A Season for Everyone: TANKA Poetry

By Fabrizio Frosini

In AD 905, the standard poetic diction for the "perfect waka" was established, with the rule of 31 sound units in the pattern 5–7–5–7–7. Since then, although tanka poetry has evolved over the centuries, its form hasn’t changed.
This collection of tanka by Fabrizio Frosini, although written in English, possess all the charm of the ancient Japanese waka poetry: in them you can savor the aesthetic principles of 'sabi' (the melancholic sense of beauty), or enjoy the feeling of 'yūgen' (mysterious depth), while the pathos of things ('mono no aware') encircles you, offering your thoughts depth of feeling ('ushin') and awareness of time and space. But let the poems speak for themselves...
Enjoy the reading

• Language: English
• Publisher: Fabrizio Frosini
• Release date: Dec 18, 2019
• ISBN: 9780463829219

Fabrizio Frosini

Born in Tuscany, Italy. Currently living close to Florence and Vinci, Leonardo's hometown. Doctor in Medicine, specialized in Neurosurgery, with an ancient passion for Poetry, he is the Author of over 2,000 poems published in 20 personal books. Frosini writes in Italian, his native language, and English. He is the founder of the International Association "Poets Unite Worldwide," with which he has published more than 50 Anthologies. Among his own books: «The Chinese Gardens - English Poems», «Prelude to the Night», «Anita Quiclotzl & Her Souls - Anita Quiclotzl e le Sue Anime» (Bilingual Ed.) - [for the others, see below].~*~In Frosini's Poetry:1. The Truth is Affirmed ; 2. Beauty is Conveyed ; 3. The Personal becomes the Universal.One of the key terms in contemporary poetry is 'POETRY OF WITNESS'. "Florence, A Walk With A View" is an excellent example of this type of poem. It exchanges the anger we experienced in the preceding poem with melancholy, but this is a haunted and desperate melancholy, not at all like the word's root meaning of sweet sorrow. Yet, in Fabrizio Frosini's poem, the city charms the visitor with its natural beauty - "the silky lights of the / Sunset" - and artistic ambiance - "the intimate warmth of nostalgia that makes / Your heart melt at the sight around".In the finest poetry, beauty is conveyed in all of it sensuous and spiritual glory. The title "Water Music" refers to one of Handel's most popular works, a masterpiece of baroque melody, rhythm and harmony. The poem, however, is not about this music.. here is a shining element of the beauty this poem conveys - "I was in my room, staring at the clear sky through the window. The moon, so pale and magical, drawing my imagination to her. In my ears Handel's music was playing softly." - There is the beauty of VITA NOVA, in this Frosini's poem: Dante's idealization of Beatrice with its artistic and moral benefits experienced by a contemporary couple. And finally the beauty of sublimation, when an otherwise sensuous experience must be transferred to the plane of the Imagination. Other Frosini's poem, like "Nocturnal Snowing", are Poems of Memory, that reveal the persistence of an experience of mutual attraction in the poet's life over many decades. There, a young woman, who is forever young and lovely in the poet's mind, becomes a touchstone of emotional value. But not all good experiences are given a future by the hand of fate. And so Frosini's poetry also explores the emotional consequences of the loss of such a promising moment... The prevailing reaction in reader after reader is that Frosini's verses relate to their emotional lives. In other words, Fabrizio Frosini's personal experience reflects their personal experience, and thus the Personal becomes the Universal...~*~Books published as sole Author:(*BE*: Bilingual Editions, English–Italian ; All books have PAPERBACK and EBOOK Editions)– «The Chinese Gardens – English Poems» – English Ed. – (published also in Italian Ed.:– «I Giardini Cinesi» – Edizione Italiana);– «KARUMI – Haiku & Tanka» – Italian Ed.;– «Allo Specchio di Me Stesso» ('In the Mirror of Myself') – Italian Ed.;– «Il Vento e il Fiume» ('The Wind and the River') – Italian Ed.;– «A Chisciotte» ('To Quixote') – Italian Ed.;– «Il Puro, l'Impuro – Kosher/Treyf» ('The pure, the Impure – Kosher / Treyf') – Italian Ed.;– «Frammenti di Memoria – Carmina et Fragmenta» ('Fragments of Memories') – Italian Ed.;– «La Città dei Vivi e dei Morti» ('The City of the Living and the Dead') – Italian Ed.;– «Nella luce confusa del crepuscolo» ('In the fuzzy light of the Twilight') – Italian Ed.;– «Limes —O La Chiave Dei Sogni» ('The Key to Dreams') – Italian Ed.;– «Echi e Rompicapi» ('Puzzles & Echoes') – Italian Ed.;– «Ballate e Altre Cadenze» ('Ballads and Other Cadences') – Italian Ed.;– «Selected Poems – Επιλεγμένα Ποιήματα – Poesie Scelte» – Greek–English–Italian (Αγγλικά, Ελληνικά, Ιταλικά – Greek translation by Dimitrios Galanis);– «Prelude to the Night – English Poems» – English Ed. (published also in Italian Ed.:– «Preludio alla Notte» – Edizione Italiana);– «A Season for Everyone – Tanka Poetry» – English Ed.;– «Evanescence of the Floating World – Haiku» – English Ed.;– «From the Book of Limbo – Dal Libro del Limbo» – *BE*;– «Anita Quiclotzl & Her Souls – Anita Quiclotzl e le Sue Anime» – *BE*.~*~Forthcoming publications:– «Mirror Games — A Tale» – English Edition (also in Italian Ed.:– «Giochi di Specchi — Un Racconto»);– «Il Sentiero della Luna» ('The Moon's Path') – Italian Edition.~*~For the Anthologies published by Fabrizio Frosini with "Poets Unite Worldwide", see Frosini's profile as a PUBLISHER, or POETS UNITE WORLDWIDE's profile.~*~Some of Frosini's poems are also published in the Anthology "Riflessi 62" (Italian Edition), edited by Pagine Srl.~*~Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/poetsuniteworldwide/Website address:https://poetsuniteworldwide.org/Blog:https://poetsuniteworldwide.wordpress.com/Twitter username:@fabriziofrosini

