun, "A Banishing," received a Sonders Best Small Fiction Award nomination, 2019

Tuesday, July 30, 2024

Biting NOT Barking: Ceasefire Haiku by Natalia Kuznetsova

English Original

ceasefire ...
over snowbound minefields
first shooting star

Poets Salon, December 19, 2023

Natalia Kuznetsova


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

停火 ...
飛越過積雪的布雷區
第一顆流星

Chinese Translation (Simplified) 

停火 ...
飞越过积雪的布雷区
第一颗流星


Bio Sketch

Living in Moscow, Russia, Natalia Kuznetsova is a teacher of English and freelance interpreter. Before discovering the haiku world, she wrote poetry in Russian. She started writing tanka and mostly haiku in English in 2007, and participated in numerous competitions worldwide and won some awards. She contributes regularly to World Haiku Review, Asahi Haikuist Network, Daily Haiku, Poetry Pea and other traditional and on-line publications. She was included on the list of "European Top 100 Most Creative Haiku Authors" from 2010 to 2023.

Monday, December 26, 2022

Poetic Musings: Darkness and Stars Haiku

more darkness
more stars
moving on

-- Sandra Mooney-Ellerbeck

more darkness
more stars ...
autumn begins

-- John Stevenson

Frogpond, 34:2, Spring/Summer, 2011


Commentary: Stevenson's first two lines are identical to Mooney-Ellerbeck's except with "…" at the end of line two. As he stressed in the article, "the nearly exact wording of our first two lines is, indeed, striking." 11 But, the most important thing about these two haiku is the differences, tonal and thematic, marked by their distinctly juxtaposed images. Reflecting upon the same phenomenon ("more darkness/ more stars"), Stevenson added "autumn begins" as the concluding line to signify a process of the decaying of life, which is initiated by Mother Nature. What he did with his haiku is not merely to add a seasonal reference, but to show the destructive force of nature; more importantly, in the connotative contexts of the opening image and of the compositional occasion, 12 this seasonal reference could be read to prefigure a tragic loss of life. Therefore, we as readers are fortunate to have an opportunity to read this beautifully-crafted and heartfelt poem, which is thematically and tonally different from its predecessor poem. Both poets use the same opening image, but if their haiku are read slowly and repeatedly, these differences will emerge.

-- excerpted from Chen-ou Liu's essay, Read It Slowly, Repeatedly, and Communally,  A Hundred Gourds, 1:1, December 2011

Tuesday, November 15, 2022

A Room of My Own: Eight Billion People Haiku

This Brave New World, LXIII

written in response to the UN report: "World population to reach 8 billion on 15 November 2022"

8 billion people ...
sleepless again I count stars
in the skylight

FYI: The global population is projected to reach 8 billion on 15 November 2022, and India is projected to surpass China as the world’s most populous country in 2023, according to World Population Prospects 2022, released today on World Population Day, July 11 2022.

And CNN News, Nov. 15: Global population hits 8 billion as growth poses more challenges for the planet

Having more people on Earth puts more pressure on nature, as people compete with wildlife for water, food and space. Meanwhile, rapid population growth combined with climate change is also likely to cause mass migration and conflict in coming decades, experts say.

And whether it’s food or water, batteries or gasoline, there will be less to go around as the global population grows. But how much they consume is equally important, suggesting policymakers can make a big difference by mandating a shift in consumption patterns.

And National Geographic, Environment Section, Nov. 14: Earth now has 8 billion people—and counting. Where do we go from here?

We’ve added a billion people in just 12 years. The implications for the planet—and our own welfare—hinge on how we tackle climate change.


Added: reading between the lives and writing between the lines, XXXI
written in response to the UN's declaration: "November 15, Day of Eight Billion" 

8 billion people ...
distance between me and them
on this snowy street


Added: reading between the lives and writing between the lines, XXXII
written in response to  Janis Joplin's remark:  On stage, I make love to 25,000 different people, then I go home alone.

8 billion people ...
alone in the TV's light
I nod off
then curl into a wet dream
of making love to myself


Added: Game Show 2024, VIII

Breaking Fake News
to Trump-lites and Trump-wannabes

Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely NOT coincidental. 

Trump 2024
on the way to the white house
a pile of dog shit

this smell
lingering in the cold air
a third run

FYI: The Globe and Mail, Nov. 16: Trump’s 2024 presidential announcement was an all-out extravaganza, with glitter, grandiosity and gibes

His announcement was an all-Trump extravaganza: exaggerations and extravagant talk; glitter and grandiosity; gibes and, if you listened closely, jagged shards of jealousy. There was the sense of grievance that follows him like smoke at a campfire, the boasts that rumble through the air like blasts from the brass section of a Big Ten marching band.

