Chen-ou Liu's Translation Project: First English-Chinese Haiku and Tanka Blog

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Old Photos of the Future: A Tanka Prose

At dusk I sit in front of my computer reflecting upon the bright, promising smiles of my childhood, youth, and early thirties. I scan them one by one.

in the photos
we have ceased to be
the same…
I am his outcome
he, my memory

The setting sun sinks slowly on my glasses, and in the deep of the computer screen a gloomy and bemused face is mirrored.

Pirene's Fountain, Vol. 4, Issue 9, April 2011

A Haiku about Religion

stone Buddha
the scent of chrysanthemums
lingers


Word Salad Online, Volume XVII, No. I, Spring 2011

Monday, April 25, 2011

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Our Dreams

for my mother

waking from the song
Mother hummed years ago
autumn dawn

I remember the night before I emigrated to Canada. My mother was helping me to pack my luggage, and she began to tell me about the dream she had the night before.

My mother stood holding me in her arms helplessly, unable to see anything ahead of her, for she was enveloped by darkness. With the passage of time, a pain rose from her feet and gradually up to her shoulders and arms. At the moment when she reached the point of almost despair, suddenly, a spot of bright space appeared by her side. She used her last ounce of strength to put me down while I remained sound asleep. As soon as I was laid on the ground, the earth unexpectedly began to tilt. My place of rest was now a slope. While careening down, I suddenly grew up, and within few minutes was no larger than a speck of dust.

nine autumns past...
between mother and me
the Pacific

Simply Haiku, 9:1, Spring 2011
World Haibun Anthology

Monday, April 18, 2011

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Dream Tanka

the caged eagle
just those few cubic feet
of freedom...
I see in its eyes
a skyful of my dreams


Simply Haiku, 9:1, Spring 2011

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Friday, April 15, 2011

New Year Haiku

first dawn
the rabbit in my dream
opens its eyes


Acorn, #26

Snow Haiku

melting snow...
I put my name
on her to-do list


Shreve Memorial Library's Electronic Poetry Network.

A Tanka about Longing

mother waits
for me across the ocean
I dream
of her under the same moon
but age with this distance


Shreve Memorial Library's Electronic Poetry Network.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Autumn Tanka

running in and out
of the low hung autumn mist
I am, I am not
the dark passenger
behind the wheel


Shreve Memorial Library's Electronic Poetry Network.

Spring Haiku

spring break
my old dog and I sitting
face to face


Shreve Memorial Library's Electronic Poetry Network.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

A Haiku about Longing

mother and I
stand on Pacific coasts --
the same bright moon


Mother's Day Poems section of the March / April, 2010 issue of Sketchbook
New Resonance 7: Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku

A Senryu about Dreaming

seeing Fitzcarraldo...
I go around for hours wearing
the actor's face


Autumn 2010 issue of Simply Haiku
New Resonance 7: Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku

A Senryu about Identity

the bat
flitting here and there . . .
Chen-ou or Eric


Japanese Translation by Hidenori Hiruta

コウモリ
あちこちすいすい飛んでいる...
チェン・オウまたはエリック

Akita
New Resonance 7: Emerging Voices in English-Language Haiku

Autumn Tanka

autumn moonlight
caresses my face...
is it wrong
to remain faceless
in the crowd?


Jan/Feb 2011 issue of Sketchbook

A Tanka about Writing

cliche-only
settlement blocks carving up
my mind...
it's time to have peace talks
with the ancients


Jan/Feb 2011 issue of Sketchbook

Monday, April 11, 2011

Snow Tanka

English Original:

awakened
from my butterfly dream
snowflakes
lighten
into dawn


German Translation by Dietmar Tauchner:

erwacht
aus meinem Schmetterlingstraum
Schneeflocken
leuchten
in die Morgendämmerung


Chrysanthemum, 9

Winter Haiku

English Original:

winter dusk...
talking to my shadow
face to face


German Translation by Dietmar Tauchner:

Winterabenddämmerung ...
ich spreche mit meinem Schatten
von Angesicht zu Angesicht


Chrysanthemum, 9

Moon Haiku

English Original:

midsummer night
a homeless man kisses the moon
in a puddle


German Translation by Dietmar Tauchner

Mittsommernacht
ein Obdachloser küsst den Mond
in einer Pfütze


Chrysanthemum, 9

Friday, April 8, 2011

A Kyoka about Politics

page after page
the evidence of a waste
of money...
the PM smiles at reporters
filling the air with words


Jan/Feb 2011 issue of Sketchbook

Thursday, April 7, 2011

A Tanka about Writing

plum petals
falling upon plum petals...
I squeeze
another English poem
out of my Chinese mind


Gusts 13

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

A Tanka about Loneliness

twilight shadow...
my voice lost in the cries
of wild geese
flying against the wind
in a gray sky


Gusts, 13

Monday, April 4, 2011

A Tanka about Religion

as morning dawns
and evening fades, Your name...
I want to shout
over what He whispers
into my heart and mind


Jan/Feb 2011 issue of Sketchbook

Sunday, April 3, 2011

A Tanka

flames
enveloped Lâm Văn Tức
Saigon, 1963...
a Tunisian set himself
on fire, an Egyptian...


Jan/Feb 2011 issue of Sketchbook

Note: The tanka is written for the courageous peoples for who are fighting against autocratic governments.

Lâm Văn Tức (1897 – 11 June 1963), a Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monk, set himself on fire performing a ritual suicide in protest against the persecution of Buddhists by the US-backed corrupt South Vietnamese government. The photo of his self-immolation was circulated widely and brought close attention to the larger structural and ideological causes of the Vietnam War.

Tunisian unrest began in December, 2010 after Mohamed Bouazizi, a 26-year-old unemployed university graduate who sold fruit and vegetables on the street without a permit, set himself on fire in a suicide attempt after police confiscated his grocery cart. Copycat self-immolations have followed in at least four other North African states.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

A Tanka about Racism

U.S. wages a fight
against Asian carp invasion --
headline news
from Canadian Maclean's:
U of T Is "Too Asian"


(Note: Maclean's is Canada's only national weekly current affairs magazine. U of T stands for the University of Toronto)

Jan/Feb 2011 issue of Sketchbook