Images from 2006

By Rita H. Chen

September 30, 2006

Fragile,
the human
lifespan

Brief moments
laced with
pain and
pleasure

Then the slow
wilt back
to earth

October 14, 2006

Coming to the crossroads,
Head swivels left, right;
One step into known safety

October 26, 2006

Doubt, pierces me deeply
My heart trembles
quivering against the thorn
When together,
things are so clear
When apart,
I can’t help but mourn

January 4, 2007

Yet another crossroad
The future looks bright
this time around

On a quest for revenge
Not active, no
A passive revenge

Oddly, no anger,
just quiet disdain
It’s an experiment

Get into his head,
Confuse, then ignore

The future looks bright.

Rita’s Musings:  The forms of these poems are all over the place, as you can tell.  I wrote these at different moments of my life, while I was living in Japan.  To read them again 6 years later is like looking at a picture book of that time in my mind.

And one extra poem, just for good luck:

September 30, 2006 – Redux

耳に入る子供達の歌
懐かしい記憶を思い出させられた

無邪気だったね、あの頃は
もう帰れないけど

今で生きているのは
何か良かった

Translation:

The children’s song that drifts into my ears

brought back a nostalgic memory

How innocent, that time was

Though I can never go back

living in this moment

is somehow satisfying

Rita’s Musings:  Though I lived in Japan for close to 4 years and have a pretty good command of Japanese (I passed the Level 2 test in the Japanese Language Proficiency Test), my Japanese is far from perfect so it’s very likely this Japanese poem is something a primary school student would write…