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

Showing posts with label disaster. Show all posts
Showing posts with label disaster. Show all posts

Sunday, June 14, 2026

Flooding Tanka

after the flooding
in this tourist town
the sound
of a whiskey bottle
tapping the dock

Wednesday, May 13, 2026

Fire Poppies Haiku

months after the fire
these hills blowing with poppies!
fire poppies ablaze


FYI: Papaver californicum, a species of poppy known by its common name fire poppy, only grows on the heels of major fires.   

Sunday, March 15, 2026

Thursday, January 29, 2026

Thursday, January 8, 2026

River of Mud and Waste Haiku

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCLXVI: "winter storm"

Gazan sky tinged gray
a river of mud and waste
through patchworked tents



FYI: Haaretz, Jan. 6, 2026: 'We Saved the Child From Drowning': In Gaza, Winter Storm Makes Displacement Even Deadlier

Wind and rain are tearing apart Gaza's tents, collapsing buildings and flooding streets and shelters. With many winter supplies barred by Israel, black-market merchants are selling tents for up to $1,000. One Palestinian said, 'We don't know where we will sleep the next time it rains' 

And this haiku could be read as a sequel to the following:

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCLXIII: "freezing rain and wind gusts"

freezing rain and wind gusts  ...
the length
of another Gazan night



Added: Trump Empire, Inc, LXX: 

The Law Is King!

a few blocks
from George Floyd Square
Renee Nicole Good
shot dead by the ICE 
candlelights swell, then a sea...

the burning photo
of gold-crowned Donald Trump ...
the flame licks upward
then a Nenee Good lookalike
lights her cigarette


FYI: The title alludes to Thomas Paine's 1776 remark: "In America, the rule of law is king." And in October 2025, Donald Trump received a replica of a Silla dynasty golden crown from South Korean President.

And The New Yorker, Jan. 8 2026: Minneapolis Grieves, Again

It was Floyd’s murder, by Minneapolis police, that catalyzed an uprising for Black lives—the largest demonstrations in U.S. history. George Floyd Square still marks that moment, with grand sculptures of raised fists and graffitied murals. Now another death, another Minnesotan tragedy, has distilled the stakes of yet another form of state violence.


Added:

in drifting snowflakes
one peace candle flickers
another glows on ...


Added:

the mountain range
looms behind this new town 
half-obscured
by tiers of wooden houses ...
the fire leaps then the wind shifts


Added:

slanted moonlight
on this winding road of dream
to you, my love ...
my feet stiff, my heart restless
until it rests in you


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

at the edge 
of a winter dream
I reach for you ...
my love in white
there, but not there

Honorable Mention, 2019 World Tanka Contest


Added: This Brave New World, CXXVI
for fearless Iranian women

more sirens wail
one woman... then women
light their cigarettes 
with burning photos
of the stern Ayatollah

Tuesday, September 30, 2025

Glimpses of Light

flashfloodweareallinthis t o ge  t   h   e r   

Rain and snowfall across Southern California has tamed, at least for the time being, the threat of major wildfires in the region; however, ash and mud are flowing across streets in the Los Angeles area, and some schools are closed for today due to dangerous road conditions.

While holding back tears, the School District Director makes an announcement on live TV.  Someone whispers behind local residents, "she lost her house and one relative two days ago." The news camera cuts to an aerial view of an once-lush neighborhood now charred by wildfires, and then to a long shot of a street corner.

skeletal houses
the fruit of a charred citrus tree
clings to its branches

smoldering ruins
an etched mural stands alone
at the temple

Tuesday, September 2, 2025

Bodies on Bodies Haiku

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXXII: "UN-declared famine and a food aid truck"
written in response to the International Association of Genocide Scholars' resolution: Israel Is committing genocide in Gaza

mud-stained bodies
on sweat-drenched on bodies
on a food aid truck



For more details, see "Special Feature: Selected Poems for Reflections on the International Association of Genocide Scholars' Resolution: Israel Is Committing Genocide in Gaza"


Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXXIII: "mind view"

Gazan girl's mind view:
mostly smoke and ruins
yet her lifeworld
still bears death and rebirth
on the wings of a dream


Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXXIV: "The Voice of Hind Rajab"
inspired by The Voice of Hind Rajab, a Gaza film that earned over twenty minutes of standing ovation after its premiere at the Venice Film Festival

trapped in a car
among six dead relatives
Hind struggles for hours ...
chants of Free Palestine echo 
through the theater and our hearts


FYI: Palestinian-Canadian actress Saja Kilani read a statement on behalf of the cast and crew:

"Hind's story carries the weight of an entire people... Her voice is one amongst 19,000 children who lost their lives in Gaza in the last two years alone… Let Hind Rajab's voice echo in every theatre, let it remind you of the silence the world has built around Gaza."

