If you
could read the thoughts of your wickedest Dream, what would your Dream write
about you? We pondered the question, with all the seriousness it deserved (we
infiltrated our Dreams’ journals), and present to you the findings:
Whisking delicate
tea into a heady froth
to delight my love,
my bliss is found inside her
enjoyment of my strivings.
I read her soul bright
while feasting on all her dark.
She writes me real…
at midnight, her wild tongue dreams
me alive, tasting her mine.
She gifts me with flesh
substantial enough to touch
past imagined boundaries.
The only reality I want
is the one that she creates.
When morn devours night,
the moon and I yearn for her
soul dancing in mine:
Anima and Animus
as mind in flesh, me in
her.
I wish my name on
your lips, under the
sunlight,
a dream crafted real—
I will spell ink into
flesh,
“Words be dreams and dreams
be words.”
the process…
- At first, we were going
to craft a poem inspired by the art of writing and the current socio-political
madness. But the pain was much too deep and dark and, well… too much. So, we
switched to a topic we both love and that often brings us much pleasure
*cough*: dreams. We played around with the dream and dreamer shown in Jorge
Luis Borges’ “The Circular Ruins”, danced with Jung’s Anima and Animus, and
dressed the whole thing up in tanka.
- We each wrote two
stanzas—imagining our speakers exchanging adventures at a dream bar (dream bars
are real, really). We wrote the last stanza together, on the phone, serenaded
by much squealing. We hope you enjoy the result as much as we delighted in the
process.
This is the final part of our series on the writing of tanka poetry, brought to us by Dr Hisashi Nakamura. In When I Write Tanka (Part 1), he discussed four essential components of the tanka form. I now hand over to him to conclude.
5. Space and Time
When a tanka has words associated with both space and time, it creates a three dimensional poetry world where suggestiveness lingers.
Stifled by the air Laden with the rusty dust Of the passing years, The dead cranes in the shipyard Idly dangle their cables.
Under my bare feet I feel the fine grain of wood Of the temple floor. The shadow of ancient eaves Falls upon me as I pass.
6 Finding Something in an Ordinary Daily Scene
It is not necessary to struggle to find a theme about which you compose tanka. When your mind is at peace things surrounding you come into your mind to create poetry.
The stillness and warmth Of the autumn day embrace The wandering bee. As the evening rays weaken His shadow melts into the stone.
7 Fusing My Mind with Nature
I often feel that I find my feelings in nature and nature reflects myself as if nature and myself fuse together. This experience creates tanka which may be very personal and may not be appreciated by many people.
Now the spring rain falls Day after day in silence Over the wild moors, Healing the wounds of the soul, Seeping deep into the earth. A red poppy field In a sea of June sunlight Under a blank sky; From the cool innocent earth Long gone wounded souls seep out.
Our challenge: Let us try to bring together all we have learnt about tanka these last few months. You may link as many tanka as you like, either separately or in the same post.
I take this opportunity to thank Dr Nakamura, on behalf of all members and followers of The Imaginary Garden With Real Toads, for his unstinting generosity in sharing his expertise with us. Such encouragement is invaluable.
For the past few months, Dr Hisashi Nakamura has been sharing his "Thoughts on Tanka" with the poets of The Imaginary Garden. Follow these links to Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3. In this and next months feature, Dr Nakamura will shares his insights into writing tanka successfully in English.
1 31 English Syllables
I use 31 English syllables when I write tanka knowing that the great majority of people writing tanka in the world are against the idea of keeping the Japanese form when writing in English.
I do not try to argue over the number of syllables to be used or that there should be any specific form for writing tanka in English. I simply stick to two points. Firstly, I think poetry requires discipline. Secondly, the 31 syllables divided into the units of 5/7/5/7/7 can create a poem whether or not it is an “English tanka”!
