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

Showing posts with label migrant. Show all posts
Showing posts with label migrant. Show all posts

Thursday, July 23, 2026

Train-Top Ride

train-top ride
a migrant boy weighs
dawn's early light

Modern Haiku, 57:1, 2026


FYI: L3 alludes to the opening lines of "The Star-Spangled Banner:"

O say can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight
O’er the ramparts we watch’d were so gallantly streaming?

Saturday, March 14, 2026

Geese and Migrants Haiku

Canada geese
gathering, parting... and yet
these farm migrants

Haiku Canada Review, 19:2, 2025

Thursday, September 18, 2025

Flock of Words Tanka

honk, honk, honk
of southbound geese ...
a flock of words
jostles my mind's window
pestles my migrant heart

Sunday, August 10, 2025

The Golden Dream

Trump Empire, Inc, L

summer moonlight 
lapping against the shore ...
a dinghy adrift

the razor wire glints
with the first light of dawn 
detention center

a Cuban boy's stare
McDonald's arch in a corner 
of his cell window 

dust motes
in a slant of moonlight ...
this drifting life



Added:

sleepless again ...
dusting shelf after shelf
of unread books


Added:

lovers' quarrel
a downy woodpecker
stops drilling


Added:

summer outhouse
the bare light bulb sticky
with bugs


Added: Yellowing Memories, VII

the Perseids peak ...
the lives I dreamed in my teens 
but never lived


Added: Trump Empire, Inc, LI

trumping up 
one crime emergency
after another ...
the Convicted Felon 
finger-guns to the cameras


Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXV: "a journalist murdered"

his eyes open
and his bullet-riddled helmet
marked Press ...
heavy footfalls echoing
in the smoky twilight


FYI: Haaretz, August 12: Israel's Targeting of Palestinian Reporters in Gaza Isn't Collateral Damage. It's Strategy

Anas al-Sharif, a well-known Al Jazeera correspondent, was killed this week in an Israeli airstrike. The intention is clear: If you silence the witnesses, you can reshape history

Tuesday, July 22, 2025

Last Mile Tanka

alone, uncertain
to walk or not to walk
the last mile
to the mountain orchard, I slip
further into my migrant past

Sunday, June 15, 2025

Border of Life Tanka

Trump Empire, Inc, XXXVI

blood still dripping
from this rusty barbed wire ...
an old man murmurs 
to his only son who stands 
beyond the border of life 



FYI: Newsweek, June 13Pope Leo's First US Bishop Takes Action Against Trump Migrant Crackdown

The first U.S. bishop appointed by Pope Leo XIV has called for priests, deacons and parish leaders to accompany migrants to court and stand in solidarity with them.

Rev. Michael Pham, who was named bishop of San Diego, California, by Pope Leo in May, wrote a letter about the action on Wednesday, along with Rev. Felipe Pulido and Rev. Ramón Bejarano, both appointed by the previous pontiff, Pope Francis.

"On the morning of June 20th, which is International Refugee Day, a group of priests and faith leaders are planning to visit the federal court building to stand in solidarity with migrants who are making their court appearances," they wrote...


The Convicted Felon Donald Trump already federalized four thousand members of the California National Guard without the state’s consent, and ordered seven hundred marines to L.A. He also threatened to deploy the military to demonstrations in other cities. The Washington Post, Jun 11 claimed that escalation would be “the most extensive use of military force on American soil in modern history.

Yet amid the ongoing protests in Los Angeles and a dozen other cities in response to the Administration’s immigration raids, the Convicted Felon hosted his own military parade to celebrate his seventy-ninth birthday.


Added: Trump Empire, Inc, XXXVII

"Happy" Birthday to the Wannabe Dictator, Donald Trump

tank after tank
rolling through the capital ...
crows on a wire

in gathering dark
the entrance to Mar-a-Lago
No Parking Any Time  😎


Added: Trump Empire, Inc, XXXVIII

No Kings protest:
chant after chant of fried truth
eggflation
scrambled justice, poached rights,
cracked democracy...Trump, Fuck Off


(FYI: The Nation, June 16: The No Kings! Movement Trumped Trump

Thomas Paine from Common Sense, the 1776 rejection of King George III and the British monarchy, which declared, “O ye that love mankind! Ye that dare oppose, not only the tyranny, but the tyrant, stand forth!”

More than 5 million everydayAmericans stood forth, as patriots, and trumped Trump.

In America, the law is King!)


To conclude today's Special Feature post, I would like to share with you the following protest song:


People rise up people come together
We never give up we never surrender
To the forces that would keep us down
Our hearts are found
We’re mother bound

Keep on keep on lovers we’ve got what it takes
To shake off the shame and stay awake
Feel the feels and heal the deal
Take it all the way
Stay real

People rise up people come together
One foot in front of the other
Walk on walk on our hearts can crush this
Stand for peace
Work for justice

Keep a weary eye on the powers that be
Keep taking back our democracy
Keep your eyes up keep your mind sharp
The light in our eyes moving
Through the dark

Saturday, June 14, 2025

Saturday, May 17, 2025

Lone Cry Tanka

the lone cry
of a goose out of the flock ...
my drunken shadow
and I slow-dance to the sound
of our migrant memory

Ribbons, 21:1, 2025

Sunday, February 16, 2025

Migrant's Face Haiku

sheep tracks
the crisscross of wrinkles
on a migrant’s face

Japanese translation by Hidenori Hiruta

十字形羊の残す足跡は移民の顔に刻まれし皺

Saturday, December 14, 2024

Migrant Friend Tanka

billiard balls knocked
from one side of the table
to another ...
my migrant friend sighs, my life
here, there and everywhere

Wednesday, June 26, 2024

Longing for Home Tanka

harvest moon
over Gold Mountain Diner --
a migrant and I
eat and chat around the edges
of our lost dreams

Wednesday, January 10, 2024

The Lone Star

"Nothing is free, but anything is possible in this land of opportunity," the governor repeats in a firm voice at a news briefing. His last words deepen the silence in the conference room, except the clicking of cameras.

wave after wave of heat ...
a floating border wall
in the Rio Grande River

Friday, October 6, 2023

Migration Tanka

snow geese migrate
from north to south, south to north ...
wherever we go
with books, house plants and dog
my love and I stay rooted 

Friday, May 13, 2022

Migrant's Dream Haiku

harvesting done
the pumpkin carriage
in a migrant's dream

Translation by Hidenori Hiruta

収穫が終わった
カボチャの馬車
移民の夢の中

Thursday, March 3, 2022

Migrant Kids Haiku

migrant kids
waiting in line ...
harvest moon

Croatian Translation

djeca migranata
čekaju u redu...
pun žetveni mjesec

Friday, February 18, 2022

Caged Wings and Child Migrant Tanka

the eagle 
flapping its caged wings
in summer heat
a child migrant communes
with his wild eyes

Ribbons, 17:3, Fall 2021

Sunday, November 21, 2021

Monday, September 13, 2021

Pierced-Through Dream Tanka

waiting alone
behind the barbed wire
in summer heat
a child migrant clutches
his pierced-through dream