WAKA/TANKA GENRE
(Note: please excuse me for using examples of my own tanka which may be duplicated elsewhere on this website)
Firstly known as Waka (short song) during the Heian period from 785-1185 CE, this form is presently known as "tanka." It is a non-rhymed lyrical poem consisting of 5 lines total with a short, long, short long, long syllable count/rhythm of no more than 31 total, and often less to compensate for the difference in Japanese sound units and English syllables. Waka/Tanka skillfully combines nature images with human elements.
The concept of the pathos of existence characterized by a sense of gentle desolation is frequently a key poetic device in Japanese poetry forms, but particularly in waka/tanka:
scattering you
as sea oats oscillate
along the dunes
a lone piper runs
through sand and ashes
Waka gradually evolved into the poetry of the Imperial Court from the 10th to 13th centuries when many anthologies of court poetry were compiled both under imperial auspices and privately among the aristocracy. Its history continues to be venerated to date by Japan's Emperor through a thousand year long tradition of the New Year’s Poetry Ceremony still held annually at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo. Courtly elegance and refinement refers to the aristocracy's privileging of a genteel aesthetic sensibility and subtlety of expression.The best waka/tanka selected are chanted, and one of the most popular topics continues to be about ongoing affairs. A typical waka/tanka poet is a connoisseur of love and an avid lover of nature:
midsummer's eve
underneath a rose moon
I'll wait for you
until my hands are bloodied
from holding back the dawn
Waka/tanka is about longing, counting the minutes (or number of wing beats in this next piece) until the time when lovers will
be together, and often portrayed ambiguously through something in nature:
a flock of birds
rising from the ground
in formation
how many wing beats
before evening falls
Waka/tanka can contain word-thoughts that allow alternative interpretations, and which often function to increase the richness
of language and imbue it with a complexity that expands the literal meaning. The art of linking the human and natural worlds pervades Japanese tanka and natural images almost invariably symbolize some human emotion or human experience:
a whooper crane
the milky way sparkles
in its wake
tonight our glass dish
of dreams hit the floor
Waka/tanka has also been heavily influenced by the belief that life is fleeting, and therefore one should cherish each and every memory, whether good or bad. Those that capture well this style are composed in such a way as to flow smoothly thought by thought and and glide gracefully from line to line:
old memories
like tangled fish hooks
impossible
to pick up only one
without all the others
In court poetry, catching a glimpse of a person that might ultimately become a lover, and with whom waka/tanka may someday be exchanged, was and still is, quite popular:
across the lake
candlelight from your window
beckoning me
though I may never reach there
a loon approaches the dock
A plethora of tanka are written about the experiences of those left behind on this earth. They resonate with loss and have a particular meaning or spiritual appeal for someone in a personal and sentimental way:
cold cemetery
the long sleeves of your old coat
warm my fingertips
even beyond this grave
you manage to comfort me
There are waka/tanka written about passion which are hinted at through nature references:
it's no mistake
naming a wild brush fire
she jumped the line
as if to prove some things
burn way beyond passion
A very strong tanka, is one that includes anticipation, especially if it involves one of the senses:
between us
and warm summer sun
white lilac buds
on the very brink
of becoming scent
Sometimes waka/tanka are presented with art. "Tankart" is not a formal term, since there is no actual word for it in the Japanese language, as there is for haiga "haiku painting." Therefore, neither are there truly any definite rules for tankart, as there are for haiga. Sometimes the artwork matches the tanka directly and sometimes it does not; it is simply just tanka and art . . .
