Friday, April 6, 2018

One Man's Maple Moon: Relationship Tanka by Kozue Uzawa

English Original

he will betray her
sooner or later
I sense it
from the way
he smiles at me

Ribbons, 4:4, Winter 2008

Kozue Uzawa


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

遲早
他會背叛她
從他對我
微笑的樣子
我就感受到

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

迟早
他会背叛她
从他对我
微笑的样子
我就感受到


Bio Sketch

Kozue Uzawa is a retired university professor. She works as editor of the English tanka journal GUSTS. She composes tanka both in Japanese and English. She also translates Japanese tanka into English and co-published Ferris Wheel: 101 Modern and Contemporary Tanka (Boston: Cheng & Tsui, 2006), and Kaleidoscope: Selected Tanka of Shuji Terayama (Tokyo: Hokuseido Press, 2008). Ferris Wheel received the 2007 Donald Keene Translation Award for Japanese Literature from Columbia University.

2 comments:

  1. In this "middle-of-the-story" tanka about the "triangle" of love framed by "he will betray her" and "he smiles at me," is the speaker's observation is accurate or convincing, not colored by her own affective bias? A lot of dreaming room for the reader's imagination.

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  2. The tanka above could be read as a prequel to the following poem:

    I still remember
    the way he called
    my name
    but don't remember now
    the way he betrayed me

    Selected Tanka, Gusts, 8, Fall/Winter 2008

    Kozue Uzawa

    ReplyDelete