never pregnant
i cut into a ripe
pomegranate
red seeds flowing
down the barren sink
Haiku Pix Review, 1, Winter 2011
Pamela A. Babusci
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
從未懷孕
我拿刀切開
一個熟的石榴
它的紅色種子流到
空無一物的水槽
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
从未怀孕
我拿刀切开
一个熟的石榴
它的红色种子流到
空无一物的水槽
Bio Sketch
Pamela
A. Babusci is an internationally award winning haiku, tanka poet and
haiga artist. Some of her awards include: Museum of Haiku Literature
Award, International Tanka Splendor Awards, First Place Yellow Moon
Competition (Aust) tanka category, First Place Kokako Tanka
Competition,(NZ) First Place Saigyo Tanka Awards (US), Basho Festival
Haiku Contests (Japan). Pamela has illustrated several books,
including: Full Moon Tide: The Best of Tanka Splendor Awards, Taboo Haiku, Chasing the Sun, Take Five: Best Contemporary Tanka, and A Thousand Reasons 2009. Pamela was the founder and now is the solo Editor of Moonbathing: a journal of women’s tanka; the first all women’s tanka journal in the US
In this poignant tanka that grieves the speaker's childlessness, there is a thematically and emotionally dialectical relationship successfully established between the speaker's womb and the sink, And the pomegranate, which is culturally associated with fertility, and its red seeds, carry symbolic significance and add emotional weight to the poem.
ReplyDeleteI only discovered the the pomegranate was associated with fertility last Wednesday at my writing group, which made this tanka all the more striking for me!
ReplyDeletemarion