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 Happy February readers! I am happy to be back as a guest editor for this issue. Continuing with some Japanese form poetry, let's look at the Japanese Tanka. |
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 Tanka is is a genre of classical Japanese poetry and popular in their literature. The term was used to define "short poems" contrasting "long poems". The poems were derived from the art form waka which was a way of communicating personal correspondance. Masaoka Shiki in the twentieth century revised and named "Tanka" as a form. He also named Haiku!
 In the 7th century, tanka poetry was so popular that nobles in the Japanese Imperial court would participate in tanka poetry competitions. The poems could also be little keepsakes at the start of a romance. Two lovers would sneak away in the night to be together and send a tanka poem to one another the next morning to express their gratitude or love.
In medieval Japan, poetry writing became a national pastime in the Imperial Court and among the common folk. .
Tanka Format
 Traditional Japanese tanka poems consist of 31 syllables written in a single, unbroken line. In English translations, the tanka tends to take on a five-line form with a rough syllable pattern of 5-7-5-7-7.
Tanka actually resemble a sonnet as the poet looks at a theme or image and then there is a transition to a more personal response to the image. The third line turns from the descriptive beginning lines into a reflective metaphor, simile, or personification for the closing lines.
The subject matter can vary though many poets choose topics that are "emotionally stirring or quietly profound." Thus it resembles a sonnet. 
Japanese Tanka Poets
Japanese tanka writers from the past give us a taste of the form, translated into English.
Takuboku Ishikawa was born in 1882 in Japan. He dropped out of school at 16 to become a poet and is known as a master of tanka poetry. He published his first collection of poems at 19 and moved to Tokyo in 1908. He died of tuberculosis at age 30. Here is are two of his poems.
"Lying on the dune sand
this day I recall
remotely
the anguish of my first love"
On the white sand
Of the beach of a small island
In the Eastern Sea.
I, my face streaked with tears,
Am playing with a crab"
In 1867, Masaoka Shiki was born to a samurai class family. His maternal grandfather was a Confucian scholar. He was a major developer of the haiku form and wrote on the reform of tanka poetry. Here is a sample.
"The bucket's water
poured out and gone,
drop by drop
dew drips like pearls
from the autumn flowers."
Tekkan Yosano (1873–1935) was also a tanka reformer. Born in Kyoto, in his twenty-seventh year he founded the tanka magazine Myōjō (Morning Star), and a year later married one of the gifted poets he first published, Akiko. Hers is one of his poems.
"it cries and cries
loud, long and shamelessly
not knowing
the art of the shorter poem
a cicada
Akiko Yosano (1878–1942) is best known for her collection, Midaregami (Tangled Hair). Born near Osaka, she is said to have written 40,000 tanka in her sixty-four years. Here is one of her poems.
"into a pair of stars
we will turn—till then
let us never recall
autumn’s voice
we heard in the same bed
Shūji Miya (1911–1986) was born in Niigata, the son of a bookstore owner who published a literary magazine. He dealt with illness retired before he was fifty to writeo poetry.
"slowly inside me
a thought has hardened
into a belief
world peace will never
be nature’s gift"
Born in Korea in 1913, Yoshimi Kondō lived as a teenager in Hiroshima. He learned tanka in school, and continued writing. He became an engineer and because of the war his first book was not published until 1948. He published 16 tanka books.
"casting shadows
on the white riverbed
heavy bombers descend
each looking as though
not a soul were on board"
Yukitsuna Sasaki was born to tanka writing parents in Tokyo in 1938. His first poems were published in his father’s tanka magazine when he was just six or seven years old. He later published seven books of tanka.
"the bloom finished
trees stand above the petals
fallen on the ground
contemporary tanka
starts from that sight"
Machi Tawara also learned Tanka in class and wrote her thesis on tanka sequencing. Her first book 'Sarada Kinenbi' (Salad Anniversary), came out in 1987 and sold millions of copies. Born in Osaka on the last day of 1962, Tawara published a second book of tanka in 1991. Her work is popular for its honest depiction of everyday emotion.
"freezing my smile
for half a second
I look
toward your camera
that can’t photograph my heart"
Tanka like haiku has gone through evolutions since its early beginnings and is still a popular form in Japan.
Basic Recipe:
 To create tankas in English:
~31 syllables {remebering that Japanese sound bits do not match our English syllable count so sometimes I notice variations}
~5 lines
~a turning point from an observed image to an emotional response, (could include metaphors, similes, personification etc.)
~evoke vivid imagery and reflection for the reader
~do not need to be centered, or rhyme
Simply: first lines make a statement and the next gives a comment or reflection on it. 
So, give tanka a go if you have a mind to! 
Thanks for reading.
eyestar
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanka
https://www.graceguts.com/essays/modern-tanka-in-japan
https://thewordshop.tripod.com/asian/Japan/tankadef.html |
Enjoy some WDC authors who tanka!
| | | Sun (ASR)
A tanka to sun--for Writers Cramp
#1001193 by Joy  |
| |  | Green (E)
tanka--Green contest entry
#947168 by fyn  |
| | The Poet's Place (E)
Poets can discuss, review, request reviews, etc. of their unique form of writing.
#1937699 by Dave  |
On the English tanka!
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Poetry: February 02, 2022 Issue [#11190]
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