And Business Insider, Nov. 16: Mike Pompeo swipes at Trump after 2024 announcement, calls for leaders "not staring in the rearview mirror claiming victimhood"


Added: Game Show 2024, IX

flanked by a spray of flags
he shouts to the crowd's chants
of “USA! USA!”
I'm running for president
of Mar-a-Lago Psych Ward

FYI: The Insider, Nov. 17: GOP mega-donor Ken Griffin, who's poured $60 million into Republican campaigns this cycle, called Trump a '3-time loser' and said he shouldn't run for president

Tuesday, October 4, 2022

Poetic Musings: Night Airplane Tanka by Gerald St. Maur

Just out of earshot,
the periodic blinking
of a night airplane,
not quite far enough away
to be as close as the stars

The Tanka Anthology, 2003

Gerald St. Maur

Commentary: In this poem, the first three lines could stand alone as a haiku, a feature that may be found in many contemporary English tanka. Such tanka combine the objective imagery of a haiku with a subjective response or personal reflection in the poem’s concluding lines; the order can also be reversed. It is the subjective element in a tanka that chiefly distinguishes it from most haiku, in addition to its greater length. Here, the concluding two-line component is a simple, personal reflection or response to the initial image, placing the silent aircraft in the context of a starry sky.  The twist in sense here—that the aircraft is the more remote, alien object—gives a postmodern slant to the traditional tanka theme of loneliness... -- excerpted from "To the Lighthouse: Introduction to The Tanka Anthology by Michael McClintock

Sunday, April 3, 2022

Butterfly Dream: Train Tracks Haiku by Michael Dylan Welch

English Original

a still, starry night --
      train tracks
            wet with dew
                
The Heron's Nest, 10:4, December, 2008

Michael Dylan Welch

 
Chinese Translation (Traditional)

一個靜止的,繁星點點的夜晚 --
        火車鐵軌
                蘸滿了露水

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

一个静止的,繁星点点的夜晚 --
        火车铁轨
                蘸满了露水

 
Bio Sketch

Michael Dylan Welch is the founder of the Tanka Society of America (2000), and co-founder of Haiku North America conference (1991) and the American Haiku Archives (1996). In 2010 he also started National Haiku Writing Month (NaHaiWriMo), which takes place every February, with an active Facebook page. His personal website is www.graceguts.com, which features hundreds of essays, reviews, reports, and other content, including examples of his published poetry.

Tuesday, March 15, 2022

Butterfly Dream: Canoe Haiku by Ben Gaa

English Original

the canoe
floating through our silence
summer stars

The Bamboo Hut, Spring/Summer 2018 

Ben Gaa 

 
Chinese Translation (Traditional)

獨木舟
漂流過我們的沉默
夏日星辰

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

独木舟
漂流过我们的沉默
夏日星辰

 
Bio Sketch

Ben Gaa is a haiku poet from St. Louis, MO. He is the author of two full length collections of haiku and senryu, One Breath (Spartan Press 2020) and the Touchstone Award winning Wishbones (Folded Word 2018), as well as three haiku chapbooks, Fiddle in the Floorboards (Yavanika Press 2018), Wasp Shadows (Folded Word 2014) and Blowing on a Hot Soup  Spoon (poor metaphor 2014). You can find more on Ben online at www.Ben-Gaa.com

Saturday, December 11, 2021

One Man's Maple Moon: Ladder Tanka by Rebecca Drouilhet

English Original

if only
I could reach the stars…
the child in me
climbs the first rung of a ladder
that used to scrape the sky

First Place, The Poetry Society of Tennessee’s 62nd Annual Poetry Contest 

Rebecca Drouilhet


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

但願
我可以碰觸到星星 ...
我心中的孩子
爬上曾經刮過天空
那個梯子的第一層級

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

但愿
我可以碰触到星星 ...
我心中的孩子
爬上曾经刮过天空
那个梯子的第一层级


Bio Sketch

Rebecca Drouilhet is a retired registered nurse who works as a poetry moderator.  Her work has won awards, including a Sakura award in the 2012 Vancouver Cherry Blossom Contest and an Honorable mention in the same contest for 2017 as well as Editor's Choice awards and others. She enjoys reading, word games and spending time with her large family.

Wednesday, August 11, 2021

Butterfly Dream: First Prayer Haiku by Pamela A. Babusci

English Original

first prayer
a galaxy of stars
within each breath

Honorable Mention,  74th Basho Memorial English Haiku Contest 

Pamela A. Babusci


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

第一次祈禱
在每次冥想吐息中
湧現一座星系

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

第一次祈祷
在每次冥想吐息中
涌现一座星系

 
Bio Sketch

Pamela A. Babusci  is an internationally award winning haiku, tanka poet and haiga artist. Some of her awards include: Museum of Haiku Literature Award, International Tanka Splendor Awards, First Place Yellow Moon Competition (Aust) tanka category,  First Place Kokako Tanka Competition,(NZ) First Place Saigyo Tanka Awards (US), Basho Festival Haiku Contests (Japan).  Pamela has illustrated several books, including: Full Moon Tide: The Best of Tanka Splendor Awards, Taboo Haiku, Chasing the Sun, Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka, and A Thousand Reasons 2009. Pamela was the founder and now is the solo Editor of Moonbathing: a journal of women’s tanka; the first all women’s tanka journal in the US.

