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

Wednesday, May 6, 2026

River Trail Tanka

Starlight on the Gutter of  Blossoms, IV

silver moonlight 
drips through weeping willow leaves
the river trail  reeks 
where a stray rips the throat
from a bag of rotting guts



Added: Starlight on the Gutter of  Blossoms, V

the milky way 
floats in the midlight river --
one yellow stream
arcs higher than the other
while two drunks shout and laugh


Added: Starlight on the Gutter of  Blossoms, VI

the warbler’s wail
ripples through the morning mist --
the screech of brakes
as a truck grinds to a stop
inches from the toddler


Added: Starlight on the Gutter of  Blossoms, VII

the moonlit creek
chatters over mossy rocks
the drainage pipe 
spewing vomit after vomit
of neon-blue factory sludge


Added: Starlight on the Gutter of  Blossoms, VIII

fields of wheat
rippling in morning sunshine
roadside billboards
hawk cheap loans and debt swaps
to the hollow-eyed and aged


Added: Starlight on the Gutter of  Blossoms, IX

morning mist
veiling the river’s curve ...
the bridge traffic stops
as a rusted semi-truck 
grinds a stray into pulp

Tuesday, May 5, 2026

Park Dump Tanka

Starlight on the Gutter of  Blossoms, I

cherry blossom rain ...
under a grey-veined sky
the park dump
with needles scattered
in mangy green



FYI: My new writing project, Starlight on the Gutter of Blossoms, applies the violent lens of the urban onihishigitei style to the modern landscape. Inspired by Christine Judd’s "neon lights" tanka, the title hijacks Oscar Wilde’s romanticism—"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars"—and forces that celestial gaze down into the city’s filth to "slay" traditional beauty.


Added: Starlight on the Gutter of  Blossoms, II

summer stars
drip silver light on the river -- 
slick after slick
of oily black choking
the throat of a storm drain


Added: Starlight on the Gutter of  Blossoms, III

the wisteria scent
in cascading clusters --
moonlit shards
from a smashed windshield
in the asphalt's teeth

Monday, May 4, 2026

Sunday, May 3, 2026

Home, Sweet Home Haiku

home, sweet home ...
in my rear window snow geese
unzip the sunset glow



FYI: "'Home Sweet Home" was first released in 1985 as a single from Mötley Crüe's third studio album, Theatre of Pain.

Friday, May 1, 2026

Writing Gembun

The blank calendar; even thoughts paused like a frozen screen.

the cursor blinks ...
the weight of another
hazy day moon



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

hazy day moon 
alone, awake with the weight
of memory



Added: a gembun, about the precarious "work-life," for May Day:

The fan oscillates, its hum a steady heartbeat in the cramped dark.

dust motes
in the slanted moonlight
life between motels

Thursday, April 30, 2026

Cherry Blossom Dawn Haiku

cherry blossom dawn
my beagle and I bathed
in the scent of light



Added:

breezy sunshine
bumblebees stitch gold threads
among blossoms


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

bumblebee flitting
among the meadow flowers
humming to itself

Haiga Moments: Pens and Lens, 2008

Ignatius Fay


Added:

blossom rain
my son takes a selfie
I breathe deeply


Added:

pick-your-own farm
my toddler’s lips and fingers
blue-stained


Added:

garden hut
newborn kittens blink
into tulips


Added:

break of dawn
a wedge of geese honking
the northbound freight

Wednesday, April 29, 2026

Eyes and Minds Tanka

we walk quietly
from the doctor’s room
into an elevator
our eyes and minds escape
into panel numbers

Tuesday, April 28, 2026

Mockingbird's Song Tanka

written for Harper Lee’s 100th birthday

I climb inside
my MAGA neighbor's head
to see his world ...
a mockingbird's song
snaps in two through half-sleep



Note: In Ls 1-3, the speaker’s attempt to “climb inside / of my MAGA neighbor’s head” mirrors Atticus Finch’s ethic of radical empathy: “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view … Until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it,” which the tanka re-stages as a dreamlike, unstable act of perception.

And the following remark is in contrast to Ls 1-3's allusive one:

People generally see what they look for and hear what they listen for, and they have a right to subject their children to it...