2 The Perspective of the Classical Tanka Realm
After studying several thousands of classical tanka and struggling to translate some of them into English, I unconsciously see things around me from the perspective of the classical tanka realm. Wherever I go - the Yorkshire moors, the northeast coast, declined industrial cities and ports, London, Paris, Amsterdam, Elsinore or Prague - I am in the shadow of the aesthetic of classical tanka.
As I cannot escape from this shadow I tend to frame what I see from the perspective of the classics.
The September sun Hidden in the milky dawn Now shows a pale disc. A huddle of sheep shadows Looms out of the pearly mist.
3 Nature and Real Experience
I write tanka when I am moved by something while I am rambling in the countryside. I do not try to compose new tanka at home although I may spend some time to revise the original composition.
The silent forest Is whitened in the spring dusk By the passing rain. Sifted through the fresh needles Breezes pass through the larch trees.
4 Upper Poem and Lower Poem
A tanka usually consists of an upper poem and a lower poem which interact to create suggestiveness. The interaction of the upper and the lower in the following should create not only two images about a skylark and a lamb but also a feeling of ungrounded fear about my own existence in a peaceful environment.
Over the June moors A skylark is sucked into The wide timeless sky. From the edge of blue stillness, The faint bleating of a lamb.
I am very happy to bring you the third part of our on-going series on the writing of Japanese Tanka poetry, by Dr Hisashi Nakamura. If you are new to this feature, or would like to refresh your memory, follow the links to Part 1 and Part 2. We continue with Dr Nakamura's explanation of how he came to write tanka in English.
Encountering the lack of good English translations (of original Japanese), I tried to translate about 100 classical tanka myself. However, I came to the conclusion that it would be impossible to convey the meaning and the beauty of tanka properly without providing detailed notes because of differences in the natural environment, culture, religion and society as well as the fundamental differences in the way the two languages work.
This realisation led to the presumptuous idea that I might be able to convey the beauty of tanka if I produced tanka in English by observing the modern world from the perspective of the realm of classical tanka poetry!
Dr Nakamura has identified 7 main characteristics of classical tanka. Points 1-4 have been discussed in our previous posts, and we will focus on the remaining points in this post.
Characteristics of Classical Tanka
5 A Simple Clear Image with Unlimited Suggestiveness
A good tanka has a clear and often simple image without ambiguity but it gives readers suggestiveness beyond the described image itself. Fujiwara no Shunzei sent the following tanka to a lady.
In unbearable longing I look at the sky Over your dwelling. The spring rain falls, Sifted through the haze.
Fujiwara no Yoshitsune composed the following tanka in 1201. He was an aristocrat and occupied the highest political position in the government before the samurai established a military government (the Kamakura Shogun Government) in 1192. He experienced an epoch in which political power shifted from the aristocrats to the samurai. Fuwa Barrier had once been one of the major check-points to control the movement of people and it was a manifestation of the ruling power.
No one lives Under the wooden eaves Of Fuwa Barrier. In ruins now: Only the autumn wind.
6 Stillness
In general tanka poems have an atmosphere of stillness. Some poets even find silence in the roaring sound of a waterfall.
The tanka below was written in 736 by a member of a diplomatic envoy sent to Silla, one of three kingdoms on the now Korean Peninsula.
While I was thinking That we were the only ones who were rowing A boat at this time of night, From afar in the offing Comes the squeak of a rudder.
Even a passionate tanka by Princess Shikishi (1149-1201) written about her hidden love has stillness in its atmosphere. The example below was written at a time when it was believed that a cord tied the soul to its body. Therefore, “cord of my soul” in effect means life itself since the separation of the soul and body means death. The speaker has been trying to keep her love completely to herself and even her loved one may not be aware of her passion towards him. She must be in a situation in which she recognises that a relationship with him would be morally or socially unacceptable.
Cord of my soul! If you must break, break now. For if I live on My power to keep this hidden May not endure.
7 All Ranks of Society
Tanka were written by all ranks of society and all kinds of people from an early stage.