Friday, July 23, 2021

Butterfly Dream: Starlit Night Haiku by Ruth Powell

English Original

starlit night
only the sound
of my paddle

First Place, 2016 Betty Drevniok Award

Ruth Powell


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

星光熠熠的夜晚
唯一的聲音
是我的划槳聲

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

星光熠熠的夜晚
唯一的声音
是我的划桨声


Bio Sketch

Ruth Powell lives in Prince George, British Columbia, Canada, where she is a family physician now working in oncology at a local cancer clinic after many years in private practice. When not working, she writes poetry and finds her resilience and peace in nature, kayaking, hiking and cross-country skiing.

Thursday, May 20, 2021

Butterfly Dream: Basil Tea Haiku by Angelee Deodhar

English Original

basil tea
one    by one    by one
the stars fade

VerseWrights, 2017

Angelee Deodhar


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

蓬蒿茶
一顆   接著   一顆
星星漸漸消失

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

蓬蒿茶
一颗   接着   一颗
星星渐渐消失
 
 
Bio Sketch

Angelee Deodhar of Chandigarh (India) was an eye surgeon by profession as well as a haiku poet, translator, and artist. Her haiku/haiga had been published internationally .She didn't have her own website.To promote haiku in India, she had translated six books of haiku from English to Hindi.

Thursday, January 21, 2021

Butterfly Dream: Shooting Star & Shadows Haiku by Rp Verlaine

English Original

shooting star 
the thought of our shadows 
touching

My Haiku Pond, Spring, 2019

Rp Verlaine


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

一顆流星
想到我們的影子
相互碰觸

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

一颗流星
想到我们的影子
相互碰触


Bio Sketch

Rp Verlaine lives and writes in New York City. He has an MFA in creative writing from City College. He taught in New York public schools for many years. No longer teaching, he continues to write and do photography in New York. He has published five books, Damaged by Dames & Drinking, Femme Fatales Movie Starlets & Rockers, and a set of three e-books, Lies From The Autobiography, vols.1-3. And his poetry has appeared in various online and print journals.

Wednesday, January 6, 2021

Butterfly Dream: Starlight Haiku by Rachel Sutcliffe

English Original

final departure
after the contrail
starlight

tinywords, 15:2, January 20, 2016

Rachel Sutcliffe


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

最晚航班起飛
在飛機軌跡之後
星光閃耀

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

最晚航班起飞
在飞机轨迹之后
星光闪耀
 
 
Bio Sketch

Rachel Sutcliffe had suffered from a serious immune disorder for over 16 years; throughout  this time writing had been her therapy, and it kept her from going insane! She was an active member of the British Haiku Society and has been published in various journals including  Prune Juice, Failed Haiku and Hedgerow.

Thursday, December 31, 2020

Butterfly Dream: New Year's Eve Haiku by Natalia Kuznetsova

English Original

snowbound pines
glimmer against starry skies --
New Year’s Eve

Oku-no-hosomichi Soka Matsubara International Competition, 2020

Natalia Kuznetsova


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

大雪覆蓋的松樹
在星空之下閃閃發光 --
除夕夜

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

大雪覆盖的松树
在星空之下闪闪发光 --
除夕夜


Bio Sketch

Living in Moscow, Russia, Natalia Kuznetsova is an assistant professor of English and freelance interpreter. Before discovering the haiku world, she wrote poetry in Russian. She started writing tanka and mostly haiku in English several years ago, and participated in numerous competitions worldwide and won some awards. She now contributes regularly to World Haiku Review, Mainichi Daily, Asahi Haikuist Network, Shiki Kukai and other traditional and on-line publications. She was included on the list of "European Top 100 Most Creative Haiku Authors" from 2010 to 2013.

Monday, November 23, 2020

Butterfly Dream: Starlight Haiku by Goran Gatalica

English Original

starlight --
first snowflakes falling
in a blur

Presence, 63, 2019

Goran Gatalica


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

星光燦爛  --
第一場雪花
朦朧地飄落

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

星光灿烂 --
第一场雪花
朦胧地飘落


Bio Sketch

Born in Virovitica, Croatia, 1982, Goran Gatalica got both physics and chemistry degrees from the University of Zagreb, and proceeded directly to a PhD program after graduation. He has published poetry, haiku, and prose in literary magazines, journals, and anthologies.  He is a member of the Croatian Writers’ Association.