tanka

[ tahng-kuh ]

noun

, Prosody.

, plural tan·kas, tan·ka.

1. a Japanese poem consisting of 31 syllables in 5 lines, with 5 syllables in the first and third lines and 7 in the others.

tanka

/ ˈtɑːŋkə /

noun

1. a Japanese verse form consisting of five lines, the first and third having five syllables, the others seven

Word History and Origins

Origin of tanka¹

1915–20; < Japanese < Middle Chinese, equivalent to Chinese duǎn short + gē song; renga

Word History and Origins

Origin of tanka¹

C19: from Japanese, from tan short + ka verse

Example Sentences

For hours she would email with friends or draft her next tanka, a genre of Japanese poetry.

From New York Times

It connects the twists and turns in her life — a visit to see the Dutch masters at the Rijksmuseum leads to the discovery of tanka paintings — to her lifelong passion about justice in the world.

From Washington Post

The TankaWanka is a form of verse that the Empress coined back in 2014, as a variation on the venerable Japanese tanka.

From Washington Post

Alternating between tanka, a compressed Japanese form, and prose-poem obituaries addressed to various abstractions — “blame,” “privacy,” “reason,” “appetite” — Chang’s fifth collection for adults explores her father’s illness and her mother’s death.

From New York Times

As in the poetic form he preferred, the tanka, Miyazawa also closely observes the shifting landscape.

From New York Times