Modern Japanese Tanka: An Anthology.
Heinrich, Amy V.
While the Japanese haiku has become extremely popular as a poetic
form in English, the longer tanka is less well known outside Japan. The
five-line, thirty-one syllable form has a longer history, having been -
when called waka - the dominant poetic form throughout 1,500 years of
the Japanese literary tradition. In the twentieth century a number of
remarkable poets revitalized the form. Makoto Ueda's anthology, of
modern tanka is a wonderful introduction both to the form and to twenty,
modern poets who made it their own.
Ueda's introduction provides the historical context and
summarizes the literary movements, from the virulent indictment, written
in 1894 by Yosano Tekkan (1873-1935), of late-nineteenth-century poets
to the description by Tawara Machi (b. 1962) of the tanka form as a net
"that filters the disorder of experience." The selection of
poets includes such towering figures in the creation of modern Japanese
tanka as Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902), Yosano Akiko (1878-1942), Saito
Mokichi (1882-1953), and Ishikawa Takuboku (1886-1912). Ueda also
includes poems, however, by writers better known for other forms, such
as Mori Ogai (1862-1922), best known for his fiction, and the works of a
number of writers who are represented by very few English translations
elsewhere, such as Tsukamoto Kunio (b. 1922):
hands picking a nose hands holding a shotgun hands fondling a loved
one hands on every clock point to the twenty-fifth hour
His selections, translations, and descriptions of twentieth-century
literary history make the book valuable not only as an introduction for
general readers but also as a reference for and even an inspiration to
specialists in the field.
The range of work represented in the anthology demonstrates the
breadth available to creative users of the form. Tanka have
traditionally been known for their lyrical qualities, as in the
following by Mori Ogai: "your heart / still remains unsettled /
like the wavering / of a cosmos flower / after the bee is gone."
But the form can be a vehicle for a more piercing expression as well, as
in the work of Nakajo Fumiko (1922-54), whose vision can be shocking:
"since that evening / when I first smelled the stench / of my dead
body / the sharp eyes of a vulture / remain forever in my mind."
The quality of the translations is excellent; Ueda has even managed
to capture individual voices of the many poets. Modern Japanese Tanka:
An Anthology has been awarded the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission Prize
for Translation in acknowledgment of Ueda's achievement.
Amy V. Heinrich Columbia University
