Tanka Poem (Japanese)

「

寒（さむ）い朝　（あさ）

A cold morning

温（あたた）かいお茶　（ちゃ）

Warm tea

外（そと）を見（み）る

I look out

雪（ゆき）を消（き）えない

Snow does not disappear 

中（なか）に別（べつ）の日　（ひ）

Another day inside

ブリアナ

Brianna

」

Reflection:

As I expected, I spent a significant more amount of time mulling over words with the Japanese Tanka than I did with its English counterpart, but I was surprised but the fact that I didn't need to spent more time than I did. I went into this Tanka definitely aiming more for a snapshot of a feeling and a less literal interpretation of COVID-19 than my previous poem, but it still just felt right when I found the words I ended up using.

Surprisingly, I found that my limited vocabulary didn't hold me back as much as I expected. I'm not sure if the depth of the poem I was intending came through, but the literal translation to me is just as okay as the theoretical one.

At face value, I wanted to portray a comforting home, a lazy morning, and the bitterness of a cold, snowy day, but underneath that I wanted to also use the snow as an interpretation for the hardship of the pandemic. The snow is cold, but it can also be dangerous if too many people are out in icy weather, and also unpredictable and that resonated with me with the pandemic. I also wanted to walk the line of comfort of staying inside and the resignation so I am curious on how it would read to different people at different times and circumstances.

Other than the fact that since it is easier to leave open-ended sentences in Japanese Tanka, there is more room for interpretation, and English Tanka tends to be seen more literal, I didn't find that many differences between them.

Either way though, after some initial frustration (when I was making it too complicated), I really, really enjoyed myself and am proud of what I came up with!