Judge Taylor, Chapter 17

Sunday, April 26, 2026

Friday, April 24, 2026

Late Night Shift Haiku

late night shift done
a stray’s barks lengthen
the way home



Added:

thunder and lightning
what's left between us 
half-spoken


Added:

cascading clusters, 
clusters of wisteria …
scent of sunshine


Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXCIII: "trapped echo"

the sound of drones 
in an armless boy's head
like a trapped echo
his mother's last scream 
drowns in the smoky dark


FYI: "Israel's oldest dailyHaaretz," which was was sanctioned by the Israeli government on Nov. 24, 2024

Opinion, April 24, 2026: Israelis' Thunderous Silence Enables Daily Atrocities in Gaza and the West Bank

In the Gaza Strip, the dead and wounded aren't "casualties," they are "collateral damage" – a dry technical term backed by artificial intelligence and legal permits. They aren't casualties, they are damage. Language itself has been recruited to cloud what happened, as if by swapping the terms, we could also swap our reality...

But the most chilling sound of all is silence. Israelis' thunderous silence was what enabled and continues to enable the atrocities we committed in Gaza and the ones we commit every day in the West Bank. 


This tanka could be read as a sequel to the following:

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXCII: "P/Crime Minister"
written on Israel's Independence Day

behind the shroud
of "our hero warriors"
the P/Crime Minister
spills the Castro-length 
blah, blah, blah on victory


Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXCIV: "fighter jets' trails"

Gazan sky tinged gray
fighter jets’ trails underline
a crescent moon


Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXCV: "bullets and blasts"

a hum
thickens into a roar ...
bullets and blasts
tear through brick walls and flesh
as dust and blood fill the air


Added:

makeshift clinic
a  Beirut boy blowing
on shrapnel wounds

Wednesday, April 22, 2026

Streetlight Tanka

a girl in red
silhouetted against the glow
of a streetlight
the spark of her cigarette
deepens this winter night

Tuesday, April 21, 2026

Late Night Chill Tanka

in late night chill
these rusting staples
on a bulletin board
below the missing puppies
a missing pink-haired teen

Monday, April 20, 2026

Sunday, April 19, 2026

Saturday, April 18, 2026

Past and Present, Then Ever

cherry blossoms 
always the same, and yet
ever new with you

pink blossom rain
the space where you used to be
pink blossom rain



Added: 

a riverside stroll
pink blossom rain on my face
on a homeless man


FYI: This could be read as a counter poem to my award-winning haiku below:

blossom rain
between earth and sky
somehow, us

Grand Prize, Sharpening the Green Pencil Haiku Contest, 2026


Added: 

midnight crescent
in a Beirut boy's eyes
buzzing drones


Added:

repeat after me
Trum pi no cchi o ...
the clown taps his nose


Added: Politics of Distraction, IX:

blocking the blockade
to break the strait blockade ...
in gathering dark
a gin-soaked flight to nowhere
through the un/truth of this war


Added: Trump Empire, Inc, XCII

             Donald Trump
                $20,28 per gallon
             America First
the MAGA-hatted man’s stare
bores holes through his lawn sign


FYI: This tanka could be read as a sequel to mine below:

Law is the King

Trump Empire, Inc, XC
written for No Kings protests

just a dream, and yet ...
the mountain lion roars
to grazing sheep:
once elected as your King
I'll be vegetarian

the peanut-brained man
behind the Resolute Desk
grins to cameras,
just a little excursion...
oily clouds over Tehran

how much bullshit
can come out of one ass-hole
a veteran’s refrain
cracks and booms through iron bars
at the White House gate

the Capitol fence
shadowed against the sky
in twilight chill
lineups snake at the pumps
and at food banks too

chant after chant
of eggflation, fried truth
scrambled justice ...
a mutt's neck sign: I can poop
a better president


FYI: The title alludes to the famous quote from Thomas Paine's 1776 pamphlet, Common Sense: In America, THE LAW IS KING.


Added:

on the road to work  
I push through the white drift --
cold snap pressing in


Added:

to T.S. Eliot

curtains part
snow-wet roofs mirroring
April twilight


FYI: This could be read as a sequel my gembun below:

April is the cruelest month, I murmur to myself

drinking alone
the sound of snowfall
deepens



Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXCII: "P/Crime Minister"
written on Israel's Independence Day

behind the shroud
of "our hero warriors"
the P/Crime Minister
spills the Castro-length 
blah, blah, blah on victory


Added: No More Fairy Tales, LIII
written on War-Ravaged Earth Day

Hormuz twilight
one pond of oily black
after another