tanka

American  

[tahng-kuh] / ˈtɑŋ kə /

noun

Prosody.

plural

tankas, tanka

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.

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tanka British  

/ ˈtɑːŋkə /

noun

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

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Etymology

Origin of tanka

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

Example Sentences

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

From New York Times • Nov. 9, 2018

It’s time again for our own variation on the ancient Japanese poetic form called tanka, which is pretty much like haiku with two more lines tacked on, for a total of five still-little lines.

From Washington Post • Jun. 8, 2017

For centuries, the only accepted way to write poetry in Japanese was waka, that is, within the established traditions of tanka and haiku.

From The New Yorker • Aug. 18, 2015

The Lakota called the animal igmu tanka, “the great cat.” Puma concolor is its official taxonomic designation, but it has gone by many other names through the centuries: cougar, catamount, puma, wildcat, panther, shadow cat, painter.

From Salon • Mar. 9, 2014

Sooner or later this crystallized into what is called a tanka or short ode.

From Japanese Prints by Lathrop, Dorothy Pulis