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

Tuesday, November 5, 2024

Silence of a River Haiku

finally free ...
I float in the silence
of a river


Hindi Translation

पूर्णतः स्वतंत्र …
मैं नदी की चुप्पी में 
बहती

Monday, November 4, 2024

Smoggy Sunrise Haiku

No More Fairy Tales, XXXVII

leafless trees rub
against the smoggy sunrise
smell of the wind



FYI: BBC News, Nov.3: Schools close in Lahore as pollution hits record level

Unprecedented air pollution in the Pakistani city of Lahore has forced authorities to close all primary schools for a week.

From Monday, 50% of office workers will also work from home, as part of a "green lockdown" plan. Other measures include bans on engine-powered rickshaws and vendors that barbecue without filters...

Raja Jehangir Anwar, a senior environment official, said the "biggest headache" causing the smog was the practice of burning crop waste, known as stubble, across the Indian border.

Aurangzeb said the fumes were “being carried by strong winds into Pakistan”.


And this haiku could be read as a sequel to its preceding entry:

No More Fairy Tales, XXXVI

New Delhi draped
in layers of toxic haze
this sense of dread
as October rolls around
chokingly dark... and darker



FYI: New Delhi started the week with a PM 2.5 concentration nearly 80 times the World Health Organization’s recommended limit, according to Swiss air quality company IQAir (2023 survey) 


Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CXXII: "bombed schools"

a drift of olive leaves ...
my Gazan friend's kin living
in various bombed schools


FYI: This haiku is a sequel to the following:
Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CXIX: "olive harvest in the West Bank"

the sun glints
on a settler's M-16 ...
olive harvest



Added: Game Show, 2024, LXXIII

this chilly night
stretching thousands of miles
behind the day
November 6th, the veil thinnest
between Heaven and Hell

Sunday, November 3, 2024

Man-Child Tanka

Game Show, 2024, LXXI

this man-child fullmouths
frack and drill, baby, frack and drill
with a meaty smile ...
I turn off the TV, gazing
at cracked corners of my world

NeverEnding Story, November 3 2024


For more about Donald Trump being a man-child, see PopMatters, Feb.9, 2017: The Spoiled Little Man-Child They Made King: Celebrity, Richard II, and Donald Trump.

And Special Feature: Selected Tanka for Reflections on This Convicted Felon and Man-Child, Donald Trump


Added: Game Show, 2024, LXXII

Trump fan and foe
face to face
in stony silence
at the anti/rally
their cars kissed passionately

Friday, November 1, 2024

Thursday, October 31, 2024

Grim Reaper Haiku

his scythe dripping blood
the Grim Reaper has stepped
right out of my dreams



Added:

the buzz and flicker
of War Cemetery's "War"
Eve of All Hallows


Added:

shrouded head to toe 
in red a girl skims ghostlike 
through the dark, scything


Added:

night closing in
the gap-toothed smile
of a toddler ghost


FYI: For more Halloween haiku, see Special Feature: Halloween Haiku for Your Reading "Pleasure"


Added:

sleepless again
I doomscroll through Trump zombie
and GAGA ghosts


Added:

this ghostly halo ...
my old friend's head
ringed by spiky strands
of white hair glittering
in Halloween moonlight

Tuesday, October 29, 2024

Sky and Mountain Path Haiku

summer rain stitching sky and mountain path 
Editor's Comment: I like this almost Zen-like image, two straight horizontal lines connected by the vertical lines of the rain. 

Monday, October 28, 2024

Wooden Jesus Tanka

slanted sunlight
reaches Wooden Jesus on the cross
I close my eyes
... yet nothing whatever emerges
in my mind or my heart



FYI: This tanka could be read as a prequel to the following:

in the chapel
I pray to Jesus
hour after hour
finally tired of me
Time leaves me alone

NeverEnding Story, September 15, 2017


Added:

a  l  o n e togethertogether a l o  n  e
       meandmydrunkenshadow


Added:

the patches
on my neighbor's screen door
foreclosure notice


AddedAdded: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CXXI: "Home of the Oppressed, Land of the Free"

Home of the Oppressed, Land of the Free 

this smoky night
in the bomb-shattered world
a Gazan makes a wish
to the camera in Hebrew
to fall asleep and rise... alive

oh, to safe one life
is to save the whole world 
(this distance
in the rabbi's voice)
why this silence about bombings?


