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

Tuesday, January 14, 2025

Land of Milk and Honey Tanka

a lone suitcase
going round and round
on the carousel ...
I wonder what my life will be
in this land of milk and honey

Saturday, January 11, 2025

Late Night Shift Tanka

on the bench
after the late night shift
keeping to ourselves
we smoke in the freezing gaps
between shuttle buses 

Gusts, 40, Fall/Winter 2023

Friday, January 10, 2025

Valley of Smoke Tanka

No More Fairy Tales, XL

the morning sun
choked out by columns of black ...
car after car 
driving through the valley of smoke
as tongues of fire leap behind



FYI: My haiku below could be read as a sequel:

No More Fairy Tales, VI

tongues of forest fires 
there's no Plan[et] B, the rest
blah, blah, blah ...



Added: No More Fairy Tales, XLI

morning sun barely seen street after street charred by the frames


Added: No More Fairy Tales, XLII

tongues of flame
grow longer and wilder
with raging hate and lies ...
a raven's kraa-kraa-kraa
atop the Mar-a-Lago flagpole


Added: No More Fairy Tales, XLIII

a stairway
what remains of a burned house ...
Pacific Coast sunset


Added:

patches of fog
shroud this orphanage ...
un/knowing the past


FYI: This haiku could be read as a sequel of my haiku below:

jigsaw puzzle:
group-home kids piece together
“American Dream”

Touch of a Moth: 2012 Haiku Canada Members' Anthology
(Note: American Dream is FX Schmid's award-winning 750-piece jigsaw puzzle)

hand-me-down dream
twilight laughter drifting
from the orphanage

Thursday, January 9, 2025

Silence upon Silence Haiku

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CLVIII: "silence upon silence" 
written in response to Democracy Now, Jan.6: American Historical Association Votes Overwhelmingly for Resolution to Oppose Scholasticide in Gaza

ruins after ruins ...
these layers of silence
upon silence




The American Historical Association, the oldest learned society in the United States, has adopted the “Resolution to Oppose Scholasticide in Gaza,” condemning Israel’s “intentional effort to comprehensively destroy the Palestinian education system.” 

The vote was a vote of 428 in favor and 88 opposed. And the resolution was written by Historians for Peace and Democracy. There were four abstentions. 


We Cannot Be Bystanders to Genocide.

-- Chen-ou Liu

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.

-- Martin Luther King Jr. 

Wednesday, January 8, 2025

Tongues of Fire Tanka

tongues of fire lick
as house after house
bursts into flame ...
where has my friend been
where will my friend be

Gusts, 40, Fall/Winter 2023

Tuesday, January 7, 2025

Dream after Dream Tanka

awake, yet not awake ...
I struggle through dream
after dream
of crying out to Father
in the misty twilight

Gusts, 40, Fall/Winter 2023

Monday, January 6, 2025

January 6th U.S. Capitol ATTACK Haiku

the winter woods
dark and deep into my dream
January 6th



(FYI: Ls 1&2 ironically allude to the concluding staza of "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost:

The woods are lovely, dark and deep,   
But I have promises to keep,   
And miles to go before I sleep,   
And miles to go before I sleep.

Axios, Dec. 26, 2024: Trump's first day: 59 things he promised to do on "day one:" one of 59 things is "pardons for Jan. 6 rioters"

And Daily Beast, Jan.5, 2025This is Sickening’: Trump Slammed for Jan. 6 Take at Secret Mar-a-Lago Bash)


Added: Between Heaven and Hell, XVII

Making America Trump Again

alone, soul-exiled
from Trumpland with its lies
and hush money,
I binge hour after hour...
Jan. 6th hearings

once blood-stained
the Capitol's arched portal ...
in two weeks
the Convicted Felon will take
(the oath and) the Power

51st state
the Gulf of America
buying Greenland...
with mind-punched news turned off
I stumble into the dark

the Arctic tap 
wide open to send chill after chill
as far south 
as the Gulf of "Trumperica" ...
long lineup at Mar-a-Lago


(FYI: Watch the 10-day Jan. 6th Committee Full Hearings.  and The New York Times, Jan. 5‘A Day of Love’: How Trump Inverted the Violent History of Jan. 6
The president-elect and his allies have spent four years reinventing the Capitol attack — spreading conspiracy theories and weaving a tale of martyrdom to their ultimate political gain)


Added: Between Heaven and Hell, XIX

Trump thisTrump that ...
with this news-punched mind
I sound-bathe in silence


Added: Between Heaven and Hell, XX

unconditional discharge ...
I walk with winter gales
into the gathering dark

Sunday, January 5, 2025

Insomnia Tanka

at 3 a.m.
once again sleepless ...
I open the curtains
to let out silence
and bring in moonlight


German Translation by Chrysanthemum Editorial Team

3 Uhr früh
wieder mal schlaflos ...
ich öffne die Vorhänge
um die Stille raus-
und Mondlicht reinzulassen

Saturday, January 4, 2025

Five Shekels Tanka

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words,  CLV: "five shekels" 

a telescope 
mounted on a hilltop ...
five shekels (FYI: 1.37 USD)
to see rubble after rubble
under Gaza's smoky skies



FYI: The Guardian, July 20,2024:Israelis gather on hillsides to watch and cheer as military drops bombs on Gaza

People drink, snack and pose for selfies against a background of explosions as Palestinian death toll mounts in ongoing offensive

And Der Spiegel, Dec. 23, 2024: "Within a Year, We Will Be Living in Gaza"
The Israeli army is systematically destroying towns in northern Gaza and expelling the population. It is laying the groundwork for a military occupation - and for the possible construction of new Jewish settlements.