Manyoshu, compiled in the 8th century, includes tanka by an incredibly wide range of people: men, women, imperial family members, civil servants, monks, farmers, conscripts and entertainers. The tanka below was written by the wife of a drafted “Frontier Guard” who was conscripted to defend the southern coasts of Japan in the mid-8th century.
“Whose husband is going As a Frontier Guard?” Someone asks without a care. How I envy her!
The world of tanka poetry is a rare one in Japanese culture, where men and women were treated according to the merit of their work. In Manyoshu, for example, we find many women poets who candidly expressed their love. Lady Otomo of Sakanoue was one of them.
How it crushes the heart - A love not known to the beloved, Like a star lily That blooms among thick grasses In the summer field.
Please note: All translations that appear in this post are the copyright of Dr Hisashi Nakamura, and are used with his permission on The Imaginary Garden With Real Toads. Our Challenge today, is to explore the tanka form as it has been presented to us here. There is no limit to the number of tanka you may write and post to this link. I would also encourage discussion between participants and critical commentary in an environment which respects both the writers and the genre.
Next month, Dr Nakamura will share the first part of his guidelines to writing tanka in English and this feature will conclude in January with the second part of this personal approach to the art of Japanese poetry which he has so generously shared on Real Toads.
Today, I am bringing you the second part of the article Dr Hisashi Nakamura so kindly wrote for Real Toads on the art of writing tanka poetry in English. If you happened to miss My Thoughts on Tanka (Part 1), I urge you to read it to fully appreciate the next installment. We continue where we left off, and allow Dr Nakamura to explain how he came to writing tanka for an English audience, when he encountered several problems in gathering source material.
The first problem was and still is that there are very few good English translations of many tanka which are considered to be historical masterpieces in Japan and some of them have never been translated into English. The lack of good translation or any translation is especially significant when it comes to the tanka in Shin Kokin Wakashu (Extra Info HERE), which many poets evaluate as the summit of tanka poetry. The anthology was compiled in 1205 and some modern poets consider that tanka poetry has never transcended its achievements.
The second problem is that there are many well-known English translations of tanka which are actually wrong. The best example is a tanka by Izumi Shikibu about the moon on the mountain edge and dark paths. It may be translated as follows:
From one dark path Into another Again I may stray. Light the long way, Moon on the mountain rim.
Here Izumi Shikibu is in fear that she may stray into another dark path of life as she has done so in her past. She may be referring to her love affairs in the past. Because of this fear she is asking the moon to light her way in front so that she can follow it without straying. The moon is a symbol of enlightenment or an enlightened person in Buddhism. “From one dark path into another” is found in a Buddhist sutra entitled The Lotus Sutra.
However, many English translations available use “must” instead of “may”. For example, “The way I must enter” or “I soon must go”. The translators are not aware of the meaning of the classical usage of the word “beki” in this tanka. “Beki” means “must” in modern Japanese, but it was used differently then. Above all, there is no reason why she “must” enter another dark path!
Another problem associated with the translations of this famous tanka is that many translators provide such notes as “This is believed to have been Shikibu’s final poem, written on her deathbed.” This is a groundless myth. The tanka was included in Shui Wakashu which was compiled by 1007 and Izumi Shikibu lived at least until 1027. (To be continued...)
Characteristics of Classical Tanka
The characteristics of classical tanka may be summarised in seven points. (Points 3 and 4 will be the focus of today's discussion. Please refer to the previous article linked above to refresh your memory of Points 1 and 2.)
3 The Essence of Classical Tanka
A tanka is often written when a poet is moved by a feeling called “aware”. Here “a-wa-re” is not an English word but Japanese.
“Aware” is a feeling evoked by things which are transient. It is usually tinged with melancholy or sadness but the transience is perceived as essentially beautiful, not tragic. According to a prominent scholar of Japanese literature, Motori Norinaga (1730 – 1801), the essence of tanka is “aware”.