Anything at all can be the inspirational muse for a tanka writer, whether it's something “found” ( a river stone) or something “created” (a suiseki), seashell, or perhaps flowers in an ikebana, or anything at all that inspires the poet to write a tanka:
Unlike the haiku form, waka/tanka often uses poetic devices as in the following examples:
Metaphor, a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable:
with deftness a mist
follows the mountain's contours
how sensually
it slowly cups pointed tops
and slides into the valley
Simile, Interpretation of one sense through another:
gone are sail winds
that came in the night
same as you
I knew we would end
on a still day in time
(TSA 2010 contest HM) "Here is remorse made eloquent with a nautical simile. The last line is a powerful launch into meditation on this poem and all it suggests. Perhaps all such personal endings are a “still day in time”—where the present moment and life’s hectic activities seem to be suspended while a relationship comes to an end".—Judges Tom Clausen and Jeanne Emrich
Alliteration, the occurrence of the same letter or sound at the beginning of adjacent or closely connected words:
a strong wave
of passion fills my body
at high tide
one small striped sea shell
tumbles the ocean ashore
Personification, the attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something nonhuman, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form:
milking hour
a whitish mist moves
toward the moon
snow clouds keep their promise
of an uncolored day
Repetition is another poetic device used to enhance a tanka:
polarized sky
closer and closer
and closer
the mixed melodies
of twilight birds
Even hyperbole (an exaggeration used for effect) is sometimes applied to tanka:
if only I could
capture the essence of fog
in a pretty jar
to leave on your doorstep
and watch while you open it
Once in a while, the tanka will contain an oxymoron, a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction:
what is my life
but bittersweet chapters
deeply colored
yet the birds know enough
to avoid poison berries
The most popular subjects atypical to all forms of Japanese poetry, are the 5 basic seasons divided into phases and categories:
Early Spring = February
Mid Spring = March
Late Spring = April
All Spring
Early Summer = May
Mid Summer = June
Late Summer = July
All Summer
Early Autumn = August
Mid Autumn = September
Late Autumn = October
All Autumn
Early Winter = November
Mid Winter = December
Late Winter = January
All Winter
The New Year
The Seasons: Includes general climatic cycles, reminders of the previous season, the solstice or equinox (that is, the middle of the season), the months, time and length of day, temperature, approaching the end of the season, anticipation of the next season.
The Heavens: Includes sky, heavenly bodies, winds, precipitation, storms, other sky phenomena, light and shade.
The Earth: Includes landforms, seascapes, fields, forests, streams, rivers, and lakes.
Humanity: Includes clothes, food, beverages, work, school, sports, recreation, the arts, illness, travel, communications, and moods.
Observances: Includes sacred and secular holidays and festivals, their associated decorations, clothes, foods, and activities, and "memorial days" (death anniversaries of literary persons).
Animals: Mammals, amphibians and reptiles, birds, fishes, mollusks, and insects.
Plants: Blossoming trees, foliage of trees and shrubs, garden flowers, fruits and vegetables, wildflowers and other vegetation, seaweed, or fungi.
Within each category, there are also approximately 500-1000 different season words used as writing prompts such as:
Spring: waking insects:
waking insects
the year of the horse
turns audible
we trail ride into
a woodpecker’s world
Summer, heat wave
long heat wave
while people argue
it’s only
the wading heron
that keeps its composure
Autumn, night of stars:
night of stars
all along the precipice
goat bells ring
treading a well worn path
to their meadow by the sea
Winter, banked fire:
banked fire
a sigh from the watchdog
asleep in my arms
his wolf tendencies all
but domesticated
New year: the same as it is for haiku (anything referencing “first”):
cold spell
when everything starts
to thaw
will you resurface
with the first crocus
Although mankind has 21 senses, most waka/tanka are inspired by nature references about the first five basic senses:
Touch:
this season
of leaf trees fluid
with windy ways
perhaps its fate that we
brushed against each other
Taste:
from the gaping lips
of an old stone gargoyle
spring rainwater
I shall turn it to champagne
if she looks at me twice
Smell:
row after row
draft horses plow the odor
of potatoes
a farmer’s daughter inhales
her family’s legacy
Sound:
at mid-afternoon
a cicada’s abdomen
vibrates with song
from deep within leaf trees
the noises of courtship
Sight:
on new fallen snow
the sight of a headless bird
makes my heart ache
what am I without you
except also incomplete
Multiple Senses: taste, sight, sound, touch, and smell:
