Friday, July 5, 2013

One Man’s Maple Moon: Centrepiece Tanka by Kirsten Cliff

English Original

he creates
a new centrepiece
for the dining table
a size nine shoebox
full of medications

Presence, 44,  June 2011

Kirsten Cliff


Chinese Translation (Traditional)

他為餐桌中央
設計一個新的
裝飾品
九號大的鞋盒
裝滿藥物

Chinese Translation (Simplified)

他为餐桌中央
设计一个新的
装饰品
九号大的鞋盒
装满药物


Bio Sketch

Kirsten Cliff is a New Zealand writer and poet whose work has been published in journals worldwide, and will soon appear in A New Resonance 8. She is currently working on her first collection, Patient Property, which explores her recent journey through leukaemia. Kirsten is editor of the haikai section of the New Zealand Poetry Society magazine, a fine line, and she blogs at Swimming in Lines of Haiku.

1 comment:

  1. The thematic and emotive twist at the end of the tanka is poignantly effective. Illness not only reshapes one's relationships with people around him/her but also redefines one's conception of living space ("dining room").

    What's left unsaid is more significant than what's said.



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