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Category: Tanka
On the Flattening of Tanka
Tanka Versus had a discussion about the flattening of tanka. I had been away from tanka for about 15 years after my father’s death, but during that time the environment surro…
Farewell, Blue Train
Another thing we must say “farewell” to today The original Blue Train—farewell amid lively crowds After reading Floating Island’s “Farewell, Blue Train”.
The Lantern Festival
On the Lantern Festival day of the Spring Festival, evening falls;all the people walking the streets are festive. The warm light of the lanterns illuminates and brightens people’s…
Clouds on the Battlefield
Upon the battlefield, suffering accumulated; clouds of days gone by fade away. I spent about 1 hour walking through the pitch-dark underground shelter, Abuchiragama, in Itokazu, Ta…
A Half Moon Hangs at the Zenith on a Winter Evening
A half moon hangs at the zenith on a winter evening; I walk alone along a dim road. As I was walking along the road at Gaiemmae on my way home from an outing, I happened to look up…
In the Blowing Wind
Amid the crowd carried along by the blowing wind, a handful of breath offered in my palm. In reply to Shiraishi Masako’s The silence of the flow of breathing people, a wind b…
A Rose Is a Rose
When I opened Karui Saisei, I found a poem by Machi Tawara being introduced. With its price of four hundred yen, it became mine, yet the rose blooms as though it does not know. (Ma…
Unmanned Station (Reply Tanka)
The railway vanishes toward the horizon; the train stands at the station; wind-blown snowflakes dance. Among station poems, there is one by my father, Isao Akimura: At a station wh…
To the Sound That Echoes
At the sound that echoes, an empty cicada shell comes into view— though it is the living body beneath a clear sky. Dear Shiraishi, This is late. It is a reply poem to the tanka you…