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Tanka challenge 11/18/10
Nov. 18th, 2010 06:54 pmA distant bell tolls
As blood-hued maple leaves lie
Dead in the gutter.
The echoes die as all are
Scattered by an autumn wind.
(When Li Guang Ming quoted the "Gion Shoja" lines from Sukiyaki Western Django, I went back and looked at the Helen McCullough translation of the Tale of the Heike. "The sound of the Gion Shoja temple bells echoes the impermanence of all things; the color of the sala flowers reveals the truth that the prosperous must decline. The proud do not endure, they are like a dream on a spring night; the mighty fall at last, they are as dust before the wind." I merely gave it an autumnal twist. )
As blood-hued maple leaves lie
Dead in the gutter.
The echoes die as all are
Scattered by an autumn wind.
(When Li Guang Ming quoted the "Gion Shoja" lines from Sukiyaki Western Django, I went back and looked at the Helen McCullough translation of the Tale of the Heike. "The sound of the Gion Shoja temple bells echoes the impermanence of all things; the color of the sala flowers reveals the truth that the prosperous must decline. The proud do not endure, they are like a dream on a spring night; the mighty fall at last, they are as dust before the wind." I merely gave it an autumnal twist. )
