By Gabriel Rosenstock
This is a bilingual tanka (5-7-5-7-7 syllables) in Irish and English in response to a painting by Ukrainian-Polish artist Jan Stanisławski (1860 -1907) (featured above).
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beacha ina dtost
na créatúir bhochta ina staic
gan fáil ar neachtar
blátha ina lasracha
cíor mheala dhubh an chogaidh
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the bees are silent
stunned little ones, all rattled
nectar is nowhere
meadow flowers burst into flame
the black honeycomb of war
About the Author
Gabriel Rosenstock is a bilingual poet (in Irish & English), haikuist, tankaist, playwright, novelist, short story writer, essayist, translator, writer for children and champion of ‘forlorn causes’ – the phrase is Hugh MacDiarmid’s. He is a Lineage Holder of Celtic Buddhism and a member of Aosdána (the Irish academy of arts and letters). Among his awards is the Tamgha-i-Khidmat medal (Pakistan) for services to literature.