Aware is a short for “mono no aware”, which means roughly “the sadness of things” as “mono” in Japanese means “things”.
Classical poets felt “aware” when they encountered such things as: falling cherry blossoms;
a small boat on a river; dew drops; wild geese returning to the north; the wind passing through a rice field; the cry of a stag; morning mists; autumn leaves; trembling bamboo leaves; reeds in the marshes; and an autumn evening.
In modern days people may be moved to feel “aware” not only by things in nature. For example, in the film American Beauty Ricky shows the most beautiful thing he has ever filmed with his movie camera, saying, “We're in an empty parking lot on a cold, gray day. Something is floating across from us... it's an empty, wrinkled, white PLASTIC BAG. We follow it as the wind carries it in a circle around us, sometimes whipping it about violently, or, without warning, sending it soaring skyward, then letting it float gracefully down to the ground.” We can observe the “aware” Ricky felt although he may not have had the concept of “aware”.
Among classical tanka the one below by Fujiwara no Shunzei (1114-1204) is an example to show “aware”. In those days aristocrats travelled following cherry blossom as if they were carrying on a hunt. The imperial family had hunting fields in Katano where Shunzei and others were camping out to see cherry blossom. He must have felt the beauty of the falling petals while a thought of what was left of his life crossed his mind.
Will I ever see this again? Cherry blossom hunting In the fair fields in Katano; Snow flake petals falling In the spring dawn.
4 The Interaction with Buddhism
Tanka developed interacting with the spread and development of Buddhism, which came to Japan in 538.
It is quite natural that tanka and Buddhism interacted with each other because the first principle of Buddhism is that there is nothing that is permanent and thus everything is subject to change. This echoes with “aware” which stems from the transience of things in the world.
Another reason why tanka developed with Buddhism was that many Buddhists were involved in tanka activities and tanka relating to Buddhism were categorized in Imperial Anthologies as a poetry theme as early as the fourth Imperial Anthology compiled in 1087. From the seventh Imperial Anthology compiled around 1188 “Buddhism” was allocated one volume out of 20 volumes which included such poetic themes as spring, summer, autumn, winter, felicitations, grief, parting, travel, love, miscellany, Shintoism and Buddhism.
The influence of Buddhism on tanka can be seen in the following tanka which was composed by Monk Saigyo (1118-1190). In this tanka the moon has sunk behind the mountain in the west where the Paradise of Amitabha (the Buddha of Infinite Light) exists. In his longing for Paradise Saigyo “sends his soul” after it. The darkness after the moon has disappeared in the west symbolises spiritual darkness. He realises that his real being has not yet, in fact, shed all its earthly desires.
Sending my soul away To where the moon has sunk Behind the mountain, What shall I do with my body Left in the darkness? Our challenge today, is to explore the tanka form as presented here by Dr Nakamura. There is no limit to the number of tanka you may write, and you may also share older examples of tanka you have written, if you prefer.
Please Note: All translations in this, and other articles by Dr Nakamura posted on Real Toads, are his own. When translating a poem, he does not try to keep to the strict 31syllables, but rather focuses on conveying meaning as exactly as possible. All other tanka, not ascribed to another author, are written by Dr Nakamura and used here with permission.
Following my recent correspondence with Dr Hisashi Nakamura, it gives me great pleasure to reveal that he has graciously agreed to share his thoughts on the writing of this ancient Japanese poetical form in English. I have decided to divide Dr Nakamura's extensive essay on tanka into parts (with his consent) and shall be featuring it on the third Sunday of the next several months.
My Thoughts on Tanka
Hisashi Nakamura
How I came to write tanka in English.
I began to write tanka in English around 2005 after reading Japanese classical tanka quite extensively. I had never dreamed of writing tanka in a foreign language although I started writing free verses in Japanese when I was in my high teens.