There is a telescope mounted on a hilltop outside the Gaza Strip. Here, on the outskirts of the Israeli city of Sderot, you can pay five shekels to watch the war at a magnification of 25x.


Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words,  CLVI: "war tourism

clouds of smoke and fire ....
through the telescope viewfinder
on a hilltop
Israeli tourists don't see the war
but vision a future of houses


FYI:  Der Spiegel, Dec. 23, 2024: "Within a Year, We Will Be Living in Gaza"

The Fenton family at the hilltop viewpoint near Sderot...When one detonation sends up a particularly large cloud of smoke, Fenton exults: "How beautiful! How beautiful! How beautiful! Thanks be to God!”

"The path we are being led down is one of conquest, annexation and ethnic cleansing,” warned the former Israeli general, Netanyahu’s defense minister during the 2014 Gaza War Moshe Ya’alon in an early December television interview. "There is no Beit Lahiya anymore, no Beit Hanoun, the army is intervening in Jabaliya, and in truth, the land is being cleansed of Arabs.” Israel is threatening to become a "corrupt and leprous fascist messianic state.”


Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words,  CLVII: "Palestine sunbirds" 

the pause between fireballs ...
a burst of colors
Palestine sunbirds in flight 


FYI: The Palestine sunbird is the national bird of Palestine, a symbol of Palestinian resistance and freedom


Added:

Chinese fried dough
crumbled into black coffee ...
home away from home

Friday, January 3, 2025

Self-Love Tanka

my friend gone too soon ...
a piece of paper falls
from her diary
with words in red bold font:
I've had enough of self-love
 
Haiku Canada Review, 18:2, October 2024

Thursday, January 2, 2025

Courthouse Hallway Haiku

courthouse hallway
this rapid staccato 
of my ex's high heels

Haiku Canada Review, 18:2, October 2024

Wednesday, January 1, 2025

Word-Bombs and Lie-Mines Tanka

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words,  CLIII: "Jimmy Carter"
in memory of Jimmy Carter, a bluntly honest man of Faith who follow[ed] the Prince of Peace in the New Testament (The New Yorker, Dec.29, 2024)

these worn pages
of Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid
in snowlight
Carter's word-bombs bunker-bust
IDF's tunnel-deep lie-mines



AddedAgainst the Drowning Noise of Other Words,  CLIV: "new year of the same fate"

A New Year of the Same Fate

alone, lost
in the calm between fireballs
this Gazan boy's gaze
a two-thousand-yard stare
at the Great Beyond ...

with lifeless eyes
cast to Gaza's ashy skies
this girl's face
summons a grief 
as old as Time


FYI: The New Yorker, Dec.29, 2024: Remembering a Visit to Jimmy Carter in Plains, Georgia

Jimmy Carter, Anwar Sadat, and Menachem Begin spent thirteen days secluded near Maryland’s Catoctin Mountain and produced a peace treaty that has endured for forty years. It was Jimmy Carter’s signature accomplishment and one that has never been matched in the region, despite decades of strenuous attempts.

...on his first day in the Oval Office, in January, 1977, he stunned his Vice-President, Walter Mondale, by saying that his first priority was to bring peace to the Middle East. Carter later told me that he believed God had put him into the Presidency for that very reason.

...So why do you think God wants peace in the Holy Land?” I asked. “Because we follow the Prince of Peace in the New Testament,” he responded.

In retrospect, Carter’s priorities in the White House—the environment, energy conservation, peace, health care—were remarkably prescient, and certainly his personal qualities offer a dismaying contrast to so much of the present state of American politics. Perhaps his piety soured the American public on him. Other qualities—his doggedness, earnestness, sincerity, blunt honesty—were in sharp contrast to those of Reagan, who proved irresistible to the public.

Tuesday, December 31, 2024

New Year's Eve Poems

written in response to Angelo B. Ancheta's new year's eve tanka:

the column of sparks 
from the fountain rises 
on New Year's eve 
how do I start this time 
with an end


Angelo B. Ancheta


Here are my "reflections" on this dying disaster/war-plagued year, 2024:

Personal:

shock after shock
until the end of this year
soul-exiled
from this over-eventful world
with eyes closed, I see myself

Socio-cultural:

However, most of us are just celebrating/singing...

auld lang syne ...
white lie after white lie
as we toast the days

Monday, December 30, 2024

ECG Beeping Haiku

ECG beeping ...
her heart once beat 
against my chest



Added:

false dawn
in dreams I see her turn back
... not turn back


Added:

a shooting star 
the night we slept together
like a dream, and yet ...

Sunday, December 29, 2024

Bloodied Man in a Press Vest Haiku

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CL: "first casualty of war"
written in response to Democracy Now, Dec.26Israeli Strikes on Gaza Kill Dozens, Including Five Journalists; Three Babies Freeze to Death


                 the
           bloodied
              man
nailed to a  wooden cross
                in
                 a
              press
               vest



FYI: This is a sequel to the following haiku: 
written in response to Democracy Now, DECEMBER. 20, 2023: [NewYork-based, American NGO] Committee to Protect Journalists: Israel Is Killing Media Workers at Unprecedented Pace

smoky rubble
a bullet-riddled helmet
marked PRESS



AddedAgainst the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CLI: "keffiyeh-draped youth"

snow on snow ...
the keffiyeh-draped youth
pump their fists
locked in a staring contest
with a phalanx in dark blue


AddedAgainst the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CLII: "the Great Beyond"

alone, lost
in the calm between fireballs
this Gazan girl's gaze
a two-thousand-yard stare
at the Great Beyond ...

Thursday, December 26, 2024