Book of the Week – A Dozen Tongues 2001: Our Vanishing Wilderness edited by Jim Kacian
From the back Cover: “THE DOZEN TONGUES PROJECT is a charitable project of Red Moon Press. Each year haiku is gathered on a chosen theme from around the world in the twelve languages most widely in use in international haiku. Each poem is translated into the other eleven tongues, as well as Esperanto. The themes are selected for their universality, on the premise that the things we value are more powerful than the cultural differences which sometimes separate us. Each year a not-for-profit service organization is chosen in close alignment with the theme of that year, and all profits from the project are donated to it. This year’s beneficiary, in alignment with our theme of ‘Our Vanishing Wilderness,’ is The Nature Conservancy.”
A Dozen Tongues 2001: Our Vanishing Wilderness was published by Red Moon Press in 2001.
Following are selected poems from the book:
Niet te bedwingen:
uit een scheur in het duinpad
bloeit weer de winde
– Inge Lievaart (Dutch)
—–
Au dessus de la greve
Et par dessus la dune
La ligne des tankers
– Alain Kervern (French)
—–
Rauhreif umhäkelt
mit zartweissem Filigran
auch den Stacheldraht
– Jutta Czech (German)
—–
zatrovana reka
ribar vilama lovi
uginulu ribu
– Zoran Doderovic (Serbian)
You can read the entire book in the THF Digital Library and please share your favorite poem from the book with us.
Do you have a chapbook published in 2018 or earlier that you would like featured as a Book of the Week? Contact us for details. Haiku featured in the Book of the Week Archive are selected by the THF Digital Librarian Kenneth Pearson and are used with permission.
Comments (2)
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My favourite is Jetta Czech’s
Hoarfrost crochets
with white filigree
even our barbed wire
The starkness of ‘barbed wire’, whether as an oppressive border fence or surrounding a prison or even as an innocent farm fence—the contrast with the delicate translucency of ‘hoar frost’ is what holds my attention and sets my mind to explore—and I just love the choice of ‘filigree,’ such visual onomatopoeia!
Great idea