tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-786207835641480928.post1223286007889282845..comments2024-03-28T12:59:41.910-04:00Comments on NeverEnding Story: Dark Wings of the Night: Tankas for Toraiwa by Seamus HeaneyChen-ou Liu, 劉鎮歐http://www.blogger.com/profile/06235248170011255532noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-786207835641480928.post-25439607982745429662013-09-01T18:43:16.597-04:002013-09-01T18:43:16.597-04:00Seamus Heaney seemed to merely write 5-line poems ...Seamus Heaney seemed to merely write 5-line poems closely following the traditional syllabic pattern of a Japanese tanka, with no knowledge of its bipartite structure.<br />Chen-ou Liu, 劉鎮歐https://www.blogger.com/profile/06235248170011255532noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-786207835641480928.post-25703280857691625672013-09-01T15:44:21.481-04:002013-09-01T15:44:21.481-04:00Below is a relevant excerpt from Eric Thomas Sherl...Below is a relevant excerpt from Eric Thomas Sherlock's MA Thesis, titled "Kokoro as ecological insight : the concept of heart in Japanese literature" (Asian Studies, University of British Columbia, 1984, p. 107), clearly indicating the origin, historical and aesthetical, of a tanka's bipartite structure:<br /><br />Since ancient times there had been a custom of having one poet write the first three lines of a waka (kami no ku), while another poet finished the poem by adding the final two lines (shimo no ku). This practice eventually became extended, through multiple authorship, to a hundred stanzas of alternately three and two lines. The new verse form, which became known as renga, first originated among court poets as a form of amusement and relaxation after an evening of serious waka [ancient poem for tanka] composition. By the Ashikaga period, however, renga itself had achieved maturity as a serious poetic form.<br />Chen-ou Liu, 劉鎮歐https://www.blogger.com/profile/06235248170011255532noreply@blogger.com