Book preview

Tanka poetry was born in Japan more than 1300 years ago, as a form of 'waka' —the term meaning Japanese poem(s). The waka originally comprised a number of different forms, most notably 'tanka' (short poems), and 'chōka' (long poems). In the ninth and tenth centuries, with the compilation of the first waka imperial anthology in the early Heian period (the Kokin Wakashū, AD 905), the short poem became the dominant form and the term 'waka' became its standard name, while 'tanka', the proper word, fell out of use —until Masaoka Shiki revived the term in 1898.

Japanese tanka consist of five units written in one line, usually with a pattern of 5-7-5-7-7 sounds. The group of the first three is called kami-no-ku (upper phrase), while the second is called shimo-no-ku (lower phrase). A 'turn', or pivotal image, connects the two parts of the poem, marking the transition from examining an image/ idea/ situation to examining a personal response. In English, the tanka form is usually rendered in 5 lines of 31 (or fewer) syllables in total, following a "short / long / short / long / long" pattern.

This collection consists of 196 Tanka, all originally written in English. About one third (60) of them can be labeled as seasonal (meaning that a month/season is plainly expressed, or they have a 'kigo', season word), while 136 are seasonless. The first are grouped according to the season of reference: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter. The seasonless tanka are arranged on the basis of five different themes, and offer the readers a narrative in seven parts. Although I have chosen not to assign titles, the five themes are as follows:

1. a love found, then lost;

2. psychological introspection —or the mirroring of a soul;

3. life & death;

4. we, the humans;

5. nature, the world and us.

Enjoy the book!

(Fabrizio Frosini, Firenze, 2019)

~*~

月のみやうわのそらなるかたみにておもひもいでば心かよはん

tsuki nomi ya / uwa no sora naru / katami nite

omoi mo ideba / kokoro kayowan

the moon, alone,

taunts me from the heavens with

memories of you;

should you feel the same, then

our hearts would be as one

Saigyō (1118–1190)

~*~

Tanka

Seasonal tanka

Non-seasonal tanka

~*~

春のよの夢のうきはしとだえしてみねにわかるゝよこ雲のそら

haru no yo no / yume no uki hashi / todaeshite

mine ni wakaruru / yokogumo no sora

a spring night’s

floating bridge of dreams

is broken —

split by the peaks,

long clouds trail across the sky

Fujiwara no Teika (1162–1241)

~*~

Seasonal tanka

Tanka related to:

SPRING

SUMMER

AUTUMN

WINTER

~*~

Note:

the traditional Japanese calendar, used from the sixth century until 1873, was a luni-solar calendar, whose date indicates both the moon phase and the time of the solar year. In categorizing 'kigo' [season word(s): which, traditionally, symbolize or help identify the season in which the event recorded in the poem happens], each season is then divided into early, middle, and late periods (see the scheme —modified from a table by William J. Higginson, in 'Haiku Seasons', Kodansha International— at the beginning of each season).

Tanka related to Spring

Scheme of the Traditional Spring season in tanka (and haiku) poetry:

Spring: February 4 – May 5

Early — beginning 4 February

Mid — beginning 6 March (Spring Equinox 21 March)

Late — beginning 5 April.

~*~

an afternoon of

listlessness and ennui—

walking alone

in a monotonous

early spring drizzle

in this march rain

a roamer asks for

a coin—

aren't we all vagrants

in this life of ours?

I crave cherries:

their red pulp as fragrant as

your lips...

let this spring come with your scent,

tangled to your tangled hair

~*~

sensing your smile,

after touching the pale

blue of the sky,

the rose bud opens up...

a new spring together

the april wind

brings back old memories

and hopes...

but no joy in the muffled

ticking of the clock

her sleek hair fully

matching the silk tailleur — that

spring night in Paris

forty-plus years ago, still

in