what could be as sweet
as doves on a church steeple
breezes that whisper
and caress wild sweetpeas
or lemon perfumed women
Beyond the common and well known five senses mentioned above, there are additional senses that some people perceive, and perhaps unconsciously express through nature, such as:
Direction:
abandoned
to walk a rainy beach
of love lost
just follow each pockmark
in the sand that leads home
Balance:
another quake
and moments of being
on shaky ground
our relationship too
is sometimes unstable
Interpretation of one sense through another:
mountain slate
the color of the sound
spring rain makes
the sameness of the tears
after love’s passing
The sense of time perception:
sunlit eaves
an icicle’s shape
exits itself
will the hourglass
of love be left unturned
Japanese waka/tanka, albeit composed as a single unit, have an "upper poem" of three opening lines with a short/long/ short rhythm, which connect the “lower poem of two (2) additional lines with a long/long rhythm. These final lines play an omni-important role of presenting the piece as a whole. Therefore, in terms of Japanese sound units/English syllables, they should be at least as long as line two in the "top" part, and should also conclusively deepen the meaning of the waka/tanka:
sweet scented breeze
what did you caress before
cooling me
that I may know the flower
by another woman’s name
In addition to waka/tanka that convey personal emotion, there exists an equally valid yet more objective form of tanka that is simply a sketch from nature/life, or word painting:
barnacle
atop barnacle
piled high
over the seaport
towering cumulus
Waka/tanka often are sorrowful, concern death or are about dying:
from heavy skies
in this world and the next
rain keeps falling
my sorrow seeds the clouds
with perpetual tears
Another style of waka/tanka is that which is a line borrowed from another poem as homage or allusion, such as this next one that alludes to the phrase "there is a time for every season" adapted from the Old Testament, set to music and recorded by Pete Seeger in the late 1950s in his song “turn turn turn”:
winter ocean
following its shoreline until
we reach our limit
to every earthly being
there comes too soon this season
A desirable effect in waka/tanka is to utilize a "pivot line/word" in the middle which refers to both the top two lines and the bottom two lines as well, and can be read both ways; think of it as a gate that opens both directions:
let us meet atop
a cliff’s edge as raptors
with wide-flung wings
and/or
with wide-flung wings
together we’ll take flight
over foaming shallows
In waka/tanka (similar to haiku), concrete nature images are often used in the upper portion and the last two lines or lower portion elaborate on these feelings with an emotional twist:
june breeze
a hold in the cloud
mends itself
if only a broken heart
was so easily repaired
A multitude of waka/tanka are composed about loneliness and seperation via nature references:
long dry spell
a scotch pine bough loses
its needles
the poignant emotions
of our separation
as well as melancholy:
what melancholy
when colorful leaVes crumbled
into nothingness
opening my pillow book
on the night you departed
An equal amount of waka/tanka are composed about rustic simplicity, freshness or quietness, or as the understated elegance existent in the natural world:
erecting its tail
the albino peacock
and suddenly
an absence of color
doesn’t really matter
Waka/tanka is simple, subtle, unobtrusive beauty, or a balance of simplicity and complexity:
bows to those
all abloom in spring snow
were but we
this uncomplicated
within our complex world
Another technique used in Japanese poetry of all types including waka/tanka, is sometimes achieved by presenting the atmosphere of something half-hidden that reappears. This is rather difficult to explain correctly, but it is not like a ghost or spirit, rather it's like the returning sacredness of a common thing:
a cloud of blackbirds
has flown into the tunnel
not unlike us
passing through love’s dark times
into its light again
Today there are also waka/tanka that are not the traditional 5/7/5/7/7 count, rather they are minimalist. However in order to truly
be known as a waka/tanka rather than a short poem, the rhythm of short/long/short/long/long still must be present:
birth death
a stretch of beach
between
time spent in love
and ocean rain
Moreover, some tanka poets compose their "deathbed" tanka before passing. This one is mine.
In Japanese waka/tanka, what's important is not only what is said, but also what is left unsaid. Waka/tanka is also open to charm, suggestiveness; an aftertaste and fullness of meaning from minimal description. According to this ideal, effective waka/tanka reverberates its meaning by refraining from saying the obvious words and sometimes even using an ellipsis to create an unfinished thought, thus inviting readers to finish the omission for themselves:
spider silk
suddenly I’ve become
a puppeteer
how the Creator must feel
be it mine, be it yours, or . . .
