Soft Translation Comments

The skinny opening lines set up the theme of transformation from familiar to unfamiliar. In the body of the poem this ebb and flow no longer renders things unknowable. We can recognize the change from night to day, from waters low to waters flooding, masks on or off, the phoenix new or old. I take it these are soft translations because we can grasp them whole, see the process of different states, both the before and after.

The skinny opening lines set up the theme of transformation from familiar to unfamiliar. In the body of the poem this ebb and flow no longer renders things unknowable. We can recognize the change from night to day, from waters low to waters flooding, masks on or off, the phoenix new or old. I take it these are soft translations because we can grasp them whole, see the process of different states, both the before and after.