I tried to write tanka in English because of a unique combination of circumstances.
I rediscovered the fascinating world of classical tanka thanks to the development of the Internet which made it possible for me to have direct access to the rich archives of tanka poetry in Japan from my home in the city of York. I enjoyed reading the 21 Imperial Anthologies of Waka compiled between 905 and 1439. “Waka” means “Japanese Poems” which include tanka and a few other forms. The anthologies contain well over 33 thousand tanka in total. I also rediscovered the value of Manyoshu which was compiled some time after 759 and contains about 4,500 poems by about 450 identifiable people, of which over 90% are in the form of tanka.
I thought I would like to share the beautiful world of classical tanka with my friends in Britain, especially with my colleagues at work who were teaching Modernism and Imagism as part of their English Literature courses at the university where I was working as “Japan Projects Officer”. I also thought it would be possible for Art students to use the imagery of classical tanka as a new source for their creative activities. For these reasons I tried to gather classical tanka translated into English, but soon encountered several problems. (To be continued...)
Characteristics of Classical Tanka
The characteristics of classical tanka may be summarised in seven points. (Two of which will be the focus of today's discussion.)
1 Minimalist Approach: Less is More
Some poets in the 12th century emphasised that “less is more” where simple descriptions could have lingering suggestiveness more than a lot of detail. Fujiwara no Teika wrote the tanka below in 1186 when he was 24 years old. Here he thinks that the scene in front of him is perfectly beautiful without anything that typifies the beauty of a season such as cherry blossoms or crimson leaves. His discovery of a new sense of beauty where a monochrome world could have more depth than colourful images contributed to the establishment of “wabi” and “sabi”.
As far as one can see, No cherry blossoms Or crimson leaves- A thatched hut by a bay In the autumn dusk.
In the early 20th century Jun Fujita, whom many consider to be one of the first people to write tanka in English successfully, published the following in the USA. Reviewing this tanka Harriet Monroe who was sometimes called the midwife of Modernism wrote in Poetry in April 1925: “I doubt if a thousand carefully toned words could match the impression it gives of stillness”:
Milky night; Through slender trees in drowse A petal- Falling.
2 Tanka Avoids Intellectual Argument
Tanka poetry avoids intellectual argument. It is a realm of sensibility where feelings and emotions matter.
This aspect was observed in 1963 by Prof Geoffrey Bownas who wrote about the characteristics of tanka: “There is little opportunity or desire to escape to the intellect or the didactic.” The same point was expressed by Origuchi Shinobu (1887-1953) when he was asked what differentiated tanka from other forms of poetry. His answer was that good tanka usually did not have intellectual substance, but had pure suggestiveness. He used a simile: “Tanka is like squeezing snow tightly in the hand. There will be nothing left in your hand, except water. But you feel something.”
A tanka that illustrates this well is the following written by Monk Jukuren (1139?-1202).
This loneliness Has no colour of its own. On the mountain Where cedars stand In the autumn dusk.
Because of the lack of intellectual substance some modern poets in the West do not discover the value of tanka. Tanka poetry seems to be too simple for some people. However, sensibility sometimes transcends intellectual power. The following was composed by Princess Shikishi a year before she died in 1201. About 400 years after that, William Shakespeare wrote in The Tempest: “We are such stuff as dreams are made on, and our little life is rounded with a sleep”.
Broken by the sound of the breeze That plays on the bamboo leaves Near the window A dream even shorter Than my fleeting sleep.
Our challenge today, is to explore the tanka form as presented here by Dr Nakamura. There is no limit to the number of tanka you may write, and you may also share older examples of tanka you have written, if you prefer. Dr Nakamura has shown great interest in our writing group and a link to this prompt will be forwarded to him, so he can pay us a visit in the Imaginary Garden. Photo credits: Cherry Blossom : photo credit: JapanDave via photopincc Mountain View: photo credit: Vincent_AF via photopincc
