Form
Tanka consist of five units (often treated as separate lines when romanized or translated) usually with the following pattern of onji:
- 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").
Traditionally tanka has had no concept of rhyme (indeed, certain arrangements of rhymes, even accidental, were considered dire faults in a poem), or even of line. Instead of lines, waka has the unit (連?) and the phrase (句?).
The term waka was coined during the Heian period, and was used to distinguish Japanese-language poetry from kanshi (poetry written in Chinese by Japanese poets), and later from renga.
Read more about this topic: Tanka
Famous quotes containing the word form:
“The diary is an art form just as much as the novel or the play. The diary simply requires a greater canvas.”
—Henry Miller (18911980)
“Modernity exists in the form of a desire to wipe out whatever came earlier, in the hope of reaching at least a point that could be called a true present, a point of origin that marks a new departure.”
—Paul De Man (19191983)
“Falsehood is invariably the child of fear in one form or another.”
—Aleister Crowley (18751947)