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

Monday, August 15, 2022

Blind and Deaf Tanka

 reading between the lives and writing between the lines, XX

About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” -- New Testament, Matthew, 27:46

a ball of fire
rolling through a packed church ...
wave upon wave 
of bloodcurdling screams
as if God were blind and deaf


FYI: The following tanka could be read as a sequel

unshackled 
from my childhood beliefs
I'm a passing thought
in the mind of God
who forsook his son on the cross

Bulgarian and English Tanka Handbook (edited by Dimitar Anakiev)


Added:

faded photos
taken by a prisoner
inside the camp ...
hard to look at
harder to look away


Added:

Ditch Cheney
Vote for Trump-Backed Hageman 
in red bold letters ...
my son asks, anything new
under the Wyoming sun?

Vanity Fair, August 15: "The Trump Convert Who Looks Like She's About to Unseat Liz Cheney": Harriet Hageman tried to keep Trump off the GOP ballot in 2016. Now, with the former president's backing, she looks poised to defeat her old friend Liz Cheney on a MAGA platform. 

And CBC News, August 17: Trump critic Liz Cheney loses Wyoming primary
 
Liz Cheney, Donald Trump's fiercest Republican adversary in Congress, was defeated in a primary in Wyoming on Tuesday. In conceding defeat, Cheney vowed to "ensure Donald Trump is never again anywhere near the Oval Office." 


AddedThis Brave New World, LII
Anything new in Florida, the Land of Sunshine?

a parentless teen
raising her fist before the judge:
too immature
for an early abortion 
but not for forced motherhood

FYI: Jill Filipovic, The Guardian, August 18:  Florida calls teen ‘too immature’ for an abortion. But forced motherhood is fine?

The Florida court’s decision is shameful, nothing less than an ideological assault on a teenager. It’s about control – and a court imposing its misogynist anti-abortion ideology on a teenager who came to them for help.