2023 Fujisan Tanka Contest

Foreign Language Tanka Excellence Award

On 1 January 2024, winners were announced for the 2023 Fujisan Tanka Contest, in which I was awarded a Foreign Language Tanka Excellence Award. I wrote this poem on 16 July 2023, inspired not just by Mt. Rainier but by often seeing Mt. Fuji from Shinkansen bullet trains in Japan. Although I was not able to attend, a special award ceremony announcing this and other prize winners was held at Meiji Kinenkan in Tokyo, Japan on 4 February 2024.

for a moment

from the train window

Mt. Rainier in snow

as if that could solve

all the world’s problems

わずかの間汽車の窓から見える雪のレーニア山―世界の全ての問題を解決してくれるよう