Haiku and tanka are forms of Japanese poetry. Haiku being the more familiar of the two. Tanka is fast gaining popularity. A Haiku is formed of 3 lines, traditonally 5 syllables in the first line, 7 the second and ending with 5 on the third, and the subject normally about the seasons or observations. It is not used normally to reflect emotion. Haiku is derived from tanka.

Tanka is the older of these two forms, tanka being traditionally written in 31 syllables of and made of five lines, each line having syllables as follows: 5,7,5,7,7. Tanka is written about deep human emotion, and was often used to communicate between lovers. Neither form normally have titles as we know traditional poetry to have.

Below are beautiful romantic tanka, many which date back to the royal courts of the 700's.

Japanese lady with parasol mimicing a crane

’Tis easier to hide the reeds
Upon the moor that grow,
Than try to hide the ardent love
That sets my cheeks aglow
For somebody I know.

I've seen thee but a few short hours;
As short, they seemed to me,
As bamboo reeds at Naniwa;
But tide-stakes in the sea
Can't gauge my love for thee.

My constancy to her I love
I never will forsake;
As surely as the Palace Guards
Each night their watch-fire make
And guard it till daybreak.

garden overlooking river at night with lanterns lighting up the area

Short as the joints of bamboo reeds
That grow beside the sea
On pebble beach at Naniwa,
I hope the time may be,
When thou art away from me.

How can I tell her
How fierce my love for her is?
Will she understand
That the love I feel for her
Burns like Ibuki's fire plant?

If your name is true,
Trailing vine of "Meeting Hill,"
Isn't there some way,
Hidden from people's gaze,
You can draw her to my side?

Over the reeds
Twilight mists rise and settle
Wild ducks cry out
As the evening turns cold
Lover, how I long for you.

Thinking about him
only to have him
Appear before me--
Had I known it was a dream
I should never have wakened.

Flowers in bloom
soaring birds fly high above
walking hand in hand,
One branch fallen on our path
together now, we look up.

My love,
Had I but known his coming,
Among the wild weeds
Of my garden
I would have scattered jewels.

The leaves of bamboo grass
All o'er the mount with silken
Rustles sound, yet
I dream of my darling,
For I am parted from her.

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