Tanka
Is a Poème Japan board without rhyme, of 31 syllables out of five lines. The tanka is a form of traditional poetry and is older than the Haïku, of which it can be regarded as an ancestor. It flowers during the Period Heian (794 - 1192). The traditional tanka is always considered in Japan as the highest form of the literary expression. The tanka (without S ) remains an invariable word, even in the plural.
Constructions
The tanka is a poem built in two parts, the second coming to consolidate the first. A tanka concerned of the compliance with the original rules must thus mark a light pause between the two and cover only one subject at the same time. It can question but does not give any answer. The tanka is based on the observation, not on the reflection. It must be one felt sincere and lived not imagined. The first part is traditionally a Tercet of 17 feet of a structure 5-7-5 (become later Haïku ), and the second a Distique of 14 feet of structure 7-7 called Wakiku . It happens however that the first part is the distich and the second the tercet.The first shows a natural image, while the second can possibly express felt human feelings, dependant on the preceding subject, without that being an absolute rule. With the Japan, the rule also prohibits to use words of Chinese origin . The practice of the tanka was reserved for the imperial court, and any person of surprised lower row to practice the tanka was condemned to death. That explains the popular success of the haïku much less strict.
The apparent simplicity of the topics observed give to the tanka all its lightness and its universal character.
The renku
The tanka are generally written by the same poet, but it is not rare to see some written with several, one answering (or starting again) the other. They were called then renga ; the current term is renku . According to their number of links, the renku take different names: The most used forms are: the juinku (12 verses), the jusanbutsu (13 verses), the shishi (16 verses), the hankasen (18 verses), the kasen (36 verses) and the hyakuhin (100 verses). For the kasen , the rules can be still much more strict because of obligation to place verses at topic (love, the moon of autumn, flowers…) at very particular places.
Examples of tanka
“Feather légère
There detached from the oiseau
Posed on the vent
With ink me rappelle
That I do not shout”
Liam
“Trees them-mêmes
Who, however do not ask anything, for
Brothers and sœurs.
have
Which sadness is mine
To be only one single child! ”
Ichihara
“A Such feuille
Who, there, of the tree tombe
Singing the vide
That are the certitudes
With orée of the autumn? ”
Liam
“And round lune
Laughing at the end of the doigts
Secret the jour
Who with my hands écoule
A such song of river”
Liam
Foot-note: the rhythmic one of 5/7 is not respected in these examples translated literally of Japanese.
Western example of tanka
Certain Catalan poets practiced this poetic form, of which here a translated example:
“The glare more clair
cross the partitions, the pieces of furniture,
old chairs of canne
of snap ring, premonitions,
without penetrating the mystery. ”
Father Gomila
Masters of the tanka
- Bashō
- Ishikawa Takuboku
Collections of tanka
- Sarada Kinenbi (Salad Anniversary, 1987) by Machi Tawara. Collection sold with more than eight million specimens in the world.