Comments on: 5-7-5-7-7

5-7-5-7-7

Katemonkey — Tue, 31 Dec 2002 01:31:38 -0800

Tired of haikus? Then it might be time for tanka. Older than haikus, tanka is 31 syllables divided into lines of 5-7-5-7-7. There's been a World Tanka Competition (mostly in Japanese, but the poems are translated into English) and a modern tanka poet, Machi Tawara, has had her work turned into movies, television shows, and a musical revue. All that's needed now is to make it popular in the English-speaking world...

By: shepd

shepd — Tue, 31 Dec 2002 02:47:57 -0800

Tanka yous very much!

By: RokkitNite

RokkitNite — Tue, 31 Dec 2002 06:27:00 -0800

Ha ha! C'mon, joke Tanka! After all, Expressing yourself In seventeen syllables Is very diffic

By: planetkyoto

planetkyoto — Tue, 31 Dec 2002 07:28:45 -0800

Happy New Year from Japan, where it's 12:15 a.m. on Jan. 1, where I post with a glass of champagne in one hand and a mouse in the other. I was planning to post on the Japanese New Year's game of Uta Karuta tonight, which is a sort of "Concentration" or "Husker Du" game using Tanka. What a surprise that you beat me to it, Katemonkey. Was it a coincidence, or did you know that this is a New Year's game? (BTW, I live by Shirakawa street in Kyoto. The first winning entry on your competition link mentions the Shirakawa, literally white river, so named because the white gravel that washes down out of the east mountains in Shirakawa is used for kare-san-sui dry landscape gardens in zen temples.) Read about the game here. You can read part of the intro and then click to the "card game" link on the intro page to read the poems (and see the cards by clicking the numbers). A Happy and Healthy new year to all MeFites.

By: sgt.serenity

sgt.serenity — Tue, 31 Dec 2002 08:08:24 -0800

happy new year and dont eat the mouse !

By: Katemonkey

Katemonkey — Tue, 31 Dec 2002 08:09:49 -0800

It was absolute freaky coincidence -- I've been a fan of Machi Tawara for a few years now (and, much to my dismay, I let someone borrow my copy of Salad Anniversary and never got it back), and I figured it was high time for a post on her...