Japanese Tanka Poetry

Hahn has stated that her own writing is heavily influenced by the ancient Japanese poetic form called tanka. This form is more than one thousand years old and became very popular, especially with women who lived courtly lives during the Heian period (794-1185). Tanka has a set pattern (that is often revised) of syllables per line. The pattern follows a 5-7-5-7-7 scheme and has often been credited as the forerunner of the more popular poetic form haiku. The Japanese language is syllabic (as opposed to English, which is broken down into individual, single letters) and more easily fits the simple pattern of tanka. However, in recent years, tanka has become a very attractive style of writing English-language poems.

Tanka poems were popular with courtly women, who often were kept in solitude. It was through tanka that they expressed deep emotions, giving them...