My First Tanka

              in the original Japanese:

毎日に勉強しながら赤色がいつも見える日本語宿題*

                                                        リキャサリン　２００８年8月 

           and my subsequent translations into Korean:

매일 열심히 공부하고 있지만 붉은빛깔이 일본어 숙제에서 

언제나 보인다

           and (less gracefully) into English:

Despite my efforts of studying everyday, only visible are the red hues strewn on the sheets of Japanese homework

I've been running into some interesting episodes of linguistic dissonance here in Seoul. For instance, there was the time when I emphatically answered "Hai!" after a convenience store clerk asked me if I wanted a receipt. And then there's the unconscious "Ah so desu-ka?!" that comes out when I'm reacting to someone saying something of a surprising nature. Or the frequent use of Konglish (Korean mixed with English) without hesitation. But perhaps what was most embarrassing was the case earlier this morning when I was meeting with a Korean friend and completely blanked on how to articulate my train of thought...in any intelligible language. It seems that what was momentarily lost in translation - was my own brain. 

I suppose that this is par for the course - having been immersed in Japanese language study for most of the summer, and being less than diligent about keeping up with my Korean language skills. Still, I'm eager for the day when words rendered gain in both fluidity and consistency. 

*This tanka was composed for my Intensive Japanese language course that I took this past summer. As some of you know from my whimpers, this class gave a new meaning to "intensive." I think the poem effectively captured my sentiments of the summer. My first foray into using this traditional Japanese poetic form produced a flawed tanka, but still somehow managed to merit a nod of approval from my Japanese language teacher.