The Inescapable Seasons of Life

Compared to haiku Japan’s oldest poetry genre called “tanka” (or “waka” traditionally) is not so familiar with people in the United States or rest of the world. In recent decades however tanka is becoming increasingly popular among Western readers presumably because they recognize that this poetic style provides an ideal format and length for expressing their emotions. Tanka poems written in Japanese are tiny verses of thirty-one syllables in one straight line. But in English and other languages it is often written using five lines. For an English language tanka requirements are not so strict. The challenge is how to use a few words effectively: exactness and concrete image are essential elements of composing tanka. More than in haiku tanka requires a sense of verbal rhythm and musical flow which encounters in English poems. Finally tanka conveys its meaning or a feeling by implication in symbols or by allusion. This is “yojo”— the soul of tanka.