Having taken Japanese literature last semester, I’ve grown to like some forms of Japanese poetry. Everyone knows haiku, which are derived from tanka, an older form of poetry. The tanka follows the 5-7-5-7-7 pattern, with the last two lines usually leading elsewhere than the first three.
Cranes above her head,
Bandaged foot slung carelessly,
She reads intently.
Hiroshima recovers
In this one surviving child.
An alphabet book
One thousand cranes for wishing
Atomic ruins
What must they think of all this
These children lead confused lives
Buildings in ruins
Has it been days, weeks, months, years?
Yet she recovers
American book in hand
She learns English as wounds heal
3 comments:
I like this piece, and the way it juxtaposes American and Japanese elements. English words in a Japanese poetry form, and of course the final two lines of irony seem to create a sort of metaphor for the American influence upon Japan after the war.
This series of poems (or one long poem, however you intended it) really intrigues me. Putting our class themes so neatly into a very restricting form requires a lot of careful thought, from which I'd say you succeeded. I especially liked the first one, as I felt it really captured the scene in the picture the best.
gorgeous, katherine. it's amazing how much you've managed to say in such few words. it has the potential to be politically and culturally suggestive without explicitly making it about that.
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