Tanka
The Tanka ( Jap. 短歌 , dt. Short poem ) is at least 1,300 years old unrhymed Japanese poem ( Waka ) with 31 Moren . It is older than the haiku that developed from the tanka. A tanka conjures up the moment, captures it with precision and musicality.
In the anthology Man'yōshū - written between 400 and 759 and published around 760 - the form of the tanka predominates and it flourished in the medieval Shinkokinwakashū (German: New Collection of Old and New Poems ) (1205), a collection of aristocratic and courtly poetry highest flowering.
Tanka were often used to end any kind of occasion with dignity. So special emphasis was placed on the beauty of the poem and the aesthetic form. Appropriate paper, ink, calligraphy and a symbolic addition such as a twig or a leaf were used.
Although the tanka evolved over the centuries, it retained 31 moras corresponding to 31 kana .
In Japan a tanka is often written in a single line, in other languages it is often written in the form 5-7-5-7-7 moras per line. A division into two parts is common, which can also come from different people: 5-7-5 as the first part (upper tunnel), usually with seasonal content, and 7-7 as the second part (connecting or lower tunnel). From this a type of chain seal developed, the renga . The Rengameister watched over the adherence to the form, which also developed independently.
A blank line can (but does not have to) be placed between the two parts (upper tunnel, connecting tunnel). This illustrates a change in content that can be felt between the two parts. The first part, the upper gallery, can draw a picture or an idea like a haiku. This picture is completed in the second part, the connecting tunnel, and opens up new directions of thought to the reader.
By omitting the second part of the tanka, the connecting tunnel, a shape was finally created that developed into a haiku.
The very strict rules of haiku also apply to the tanka. In particular, rhymes and repeated words are to be avoided.
Tanka example by an unknown poet from the Man'yōshū:
In the storm of autumn over
the mountains,
the cry of the wild goose flies over there as it
moves off into the distance,
hidden deep in clouds.
Yoshimi Kondō (1913-2006) was one of the most important Japanese poets of the post-war period, who published his verses in Tanka without exception. He was also president of the Union of Tanka Poets, the Mirai Tankakai .
Syllable counting
Kana signs (speaking hours, moras) are counted; since these mostly stand for a consonant followed by a vowel, they often correspond to a syllable. However, even a stand- alone n , the small unspoken tsu for doubling consonants and a lengthening of the vowels take up their own speaking time and a symbol; we do not see these as syllables. Ie Konban wa does not count three, but five times yuurei not two, but four, kappa not two, but the third
The Tanka in Germany
The German-language Tanka seal established itself late in comparison to other countries. While the poem form was already spreading at the beginning of the 20th century in the USA and other Anglophone countries by Japanese immigrants (Sadakichi Hartmann, Jun Fujita) or, for example, in the Netherlands, due to trade relations, there was already contact with Japanese literature, the first are to be found German-language tank seals to be taken seriously at Imma von Bodmershof. The "Book of Tanka Poetry", published in 1990, represents the first transnational anthology of German-speaking Tanka. Typical of this first phase of Tanka poetry in Germany is a strong orientation towards the natural poetry of the classic Japanese anthologies from the time before the beginning of the Tanka Reformation of the 20th century, but often without reaching their quality. In addition, these tanka are almost without exception written in 31 syllables of 5-7-5-7-7 syllables:
Flotsam on the pond.
Mosquitoes distribute the light.
Rotten railing.
I am a leaf and I fall
And I will not sink ...
- Rüdiger Jung
After the turn of the millennium, the German-speaking Tanka gained new quality and independence. The availability of (English-language) translations of modern Japanese Tanka authors of the 20th century (Ishikawa Takoboku, Saito Mokichi, Masaoka Shiki, Tawara Machi) only allowed a differentiated view of the possibilities of form, also taking into account models from German-language poetry, such as Günter Eich. As outstanding examples, Ingrid Kunschke's Tanka can be cited, which broke away from the classic Japanese waka collections and their topics:
Pine cones
crackle open in the sun ,
I gradually let
my ghosts move
- Ingrid Kunschke
In the meantime, a small but stable group of authors has established themselves who deal regularly and more intensively with the Tanka. The style is dominated by the Light Verse or New Wave style, which, with its light themes taken from everyday life and the familiar language, follows the developments of Japanese tanka poetry over the past 30 years:
You put your bag casually
around my shoulder -
a territory marking
for strange women
- Tony Böhle
Since 2013 is published quarterly, the first German-language tanka magazine Thirty-one .
literature
- Tanka Japanese five-liners. selected and translated from the original text of Manyoshu, Kokinwakashu and Shinkokinwakashu by Jan Ulenbrook. Philipp Reclam jun., Stuttgart 1996, ISBN 3-15-009611-1 .
- If there weren't any cherry blossoms ... Tanka from 1300 years. selected, translated and edited by Yukitsuna Sasaki, Eduard Klopfenstein and Masami Ono-Feller. Philipp Reclam jun., Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-15-010698-3 .
- Andrew Pekarik (Ed.): 36 Poets of Ancient Japan - Courtly Poetry of the Heian and Kamakura Period. DuMont Buchverlag, Cologne 1992, ISBN 3-7701-2802-8 .
- Playlist. Tanka by Tony Böhle with illustrations by Valeria Barouch, Edition Federleicht, Frankfurt am Main 2020, ISBN 978-3946112563 .
- Irmela Hijiya-Kirschnereit, Wolfgang Schamoni (eds.); Takuboku Ishikawa: Sad Toys: Poems and Prose. translated by Wolfgang Schamoni. Insel Verlag, Frankfurt am Main / Leipzig 1994, ISBN 3-458-16604-1 .
- Peter Ackermann, Angelika Kretschmer: The four seasons: Classical Japanese poems. Insel Verlag, Frankfurt am Main / Leipzig 2000, ISBN 3-458-17009-X .
- Igor Müller, Reruhi Akiyama: Kyoto - Tanka: Poetry and photography from Japan. Hibarios, Kaarst 2014, ISBN 978-3-945058-06-0 .
- Wakayama, Bokusui: In the distance, the Fuji is cloudlessly serene. Modern tanka. With the collaboration of Eduard Klopfenstein, 2018, ISBN 978-3717524526 .
- Kurz, Carl Heinz (1990): The book of the Tanka seal. The book of Tanka poetry. Göttingen: Graphikum.
- Masaoka, Shiki; Goldstein, Sanford; Shinoda, Seishi: Songs from a bamboo village. Selected tanka from Takenosato Uta by. First edition.
- Saitō, Mokichi; Shinoda, Seichi; Goldstein, Sanford (1989): Red lights. Selected tanka sequences from Shakko. West Lafayette, Ind: Purdue Research Foundation.
- Takuboku, Ishikawa: On Knowing Oneself Too Well: Selected Poems of Ishikawa Taku.
- Tawara, Machi; Carpenter, Juliet Winters: Salad anniversary.