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

Thursday, July 31, 2014

Scent Haiku

the hills aglow
with spring sunlight
her scent lingers


Commendation, the Kloštar Ivanić International Haiku Competition 2014

Croatian Translation

brežuljci obasjani
proljetnim suncem
njen miris još traje

Iris, 1, 2015

Manuscript Tanka

Van Gogh's Red Vineyard
on the water-stained wall --
my manuscript,   
A Child of the Moon,
lies in a garbage bin


Bright Stars, IV, 2014

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Lone Angel Tanka

lone angel
dancing on the head
of a pin
I think; therefore
the Buddha exists

Bright Stars, IV, 2014

Notes:

1 Ls 1-3 refer to the following question: "How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?"

[This question] has been used many times as a dismissal of medieval angelology in particular, and of scholasticism in general... In modern usage, this question also serves as a metaphor for wasting time debating topics of no practical value, or questions whose answers hold no intellectual consequence -- excerpted from the Wikipedia entry, How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?

2 Ls 4-5 make a parodic allusion to  René Descartes' philosophical proposition, "I think, therefore I am."

Winter Solstice Tanka

winter solstice...
in dreams we begin
cheek to cheek
but end nose to nose
feeling the heat of our breath


Bright Stars, IV, 2014

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Dog and Eagle Tanka

alone
on a morning stroll
with my old dog...
against a clouded sky
the silhouette of an eagle


Bright Stars, IV, 2014

Monday, July 28, 2014

Winter Tanka

three winters gone ...
my ex silhouetted
with another man
in the window
of my mind


Bright Stars, IV, 2014

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Cancer Tanka

do you think
my cancer will get cancer...?

the smug look
on his skinny face
keeps me drunk on writing


Bright Stars, IV, 2014

First Hailstorm Tanka

first hailstorm...
her parting words
like shrapnel
peppers my mind
tearing old scabs


Bright Stars, IV, 2014

Saturday, July 26, 2014

A Haiku Set about Racism

for Abraham Joshua Heschel who proclaims that Racism is man's gravest threat to man.

those slanted eyes
in the room silence
like thunder

racism talk
what does white
smell like?


Note:  The phrase, "slanted eyes," is a racist slur that refers to a person of Asian descent, especially of Chinese descent.

Friday, July 25, 2014

Musical Drone Tanka

enveloped
in the musical drone
of these bees ...
my old dog and I
lie in a Zen garden


Bright Stars, IV, 2014

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Bare Hands Tanka

staring
at the cold moon
I feel like
killing my shadow
with bare hands


Bright Stars, IV, 2014

Bulldog Tanka

early this morning
an unexpected guest:
a bulldog
with a chewed-through rope
hanging from his collar

Bright Stars, IV, 2014

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Farewell Note Tanka

her farewell note
in the crevices of my mind ...
I recite
to my shadow
the tanka I sent her

Bright Stars, IV, 2014

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Fear Tanka

as I gaze
upon her love tanka
with fear in my heart
each and every word
turns into a big mouth

Bright Stars, IV, 2014

Monday, July 21, 2014

Offerings Tanka

loneliness,
my god in heaven ...
one tanka
after another
as daily offerings

Bright Stars, IV, 2014

Emojis Kyoka

her last email
replete with emojis:
a panda
next to a shotgun
next to a wrapped gift


Prune Juice, 13, July 2014

Saturday, July 19, 2014

Why Believe You Can Write Verse in English?, A Tanka Prose

I paint
a daisy on the wall
and sign it
with my Romanized name ...
morning mist rising

To write verse in English is not like growing ideograms inside your heart, reaping the sentences matured by the muse of desire, taking your clothes off with words, exposing yourself in the rhythm of the stanzas so that you can hold your passport and cross the borders of linguistic solitudes, emigrating from the ideographic to the alphabetic.

English still remains an unmastered means of deciphering the musings of your heart and mind, it is constantly intruded upon and twisted by inflections from the old language. Often, you are not able to connect emotions to words, to feel the weight of their syllables. Without emotional vocabulary, everything becomes elusion, confusion. The fear of things you needn’t be afraid of.

Even when you can find the right words to reflect your feelings, you are not skilled at weaving these into sentences. They simply become isolated cries clinging desperately to your heart. Even when you can find a way to weave words together into an artistic whole, the poem often fails to conform to the texture mandated by poetry editors. Why believe you can write verse in English, whose music is not natural to you? 1

I skip
a stone of words
across the lake
of another time
another place


Note: The concluding sentence is taken from the last two lines of “An Exchange,” a poem written by Nan Wu, the poet who is the protagonist of A Free Life, Ha Jin’s fifth novel.

