Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,
Welcome at a new episode of Carpe Diem's Tanka Splendor month. Today I love to introduce the fifth Tanka Writing Technique by Teika "Lofty Style". It wasn't easy to explain the meaning of this technique so I share a short explanation and a tanka to show what is meant here.
Lofty style - taketakaki tei, a method of achieving grandeur and elevation
One of the traditional examples of this style is the poem by Fujiwara Yoshitsune (1169-1206) composed on the given theme of "the moon at dawn" in the Shinkokinshū #16:1545:
ana no to o / oshiakegata no / kumonma yori / kamiyo no tsuki / kage zo nokoreru
the coming dawn
pushes open the Gates of Heaven
from the clouds
the moon from the Age of Gods
is an image left behind
One of the traditional examples of this style is the poem by Fujiwara Yoshitsune (1169-1206) composed on the given theme of "the moon at dawn" in the Shinkokinshū #16:1545:
ana no to o / oshiakegata no / kumonma yori / kamiyo no tsuki / kage zo nokoreru
the coming dawn
pushes open the Gates of Heaven
from the clouds
the moon from the Age of Gods
is an image left behind
A beautiful tanka I would say and in this one we can easily see what this Tanka Writing Technique is about. The goal of this technique is to bring your tanka to a higher level, even a more spiritual level I would say.
So this technique can bring the "love and romance" which is one of the main themes of tanka to the highest spiritual level, maybe even to the (so called) Tantric level, a more spiritual experience in which sexuality is a main factor.
So with this fifth technique I think we enter the more basic thought that tanka was used as a love poem or love letter.
 |
| Tantra |
candles
champagne and chocolates
your sweet perfume
becoming one with each other
in front of the fireplace
© Chèvrefeuille
Another one now with the "regular" prompt "full moon":
in the full moonlight
wandering along the beach
the sound of the surf
two hearts go bare foot as one
without knowing each other
© Chèvrefeuille
This episode is open for your submissions tonight at 7.00 PM (CET) and will remain open until November 17th at noon (CET). I will (try to) publish our new episode, storm, later on. For now ... have fun!
This lofty style worried me, as it is so far from the haiku. I know tanka is not haiku but sometimes that spare, starkness of haiku works quite well in tsnka. In many western minds the loftiness will come out as bad Shakespeare I think, full of overblown words and without clear sense of purpose or meaning, of which I have seen a few.
ReplyDeleteStill hanging round the fireplace Chev, I see.....and a mysterious second tanka about the moon...