Sunday, August 31, 2025

Saturday, August 23, 2025

Thin Arms and Bloated Bellies Tanka

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXIX: "UN-declared Gaza famine"

a roadhouse
burnt-out and half ruined . . .
under the roof
a patched tent and children
with thin arms and bloated bellies



FYI: Democracy Now, August 22, 2025U.N. Declares a Famine in Gaza, Where Over 500,000 Face “Starvation, Destitution and Death”

The U.N.’s top humanitarian official, Tom Fletcher, spoke from Geneva earlier today:

It is a famine in 2025, a 21st-century famine, watched over by drones and the most advanced military technology in history. It is a famine openly promoted by some Israeli leaders as a weapon of war. It is a famine on all of our watch. Everyone owns this. The Gaza famine is the world’s famine.

And the latest pieces of news about Israel's genocidal war against Palestinians:

Haaretz, August 22, 2025: Israel's Foreign Ministry Says West Bank Is Israeli Territory, Contravening International and Domestic Law

On Thursday, 25 countries – including the United Kingdom and France –issued a joint declaration against Israel's decision to approve construction in the E1 area, a plan designed to bisect the West Bank, calling the plan a "flagrant breach of international law" that would undermine the idea of a two-state solution. 

And +972 Magazine,  independent, non-profit media initiative, Israel-Palestine

August 21, 2025: In a joint investigation by Israel's  +972 Magazine and Local Call and UK's The Guardian, Yuval Abraham reveals that: "Israeli army database suggests at least 83% of Gaza dead were civilians"

August 22, 2025How Israelis turned atrocity denial into an [paradoxical] art

...either it is all fake, or else the Gazans deserved it. Often, paradoxically, it is both at once: “There are no dead children in Gaza, and it’s good that we killed them.”)

Friday, August 22, 2025

Smoky Silence Haiku

smoky silence
crater after crater
rainbowed with oil



Added:

elbows up, elbows down ...
the PM's mouth opens and closes
in summer heat


FYI: CBC News, August 22, 2025: Unfortunately, there may not be a hockey analogy for the challenge Canada faces: Are Mark Carney's elbows up or down? Does it matter?

"There is a time in a game, in a big game — and this is a big game — when you go hard in the corners with your elbows up. There's a time in the game when you drop your gloves in the first period and you send a message. And we've done that, pretty uniquely in the world," Carney responded, attempting to broaden the hockey analogy.


Added:

berry picking
I lick the stains
off her fingers


Added:

after our picnic
the heat comes on
between us
the honey melon juice
dripping off the table edge

Saturday, August 16, 2025

Skin against Skin Tanka

Yellowing Memories, VIII
written in response to The Telegraph, August 15Putin prepares nuclear missile tests in veiled threat to West

we ducked and covered
like Bert the Turtle at school
as sirens howled ...
decades later, I still feel the heat
of our skin against skin



FYI: "Duck and Cover" staring Bert the Turtle is a 1951 "Civil Defense film"/propaganda, as the cornerstone of the government's "duck and cover" public awareness campaign.

And January 28, 2025 Doomsday Clock Announcement89 seconds to midnight


Added: Trump Empire, Inc, LII
written in response to The New Yorker, August 15, 2025: Trump’s Self-Own Summit with Putin
Even the puffery-prone President couldn’t alchemize his non-deal with Russia into Trumpian gold.

Staging/Self-Owning

on a red carpet
the Convicted Felon
and the War Crimial
shake hands with pats on the arm ...
both grin broadly to the World

President Putin
will you stop killing civilians?
with a dead-eyed look
he shrugs before entering
Trump's bulletproof Beast


FYI: Highly customized and heavily armored, the presidential limo, officially known as the presidential state car and nicknamed “The Beast” in 2001 by President George W. Bush, is more a tank than a limousine for the President.


Added: Trump Empire, Inc, LIII

warm handshakes 
on a red carpet 
and a joint limo ride
as fighter jets fly overhead ...
made-for-Fox-News non-event


FYI: Fox News, August 16: Putin ‘got away without doing anything’ at summit with Trump

The Daily Beast, August 14: Longtime Trump biographer Michael Wolff: Trump Circles Drop F-Bomb After Failure Trump-Putin Summit

And NPR, August 16: Government papers found in an Alaskan hotel reveal new details of Trump-Putin summit.


Added: Trump Empire, Inc, LIV

Epstein files news
the rasp, rasping
of cicadas


Added:

gathering dark
beyond the barbed wire fence
a shrill squealing


Added:

the long strip
of neon-lit roadside motels
a woman in red

Sunday, June 29, 2025

Loose Skin over Bone Tanka

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CXCVII: "loose skin over bone"

this dull-eyed baby 
with loose skin over bone ...
a Gazan boy
scrapes the bottom of a cracked pot 
for leftover grains

NeverEnding Story, June 29 2025


FYI: Defense for Children International - Palestine, June 24 2025“Starving a Generation” report indicts Israel for weaponizing starvation as a tool of genocide

Defense for Children International - Palestine, in collaboration with Doctors Against Genocide, published a report today asserting Israeli authorities have deliberately weaponized starvation as a method of genocide, resulting in the preventable deaths and suffering of Palestinian children in Gaza that will carry negative impacts for generations to come.

