TANKA BY MARGARET VAN EVERY. Margaret Van Every resides in San Antonio Tlayacapan, a village on Lake Chapala near
Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. She is the author of a book of tanka on "la vida mexicana" entitled A Pillow Stuffed
with Diamonds (Librophilia Press, 2010). Here she reads two of her tanka that are published in Atlas Poetica,
Fall 2010, a special issue featuring translations. These poems have been translated into Luganda, the language of the
Baganda people of Uganda, by Damascus Kafumbe (translations follow below).
Listen to Margaret Van Every read: .WMA file, 90 KB.
fiery ellipse—
full moonset
in these mountains
no different
from sunset
Ajijic, Jalisco, Mexico
distant thunder
rain curtain advancing
our way
over the lake
never arrives
Lake Chapala, Jalisco, Mexico
Poetry Copyright © 2010 by Margaret Van Every.
TRANSLATIONS BY DAMASCUS KAFUMBE. Damascus Kafumbe has translated the above tanka by Margaret Van Every into Luganda,
the language of the Baganda people of Uganda. He is a well-known composer, vocalist, and recording artist of his own
music on traditional sub-Saharan East African instruments, which he crafts by hand. Kafumbe is from Kampala, Uganda,
and currently lives in Tallahassee, Florida, where he is finishing his doctorate in ethnomusicology at Florida State
University.
Listen to Damascus Kafumbe read "Fiery Ellipse" in Luganda:
.WAV file, 2.0 MB. Larger download, best with high-speed connections.
