Tanka, Renga and Haiku
Tanka
Tanka consists of five units (often treated as separate lines when Romanized or translated) usually with the following mora pattern:
- 5-7-5-7-7.
The 5-7-5 is called the kami-no-ku ("upper phrase"), and the 7-7 is called the shimo-no-ku ("lower phrase").
Tanka is a much older form of Japanese poetry than haiku. In ancient times poems of this form were called hanka ("reverse poem"), since the 5-7-5-7-7 form derived from the conclusion (envoi) of a chōka[citation needed]. Sometimes a chōka had two envois[citation needed].
The chōka above is followed by an envoi, also written by Okura:
| 銀も | Shirogane mo | What are they to me, |
| 金も玉も | Kogane mo tama mo | Silver, or gold, or jewels? |
| 何せんに | Nanisen ni | How could they ever |
| まされる宝 | Masareru takara | Equal the greater treasure |
| 子にしかめやも | Koni shikame yamo | That is a child? They can not. |
[English translation by Edwin Cranston]
The Heian period also saw the invention of a new tanka-based game: one poet recited or created half of a tanka, and the other finished it off. This sequential, collaborative tanka was called renga ("linked poem"). (The form and rules of renga developed further during medieval times; see the renga article for more details.)
Renga (連歌 renga, collaborative poetry) is a genre[1] of Japanese collaborative poetry. A renga consists of at least two ku (句) or stanzas, usually many more. The opening stanza of the renga, called the hokku (発句), became the basis for the modern haiku form of poetry.
The first stanza of the renga chain, the hokku (発句), is the forebear of the modern haiku. The stand-alone hokku was renamed haiku in the Meiji period by the great Japanese poet and critic Masaoka Shiki. Shiki proposed haiku as an abbreviation of the phrase "haikai no ku" meaning a verse of haikai[6].
Reference
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