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

Wednesday, January 14, 2026

Tel Aviv’s Sunset Tanka

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCLXVII:  "Israelis leaving in record numbers"

I turn, turning back 
to see Tel Aviv’s sunset
for the last time ... 
this new neighbor’s words fade
in Toronto's snowfall



FYI: +972 Magazine, January 7 2026Why Israelis are leaving in record numbers
Over 150,000 citizens have left the country in the past two years alone — many of them with a one-way ticket and no plans of returning.

And this tanka is a sequel to the following:

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXI: "beach party and booms"
written in response to The New Yorker, July 28, 2025: Israel’s Zones of Denial

Tel Aviv's beach party
the faint boom, boom, boom
from Gaza



Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCLXVIII: "incarceration crisis"

hands starfished
against detention windows --
candlelights swell


FYI: Haaretz, January 14 2026Mass Arrests With Nowhere to Hold Them: Overcrowding Deepens Israel's Incarceration Crisis

A growing number of Palestinians suspected of illegal entry are being held in police custody in overcrowded cells, even told to 'defecate on each other.'

And this is a sequel to the following:

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCLI: "Sde Teiman"

crimson twilight
at the edge of Sde Teiman 
a scream snaps in two


FYI: +972 Magazine, Independent Journalism from Israel-Palestine, NewsLetter, Nov. 18, 2025Torture, neglect, and starvation: new data reveals 98 Palestinian deaths in Israeli custody