One Man's Maple Moon: Life's Shoreline Tanka by Pravat Kumar Padhy
English Original
at life’s shoreline
the sands of time escape
from many gaps …
I collect memories
embedded in sediment
Notes from the Gean, 3:1, June 2011
Pravat Kumar Padhy
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
在人生海岸線
時間的砂
從許多裂縫中溜走 ...
我收集嵌入沉積物
的回憶
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
在人生海岸线
时间的砂
从许多裂缝中溜走 ...
我收集嵌入沉积物
的回忆
translated by: Chen-ou Liu, February 2014
Bio Sketch
at life’s shoreline
the sands of time escape
from many gaps …
I collect memories
embedded in sediment
Notes from the Gean, 3:1, June 2011
Pravat Kumar Padhy
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
在人生海岸線
時間的砂
從許多裂縫中溜走 ...
我收集嵌入沉積物
的回憶
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
在人生海岸线
时间的砂
从许多裂缝中溜走 ...
我收集嵌入沉积物
的回忆
translated by: Chen-ou Liu, February 2014
Bio Sketch
Born in India, poems widely published and anthologized. Works referred in Spectrum History of Indian Literature in English, Alienation in Contemporary Indian English Poetryetc. Poems awarded high acclamations by Writer’s Guild of India and Editors’ Choice awards. Pravat Kumar Padhy's Japanese short form of poetry appeared in many international journals and anthologies. Songs of Love: A celebration is his third collection of verse by Writers Workshop, Calcutta. Featured in The Dance of the Peacock: An Anthology of English Poetry from India, to be published by Hidden Brook Press, Canada, 2014
His tanka sparks the reader's reflection on the passage of time in relation to memory, and reminds me of the following remark:
I know this much: that there is objective time, but also subjective time, the kind you wear on the inside of your wrist, next to where the pulse lies. And this personal time, which is the true time, is measured in your relationship to memory.
― Julian Barnes, The Sense of an Ending