Amelia Fielden and Saeko Ogi
Weaver Birds
by Amelia Fielden and Saeko Ogi
"Two friends living in
Australia, Amelia Fielden (winner of the 2007 Donald Keene Award for
Translation of Japanese Literature), and Saeko Ogi (long time teacher of
Japanese and co-translator for three of Amelia's books), decided to
write bilingual series of responsive tanka through the twelve months of
2009 . . . .The bond between these two poets allows each to enter the
other's world. When one write a poem, the other interprets it, forming a
symbiotic link, a melding of thoughts, and then responds in her own
language. The results are oftentimes magical; yet each response is not
merely an echo of the preceding tanka, for Amelia and Saeko have quite
distinct poetic voices." From the preface by Robert D. Wilson
Some paired verses in English from Weaver Birds:
Pair 1
on New Year's Day
low in the Western sky
a fingernail moon---
so little light is cast
by irresponsible prophets
~Saeko
seldom seeking
the moon and the stars,
I'm content
in morning's sunlight
ever an optimist
~Amelia
Pair 2
a magpie couple
searching for food
in autumn
they call to each other
in such a touching way
~Saeko
I hear my daughter
comforting her daughter,
and I'm safe again
in the arms of my mother
sixty years ago
~Amelia
Amelia Fielden is an Australian
poet and translator of Japanese Literature. She has published six
collections of original tanka poetry in English and fifteen books of
translated Japanese tanka. For several of those books Saeko Ogi has been
Amelia's co-translator.
Saeko Ogi was born in Tokyo in 1931. She graduated from Tokyo Woman's Christian University. In 1972, she came to Australia and has devoted herself to Japanese language teaching for twenty-five years. She is a member of Araragi-ha and Nara Neiraku Tankakai.
To order Weaver Birds, contact
Amelia at
anafielden@hotmail.com ; price US$ 20 pp.
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