Following the Moon to the Maple Land, A Haibun

for my first Canada Day, July 1, 2003

Name: Chen-ou Liu (phonic);
Country of Birth: R.O.C.;
(Cross out R.O.C. and fill in Taiwan) 1
Place of Birth; Date of Birth; Sex;
simply more technocratic questions
the Immigration Officer needs to pin down my borders.
He is always looking for shortcuts,
more interested in the roadside signposts
than in the landscape that has made me.
The line he wants me confined to
is an analytically recognizable category:
immigrant. My history is meticulously stamped.
Now, you're legally a landed immigrant.
Take a copy of A Newcomer’s Introduction to Canada.

from Lake Ontario
I scoop the Taiwan moon
distant sirens

Contemporary Haibun Online, 10:2, July 2014

Friday, July 18, 2014

One Man's Moon Haiku

for Cid Corman, Translator of One Man’s Moon: Poems by Basho & Other Japanese Poets

the scent of sunlight ...
tattered edges
of One Man's Moon


NeverEnding Story, June 29 2014

Missing Tanka

he was last seen
along with his new wife
at their first house . . .
I raise my whisky glass
to give his old chair a toast

Bright Stars, III, 2014

Thursday, July 17, 2014

Raven Tanka

when night falls
a raven perches in the tree
its sad voice
nests among the ruins
of my immigrant past

Bright Stars, III, 2014

Death Tanka

Death
a dust-faced coalman
unfolds
one body bag, then another . . .
gathering dark in Kabul


Bright Stars, III, 2014

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Black Cat Tanka

out of the blue
my ex's black cat in the road
my shadow
and I swerving
into memory lane

Revision, Bright Stars, III, 2014

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

Paper Boats Tanka

from the other shore
Mom’s and Dad’s voices
overlapping
as the fog rolls in
paper boats become shadows

Bright Stars, III, 2014

Monday, July 14, 2014

Thin Wall Tanka

nonstop
thumping and moaning . . .
the thin wall
between my row house
and the ghosts next door

Bright Stars, III, 2014

Moonstruck Tanka

moonstruck
Nostalgia gains momentum
leapfrogging
from Taiwan to Toronto
I’m its colonial subject

Bright Stars, III, 2014

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Murder of Crows Tanka

a teenager
lies spread-eagled
on the ground
a murder of crows
lifting into the sky

Bright Stars, III, 2014

Saturday, July 12, 2014

Midnight Moon Tanka

the past returns
clearer than a dream . . .
alone
at the window
midnight moon

Bright Stars, III, 2014

Long Night and Short Day Tanka

the long night
keeps hammering
the short day . . .
maple leaves like blood
dotting my front yard

Bright Stars, III, 2014

Friday, July 11, 2014

Noose Tanka

cold moon
hanging low over campus
a noose
around the statue
of the first black student

Bright Stars, III, 2014

Thursday, July 10, 2014

Neon Lights Tanka

the old man
and his shadow
indulging
in an orgy of compliments
flashing neon lights

Bright Stars, III, 2014

Divorce Tanka

divorce hearing . . .
the way she pushes her hair
behind her ear
just like she did
when we first met by moonlight

Bright Stars, III, 2014

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Heart Tanka

the heart
has its reasons
but my hand
is schizophrenic:
apoemisnotjustapoem


Bright Stars, III, 2014

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

A Tanka about Times Square

I cheer
along with the crowd
in Times Square
enter the new year
alone with my shadow

Bright Stars, III, 2014

May Day Tanka

May Day morning . . .
butterflies playing
with the breeze
tease my neighbor’s kitten
into a frenzy

Bright Stars, III, 2014

Monday, July 7, 2014

Seagull Tanka

I race up and down
the hard sand
declaiming
Takuboku
to a lone seagull

Bright Stars, III, 2014

Saturday, July 5, 2014

Strange Race Tanka

from his white mouth
your hand looks dirty,
don't touch me ...
the silence and I (a Chinese)
some strange race on the bus

Whispers, June 15 2014

Friday, July 4, 2014

Colgate Teeth Tanka

Equal for all ...
can these narcotic words
still her Colgate teeth
that nibble at
my yellow skin

Whispers, June 15 2014

Thursday, July 3, 2014

Wednesday, July 2, 2014