I race against
my former self
Ben-Hur unbound in Rome
as our chariots spark
and separate again
Gusts, 24, Fall/Winter, 2016
Barry George
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
我們的四輪馬車相撞
產生火花並且再次分開
我和過去的自我
相互競賽
他是羅馬不受拘束的賓漢
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
我们的四轮马车相撞
产生火花并且再次分开
我和过去的自我
相互竞赛
他是罗马不受拘束的宾汉
Bio Sketch
Barry
George is the author of Wrecking Ball and Other Urban Haiku and The One
That Flies Back, a collection of tanka. He has won the AWP Intro Poets
Award, a Pushcart Prize nomination, and numerous Japanese short-form
competitions, including First Prize in the Gerald R. Brady Senryu
Contest.
Within such a short space of 5 lines, Barry skillfully and vividly describes the struggle with oneself as a chariot race with one of the most popular and strongest fictional characters, Ben-Hur (the protagonist of a 1959 American epic historical film and the title character from Lew Wallace's 1880 novel, "Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ"), infusing the tanka with psychological depth and religious significance.
ReplyDeleteHis thematically significant and psychologically powerful tanka reminds me of Friedrich Nietzsche's razor-sharp comment on one's enemy
... But the worst enemy you can meet will always be yourself ...