There are many waka/tanka written around secrets, and by adding obscurity, they lead to hidden levels of meaning; this concept is what allows an astute reader to delight in its mystery and depth when an unseen world literally hovers in the tanka's atmosphere.
swallow day
in combination
with a breeze
the willow tree reveals
secrets hidden in its leaves
Waka/tanka can be written in the form of a question:
a love poem
will I ever compose it
one with words
that shall read like the song
from this nightingale’s beak
or it can be written in statement form with the last line adding depth:
across the blue
on a cirrus cloud morning
various shapes
of angels and chimeras . . .
we all view things differently
Many more waka/tanka are written about people who have greatly influenced our growing up, such as our parents and those experiences we shared with them as children:
beachcombing
my mother used to say
housework will wait
but treasures in the sand
are too soon swept away
it’s where we built
the palaces of my youth
each drip castle
shaped by supple fingers
the ones that fail me now
Subject matter is quite varied in waka/tanka. It is helpful to take a theme from the natural world, and unexpectedly twist it into a personal memory; one with fresh yet familiar imagery, and which will on a universal level, evoke powerful meaning:
wind at dusk
an old bough rocks
the fledgling
grandmother’s chair sits
still after all these years
Waka/tanka is not just an extended haiku even though it has two extra lines. There's more to it insofar as lyricism that creates an emotion such as longing or yearning. Haiku are typically objective which makes them emotionally sparse, whereas waka/tanka are often more subjective and therefore full because they focus on human relationships through a nature connection. The most effective waka/tanka write symphonizes the author's passion with facets from the natural world used to depict it:
stuck in a rut
while the goat’s beard hairs
go everywhere
how intense my yearning
to parachute your way
Humor and word-play are also strong elementsused in tanka:
iffy cast
fisherman and stream
trade places
even the trout flies
seem to be laughing
There are waka/tanka that focus on natural "idiophonics", which are, sounds heard via nature and appreciated as aesthetically meaningful. Using idiophonics in a waka/tanka might be compared to sacred music being present, since what we hear, is meant
to be understood in the context of deeper listening, and/or create an enlightened as well as compassionate awareness:
pacific ocean
your last remains scattered
into salt wind
a pod of humpback whales
spouting the eulogy
Like haiku, a waka/tanka can be more interesting with some juxtaposition added to enhance its meaning, and most especially if
it compares nature to a human element:
in the late night
pleasure of its company
a strange flying bug
I call by your name
as if this were normal
Some waka/tanka pertain to the rituals of courtship:
coupled
they decide which way
to go
in a courtship flight
the king and his queen
and some make it easy to draw a parallelism:
at the height
of its capability
baby birdsong
predicting the future
of a mother-to-be
Waka/tanka is about all things on this earth and in this life sharing a common beginning:
on loose limbs
woodland moss swaddles
the slug’s eggs
like all others to begin
this new life as a baby
Another always popular subject, is children:
open market
that familiar clacking
of tent poles
the gipsie baby clutches
a ripe grape in her fist
and a great number are of childhood memories:
dandelion ball
with every tiny seed goes
the breath of a child
across fields over mountains
wherever wishes come true
Yet another concept that waka/tanka writers incorporate into this form, represents the characteristic spirit or rebirth of a particular culture, era, or community as manifested in its beliefs and aspirations:
grave marker
the final ground light
fades to dusk
in another form
a new sun is dawning
Waka/tanka can raise either a distinctly pronounced or subtle voice in social and/or political issues:
on both sides
of a border crossing
springtime
ignores the boundaries
man has created
Other waka/tanka have a loftiness about them which is a way of creating grandeur and elevation:
celestial space
wild geese touch their wings
to lofty clouds
the innocent dreams
of an infant child
In waka/tanka, as in haiku, direct opposition is a bonus:
heavy snow
our luggage lightly packed
for elsewhere
may we meet in march
where bright sun abounds
Another style of waka/tanka may present with characteristics similar to “senryu” (a cousin to haiku) with a sarcastic human side:
burning ban
love letters at the landfill
bear our names
as if it might matter
to a million maggots
Waka/tanka may be suggestive beyond its words:
flowers in a field
irresistibly wild . . .
free for the plucking
yet we part empty-handed
each with our own reasons
Another way to write waka/tanka is in the form of a "personal diary", and although this is not my favorite style, it serves a purpose if someone else can relate to it:
Dear diary:
nothing much to write about,
what did I expect . . .
that love would always bring me
meadowlarks and wildflowers!
And lastly there are waka/tanka that remind us all of our own place in this Universe:
the symmetry
of a common moth
makes me think
about how I am
unremarkable
an’ya