“Starving a Generation: Israel’s Famine Campaign Targeting Palestinian Children in Gaza” documents 33 cases of child starvation collected by DCIP’s field researchers in the Gaza Strip between October 7, 2023, and May 21, 2025. In nine of these cases, the child died. These children, all of whom died of malnutrition, ranged between the ages of one week and 10 years old. Of the other 24 cases, documenting children still suffering from the effects of starvation, 14 are under one year of age, five are toddlers, and five are school age. Five of the children are suffering from chronic diseases. These cases represent only a small fraction of the true toll, as Israel’s continued bombardment, siege, and obstruction of aid have made comprehensive documentation impossible.


Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CXCVIII: "this pain that words can't carry"

in a heat haze
murderaftermurder
of crows hovering
over bodies amid ruins ...
this pain that words can't carry


FYI: "Israel's oldest daily now sanctioned by the Israeli government, Haaretz," June 27'It's a Killing Field': IDF Soldiers Ordered to Shoot Deliberately at Unarmed Gazans Waiting for Humanitarian Aid

IDF officers and soldiers told Haaretz they were ordered to fire at unarmed crowds near food distribution sites in Gaza, even when no threat was present. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed, prompting the military prosecution to call for a review into possible war crimes.

June 28U.S.-backed  Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, GHF Urges Probe Into Israeli Army Fire on Gaza Aid-seekers Following Haaretz Expose

Editorial, June 29: Israel Turned Gaza's Aid Centers Into Death Traps. The Killing Has to Stop

June 30: Senior Israeli Army Officers Admit 'Uncalculated' Fire on Gaza Aid Seekers After Haaretz Expose

Monday, June 9, 2025

Red, Rolling Flames Haiku

No More Fairy Tales, XLIV

the Prairies
mountain after mountain
of red , rolling flames



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

No More Fairy Tales, VI

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

NeverEnding Story, November 21 2022 

CBC News, June 7Wildfires in the Prairies affecting air quality across Canada

Parts of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland and Labrador were experiencing poor air quality and reduced visibility due to the wildfires, a situation expected to continue through Sunday.

The Watchers, June 7Toronto recorded the worst air quality in the world on Friday, June 6, 2025, as wildfire smoke blanketed the city, prompting health warnings and disrupting daily life.

And CTV News, June 6Montreal ranks 2nd for worst air quality in the world due to wildfires


Added:

alone
perched on this rocky peak
aided by my crutch
before the misty expanse
I murmur, so, is this it?


FYI: This tanka was inspired by German Romantic artist Caspar David Friedrich's 1818 painting, "Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog." For more about ekphrastic tanka, see To the Lighthouse: Ekphrastic Tanka


Added:

colorful blooms 
in my neighbor's garden
For Sale tilted


Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CXCIV: "drone swarm"

smoky rubble
after smoky rubble
a swarm of drones 


Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CXCV: "dead Gazan kids"

at Begin Gate
shouldertoshoulderprotesters
hold candles
and photos of dead Gazan kids ...
these eyes once warm with hope


FYI: Begin Gate is the entrance to Hakirya, the IDFs headquarters in central Tel Aviv 

"Israel's oldest daily now sanctioned by the Israeli government (ranking 112th/180 in 2025 Reporters Without Borders index), Haaretz," June 9 2025: It Looks Like a Memorial Day Ceremony: The Israelis Protesting With Photos of Dead Gazan Children

What started out as an improvisation is now a portrait gallery installation at the weekly Saturday night protest in Tel Aviv. As more and more Israelis are standing silently holding photos, names and details of Palestinian victims of the war in Gaza, organizers are certain: 'It is trickling down to people'

And June 10: Polled by Hebrew University's aChord Center, 64 percent of Israelis believe that the local media's reporting on Gaza has been balanced and there is no need to present a broader picture regarding the situation of Gaza's civilians. 


Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CXCVI: "a sack of flour"

thousands of Gazans
pressed against one another ....
in the dusty air
one man cries, do I have to pay 
with my life for a sack of flour?


FYI: Haaretz, June 11: 'It's a Disaster': Gazans Describe Chaos, Violence at Food Aid Distribution Sites

Saturday, June 7, 2025

Flashflooding Haiku

flashflooding ...
the silence between us stretched
w i   d     e       r


Hindi Translation:

आकस्मिक बाढ़ ...
हमारे बीच मौन का 
विस्  ता       र

Saturday, March 1, 2025

Alley Stray Haiku

this lockdown life 
the comings and goings
of an alley stray

Japanese translation by Hidenori Hiruta

ロックダウンこの生活は何だろう路地裏の犬行ったり来たり

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


FYI: The following haiku with a prefatory note could be read as a sequel: 

On my return from Tsukushi at the close of March, I found that my hut had been destroyed by fire. Looking at the ruins, I composed this verse.

violets here and there
in the ruins 
of my burnt house

Haiku Mind: 108 Poems to Cultivate Awareness and Open Your Heart

Shokyu-ni


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

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 2024