Friday, May 1, 2015

Carpe Diem Tan Renga Challenge #82, Basho's first haiku (1662) "has spring come"


Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Last week I had no Tan Renga Challenge, but this month while we are "on the trail with Basho" I will bring the Tan Renga Challenge back, because of the simple fact ... that Basho was a wellknown Renga-poet, a lot of his haiku were part of Renga (chained poems) and so I just couldn't do this month without the Tan Renga Challenge.

However ... I have changed the Tan Renga Challenge a little bit ... instead of writing just the second stanza I challenge you to write (to a maximum of eight stanza) also the third until the (max) eight stanza in a sequence of: three lines, two lines, three lines, two lines, three lines, two lines, three lines and the last stanza two lines. (It's a kind of "Soliloquy no Renga").

The "hokku" (the opening verse) is the following (with preface):

Today we have the first day of spring in spite of the day.

has spring come
or the year gone away?
second last day

© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)

By the way, as a young haiku poet, Basho used the "nom de plume" Sobo.
I wasn't inspired enough to make this Tan Renga Challenge ... maybe in time I will catch up, but for now I leave it up to you to make this Tan Renga complete.

This Tan Renga Challenge is open for your submissions at noon (CET) and will remain open until next Friday May 8th at noon (CET). Be inspired ....

2 comments:

  1. I've really enjoyed the tan renga. This one, with your twist, will certainly be a challenge for me … but I look forward to trying it!

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