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

Sunday, June 29, 2014

Dead Man Thinking, A Tanka Prose

for the author of The Pleasure of the Text

After Roland Barthes declared the death of the author, two poems, lined up side by side, look suspiciously over their shoulders at each other.

this cold night                           in spring breeze
shakes me by the collar             the painter captures
I avoid their gaze                      a migrant's smile
when they shout,                       under a banner that reads,
no more immigrants!                diversity is our strength


NeverEnding Story, June 1 2014