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

Thursday, December 11, 2025

Tuesday, December 9, 2025

Blood Libel Tanka

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCLVI: "blood libel"

Gaza famine!?
It's blood libel, blood libel ...
flanked by Flags of Zion
the P/Crime Minister rumbles
to cameras' rapid fire



FYI: The Times of Israel, August 23 2025Netanyahu’s office calls Gaza famine declaration a ‘modern blood libel’ 

After a UN hunger monitor on Friday, August 22 declared for the first time that famine had struck northern Gaza, Israel vehemently denied the reports as “lies” and “modern blood libel.” 

And for more about wartime journalism, see Special Feature: Selected Poems for Reflections on Reporters Without Borders' Report: "The Israeli Army Is the Worst Enemy of Journalists"


And Haaretz, October 31, 2025Inside the Israeli Media's 'Shocking Self-censorship' of the Horrors of Gaza

Throughout the Gaza war, the tremendous difference between international coverage and Israeli media coverage was obvious to anyone exposed to both.

In a new report, media scholar Dr. Ayala Panievsky's research quantifies precisely how pronounced that difference was...

"The professional journalists, people who Israelis spend their entire lives trusting to tell them the truth, rallied around the military in many ways – any criticism of what our soldiers were doing was just out of bounds. It wasn't part of the conversation."

Opinion, December 11, 2025Save Israel's Self-censoring 'Free Press' - From Itself

The greatest blow to responsible freedom of expression comes from the media itself. It is not the government that silenced it during the past two years: The media silenced itself, and there was no opposition from inside. The media willingly censored itself; it mobilized to conceal the truth, out of fear and commercial considerations, in order not to annoy its customers.

Monday, December 8, 2025

Hollow-Eyed Men Haiku

hollow-eyed men huddled
outside the shelter window
hollow-eyed men waiting



FYI: This could be read as a prequel to my haiku below:

shelter window view
this two by two freedom
of an azure sky

Trash Panda, 9, 2025


Added:

the waning moon
winter-blurred
what remains of us


Added:

awake, yet not awake
in the dark
this darkness inside


Added:

ice crystals 
on the hospital window ...
father's last look


Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCLV: 'Gazan stray"

twilight haze
a Gazan stray in shadow
where ravens circle


Added:

the way home
this night stretches long
as my breath clouds

Sunday, December 7, 2025

Shelter Window Haiku

shelter window view
this two by two freedom
of an azure sky

Trash Panda, 9, 2025

Saturday, December 6, 2025

Climate Alarmist Talk Gembun

No more climate alarmist talk.

flashfloodingweareallinthistogether

floodafterfloodweareallinthis t o ge t h e r a gain

haikuKATHA, 49, 2025

Friday, December 5, 2025

Trade War News Haiku

trade war news
a spiderweb on the eaves
sagging with raindrops

Prize Winner, 27th Haiku International Association/HIA Haiku Contest


Judge's Commentary: The first line is clearly topical, a concern of the moment, while what follows is natural, observed. The spider’s web is, I imagine, on the eaves outside the poet’s house, where the heavy raindrops gather and threaten to destroy it. The web is the spider’s lair and means of existence, yet one that may soon give way. Our lives too are delicately wrought, and may be easily disrupted. In the meantime we can admire the light refracted in the glittering raindrops, before they fall. I note the syllable count of 3-7-5.

Thursday, December 4, 2025

Gazan Shelter Haiku

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCLIV: "'cold rain all day..."

cold rain all day ...
in a Gazan shelter
bomb craters of sky



FYI: The Rover, December 3 2025: Winter in Gaza: Rain and Deadly Frost Plague the Displaced

Access to new tents and essential winter supplies is strictly limited, forcing residents to face the cold and damp after two years of destruction, famine, and forced displacement.

Wednesday, December 3, 2025

Gazan Baby's Face Haiku

first frost …
a Gazan baby’s face
in pixels



FYI: Judge's Comment: The first sign of winter is juxtaposed with a baby in Gaza, likely seen under terrible circumstances. Pixels are the tiny units – or pieces (a shadow word, surely) – that make up a digital image. News is always to hand, refreshed continuously if we choose to look, but the devices we use can make us feel remote, less empathetic. The author’s intent (to me anyway) is unclear, which adds another layer of interest.

And this haiku is a sequel to my haiku below:

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CLXXXVIII: "A Gazan baby"
written in response to Haaretz, May 20, 2025: Opposition MK Says Israel Risks Pariah Status, 'Sane State Doesn't Kill Babies as Hobby'

a Gazan baby
the glitter 
in a sniper's eye

Tuesday, December 2, 2025

Wrinkled Paris Mail Haiku

twilit shadows fall
on my wrinkled Paris mail
signed Yours forever



Added:

the dark side
of a winter moon ... 
between us, the hush


Added:

the full moon
blurred through winter fog
a vow not kept


Added:

this snowy night
alone at the Gold Mountain ...
owner, me and rice balls


Added:

snowonsnow ...
in a world of one color
the sound of coughing 


FYI: This haiku alludes to Basho's:

winter solitude 
in a world of one colour 
the sound of the wind 


Added: 

rain-beaded wire fence 
a child migrant's long stare
at southbound geese

Thursday, November 27, 2025

Dare to Be Happy

leaves turn through
yellow, orange, red, purple ...
back home again !

thanksgiving prayer
with each word I get closer
to my inner child

No Politics sign
on the dining room wall ...
turkey and ham dinner

thanksgiving leftovers
this relief when things remain
half-spoken



FYI: Helen Rosner, The New Yorker, Nov. 24 2025: The Best Part of Thanksgiving, Bones and All

Thanksgiving, as it tends to be celebrated, is the most honest American holiday: all appetite, no apology... Thanksgiving just asks us to be hungry together, and then to eat. In any year, this would be a potently simple path to commonality; it might be the last truly unifying experience available to us as Americans. This year, sitting down for a feast in a time and a place and a nation that seems to be actively working to become more brutal, more indifferent, more willing to make people suffer for the sin of being poor or sick or born in the wrong skin or to the wrong parents or on the wrong side of an arbitrary line, the absurdity of it all is amplified. We feed others, we feed ourselves, and what else is there? At the table, at least, we can control something: the menu, the rituals, whatever small ferocious beliefs we hold about the holiday itself.


Added: Trump Empire, Inc, LXIV
written in response to the Convicted Felon's "Gilded Age" proclaim/obsession

                 the first
           Black Friday
        closing store sale
    shiny Christmas trees
made of Louis Vuitton bags


Added:

doors burst open
in the early morning
kids wail in strollers
with their jackets zipped tight
as Black Friday sale signs flap


Added:

one power blink
another and another
this Cyber Monday
I gaze up from the screen
to ten thousand stars


FYI: "Power blinks are brief service interruptions, but they’re typically caused by a fault (short circuit) on a power line or a protective device that’s working in reaction to the fault. Faults can occur through a variety of instances, like squirrels, birds or other small animals contacting an energized power line; tree branches touching a power line; or lightning and other similar events. In fact, when it comes to power disruptions caused by critters, squirrels 🐿️ 🐿️ 🐿️reign supreme."


Added: Trump Empire, Inc, LXV

tower after tower
of Trump 2028 hats
store closing sale 

Wednesday, November 26, 2025

Breadline Haiku

the breadline lengthens
new snow on bare branches
on shoulders, too



Added: 

a row of tents
snow slipping off bare branches
clings to faces


Added:

dust to dust ...
the priest's shadow lengthens
into the grave


Added:

my eardrums
stabbed by my son's rock and roll --
this wall between us

Monday, November 24, 2025