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Glite Dictionary
📝 A short poem 🎨 A religious painting
tanka

tanka

1 9.9
A short Japanese poem with five lines and a 5-7-5-7-7 syllable pattern
  • noun
  • /ˈtɑːŋkə/
  • Literature
translation icon : tanka

Examples

  • It was a tanka by the Japanese poet Basho, whose poem was modeled on yet another poem sent by a woman to a man after their first love meeting.

    Fiction book (1996)

  • Unrhymed verse stressing syllabication might include haiku, tanka, and septolets.

    Academic text (1993)

  • The poet crafted a beautiful tanka that captured the essence of nature in just five lines.

  • In her Japanese literature class, we learned how to write our own tanka poems following the traditional syllable pattern.

  • During the workshop, participants shared their favorite tanka from renowned poets, highlighting the art's emotional depth.

Synonyms

waka
vstanka
  • Literature
1 9.9

A short traditional Japanese poem that has thirty-one syllables and expresses nature or feelings

is the fixed five line form with a 5 7 5 7 7 syllable pattern

Surface Forms

tanka singular
tankas plural

Etymology

Tanka comes from the Japanese words tan 'short' and ka 'song', so it literally means 'short song'. That is why a tanka is a brief five-line poem that often feels like a small song.