Tanka in English

Translating the tanka form of poetry into English can be very challenging because of the difference not only in the shape of the two different languages (English, which is based on individual letters and emphasized syllables, and Japanese, which is based on syllables and no stress) but also in the way both languages express images. Japanese poets are very subtle when creating metaphors. In Japanese, for example, metaphors are placed in a poem, and the reader, accustomed to their meaning, assumes the correct interpretation. Because of these and other differences in language, writing tanka-inspired poems in English results in the rules being eased. So in the Hahn poem “Pine,” there is no strict adherence to the shape of the poem. Hahn's poem is short, and the language is rather simple, but the form is free. There is no strict counting of syllables, for example, as there...