jigsaw

NOTE

ALTERNATIVE TEXT LAYOUT FOR TANKA Originally tanka (waka) opened with a natural observation (similar to the later development of hokku as the catalyst for a lined verse series). The last two lines of the 5 lines - as we do that in non-Japanese - was a more personal response, based on the first tercet (3 lines stanza). In essence, two stanzas, the first a natural abstract, the second a personal application. By italicizing the last two lines we have the appearance of a personal aside?

https://vimeo.com/41224179

MUSE

This experiment also serves to emphasise the 'call and response' of renga, waka's (tanka) later development.

For, is it not so that we, as readers, supply our response to a 3-line ku, in the tradition of chain verse (renga).

And, is it also not so that tanka (waka) gave birth to chain verse (renga) as a *direct consequence* of the original interaction between natural abstraction and personal response via its original form in the mind of the solo player?

How sublime and unified all this is; under the surfaces of reflective and discordant confusions we find in the materialist world of competitive global haikai today - here and now in the modern world.

MEMO

It can all be a bit confusing. As always, when things get silly, use Ockam's razor. That is to say, cut it all down to the bone. In this case the bone can be devised by common sense (initially, prior to a historical survey and a flow-chart to plot the variety). [Try out the excellent Freemind ]

1

Waka (later called tanka by Shiki). This is/was as described above. Natural abstract/personal response.

2

Then we can have a duo playing for one-off tanka, which can extend into group activity with the double stanza tanka considered as standalone (as well as some variant of renga for complexity.

3

Anything you like in 5 lines, split into two stanzas or not. This is what Taro Aizu has done with his Gogyoshi to the extreme by allowing only one guideline and that is 5 lines!

*Free form tanka* will do for me at present. Sometimes split, sometimes not - depending on what works best intuitively. I imagine the split is better, generally speaking.