Zeno
01-06-2004, 12:49 PM
The tanka is a five-line poem, of which the first and third lines have five syllables each and the others seven, making a total of thiry-one syllables per poem. During the 16th-18th centuries, out of this already short poem were evolved the haiku, seventeen syllable poems of three lines.
Japanese poety has no rhyme, but has other devices, some of which defy translation into the English language.
_____________________________________________
It is other people who have separated
You and me.
Come, my lord!
Do not dream of listening
To the between-words of people!
(The Lady of Sakanoye [8th century])
The men of valor
Have gone to the honourable hunt:
The Ladies
Are trailing their red petticoats
Over the clean sea-beach.
(Akahito)
May the men who are born
From my time onwards
Never, never meet
With a path of love-making
Such as mine has been!
(Hitomaro)
Can this world
From of old
[Always] have been so sad,
Or did it become so for the sake
Of me alone?
(Anonymous)
My love
Is like the grasses
Hidden in the deep mountain:
Though its abundance increases,
There is none that knows.
(Ono No Yoshiki [died 902])
All of the above is from "Classical Literature of Asia" edited by John D. Yohannan.
Japanese poety has no rhyme, but has other devices, some of which defy translation into the English language.
_____________________________________________
It is other people who have separated
You and me.
Come, my lord!
Do not dream of listening
To the between-words of people!
(The Lady of Sakanoye [8th century])
The men of valor
Have gone to the honourable hunt:
The Ladies
Are trailing their red petticoats
Over the clean sea-beach.
(Akahito)
May the men who are born
From my time onwards
Never, never meet
With a path of love-making
Such as mine has been!
(Hitomaro)
Can this world
From of old
[Always] have been so sad,
Or did it become so for the sake
Of me alone?
(Anonymous)
My love
Is like the grasses
Hidden in the deep mountain:
Though its abundance increases,
There is none that knows.
(Ono No Yoshiki [died 902])
All of the above is from "Classical Literature of Asia" edited by John D. Yohannan.