FYI: Ls 1&2 of the concluding tanka refer to the central text of Rabbinic Judaism, Talmud (Sanhedrin 37a): Whoever "saves a single life" is considered by scripture to "have saved the whole world."

Saturday, October 26, 2024

Wednesday, October 23, 2024

Patriot Tanka

Patriot: A Memoir
written in blood, sweat and tears ...
the battle
continues from Navalny's grave
as the Kremlin is cloaked in shadows



FYI: Alexei Navalny began writing Patriot: A Memoir after his near-fatal poisoning in 2020, and his wife, Yulia Navalnaya, helped piece together the book following his death in February. The book, released on Tuesday, is set to be published in 22 languages; the English-language edition hit number one on Amazon’s bestselling book charts just hours after its release.

The book recounts his youth, activism, personal life and his fight against Putin’s increasingly authoritarian hold on Russia. US magazine The New Yorker published excerpts from the book on October 11, titled Alexei Navalny’s Prison Diaries, an account of his last years and his admonition to his country and the world.

Tuesday, October 22, 2024

You're Not/Knowing

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CXIII: "preparing for settlement in Gaza"

no visible trace
of the walls of my house
of the living room
chairs, tables, dishes, and beds ...
a Gazan sighs between fireballs

each bombed-out house:
an album with no photos
but with people
the living, wounded and dead
pressed between its pages



FYI: "Israel's oldest daily, Haaretz" Editorial, Oct. 21Netanyahu's Party Is Clearing the Path to Settling Gaza

...a conference titled "Preparing for Settlement in Gaza," that is slated to take place on Monday. Effectively, it is signed by the Likud party.

"We are honored to invite you to participate in the 'preparing for settlement in Gaza' event ... and to be hosted in Likud's sukkah," the invitation says. The ruling political party is thereby inviting the general public to a conference that includes building an illegal outpost, as a step toward building a new settlement in northern Gaza. This insanity is part of an initiative led by the Nachala movement, which is known for promoting illegal settlements in the West Bank.

And Haaretz, Oct. 21: 'Conquer, Kick Out, Resettle': At the 'Preparing to Resettle Gaza' Conference, Wishful Thinking Made Way to Concrete Plans

At a Sukkot-themed gathering near the Gaza border, settlers and far-right leaders outlined plans to reestablish Jewish settlements in the Strip 'within a year.' Police blocked counterprotesters from entering the event, as speakers called for the 'voluntary transfer' of Gazans and the redrawing of Israel's borders to stretch 'from the Euphrates to the Nile'


AddedAgainst the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CXIX: "olive harvest in the West Bank"

the sun glints
on a settler's M-16 ...
olive harvest


FYI: Reuters Video, Oct. 21: Palestinians say West Bank olive harvest "tarnished with blood"

Palestinians harvesting olives in the West Bank faced Israeli soldiers blocking access to land. Rights groups say settlers have attacked farmers and damaged groves as tensions from Gaza worsen the situation in the region.


AddedAgainst the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CXX: "dead-end, no-end war"

Gaza news
a world away this dead-end
no-end war on drugs


AddedGame Show, 2024, LXIX

with no hairnet
Donald Trump works 15 minutes
at a McDonald’s
shoulder to shoulder protesters shout
minimum wage, maximum rage


AddedGame Show, 2024, LXX

smell of sunshine
a turd-shaped monument (installed on the National Mall,  Washington, D.C.)
for the Jan. 6 mob 

Saturday, October 19, 2024

Friday, October 18, 2024

Shelter Window Tanka

a girl
sticks her tongue out
at snowflakes
her mother's smiling face
in the shelter window



FYI: For more examples about mood haiku and tanka, see To the Lighthouse: Mood Haiku and Tanka

Thursday, October 17, 2024

News on Mute Haiku

the news on mute ...
I'm quiet and quieter
as my old dog sleeps



Added: No More Fairy Tales, XXXVI

New Delhi draped
in layers of toxic haze
this sense of dread
as October rolls around
chokingly dark... and darker


FYI: New Delhi started the week with a PM 2.5 concentration nearly 80 times the World Health Organization’s recommended limit, according to Swiss air quality company IQAir (2023 survey

And CNN, April 26, 2024: The world’s 100 worst polluted cities are in Asia — and 83 of them are in just one country, India

For more examples about mood haiku and tanka, see To the Lighthouse: Mood Haiku and Tanka