Columns by Draig aine, by newest first

• 
  Tanka, haiku, Senyru practice by Draig aine
  a place for member of Lovers of Oriental art and Haiku, Tanka and Senyru groups can post and develop their writing we can help each other grow by writing and commenting or writing off each others posts, to late tonight for more,feel free to start adding posts and learning from each other
  
  this is a link to Myron's Essay on Haiku, well worth the read
  
  http://www.writinghood.com/Style/How-To/The-Truth-About-Haiku.83389
  
  this is a link to my favorite Tanka poet Ki No Tsurayuki
  often when I want to study the poetic form I read one of his poems then write a response to him like a love letter, there are many other Eastern poets on Old Poetry
  I strongly suggest taking the time to read and learn from the master
  
  http://oldpoetry.com/oauthor/show/Ki_no_Tsurayuki
  
  this is another link to 100 gems a collection of Tanka the best way to learn is to read the masters and learn from the sublime words
  
  http://www.sacred-texts.com/shi/hvj/index.htm
  
  21 Classical Tanka
  
  The 21 tanka here have been selected from three of 21 Japanese Imperial Anthologies: the 1st compiled in 905, the 8th in 1205 and the 9th in 1235. They were all written before Archbishop Walter de Grey started the massive rebuilding scheme around the year 1220 that ultimately led to the present York Minster.
  
  One of the female poets here, Ono no Komachi (ca. 850), flourished just before York was occupied by the Vikings. Monk Saigyo and Fujiwara no Shunzei were in their teens when Fountains Abbey was founded in 1132. The youngest among the poets here, Shunzei’s Daughter, might have seen the first Oxford college founded in 1249 if she had been in this part of the world.
  
  1
  Ono no Komachi
  a female poet, ca. 850
  
  Was it because I went to sleep
  Thinking always of him
  That I caught a glimpse of him?
  Had I known it a dream
  I would not have awoken.
  
  2
  
  Ono no Komachi
  a female poet, ca. 850
  
  When I cannot meet him
  On a moonless night
  Passion rises within me;
  A flame running through my breast
  Sets my heart on fire.
  3
  Ono no Komachi
  a female poet, ca. 850
  
  The colour of the cherry blossom
  Has faded in vain
  In the long rain
  While in idle thoughts
  I have spent my life.
  
  4
  Fujiwara no Teika
  1162 – 1241
  
  Waiting for one who does not come,
  Like the seaweed burnt for salt
  In the evening calm
  At Matsuho Bay
  My body is smouldering
  
  5
  
  Fujiwara no Teika
  1162 – 1241
  
  The path at the foot of the mountain
  Through which the one I wait for wends his way
  Must by now be blocked.
  For, on the cedar by the eaves
  The snow is heavy.
  
  6
  Fujiwara no Teika
  1162 – 1241
  
  The black hair through which
  I used to run my hand for her;
  Now strand by strand
  it rises before my mind
  When I lie down alone.
  
  7
  Fujiwara no Teika
  1162 – 1241
  
  As the floating bridge
  Of my spring night dream
  Breaks
  A bank of clouds parts from the peak
  In the dawn sky.
  
  8
  Fujiwara no Shunzei
  1114 – 1204
  
  In unbearable longing
  I look at the sky
  Over your dwelling.
  The spring rain falls,
  Sifted through the haze.
  
  9
  Fujiwara no Shunzei
  1114 – 1204
  
  To one who rarely comes here
  The wind through the pines
  Sounds sad at night time.
  Does she hear it always
  Beneath the moss?
  
  10
  Princess Shikishi
  1149 – 1201
  
  Deep in the mountains
  The pine branch door
  Does not feel the coming of spring:
  Only the slow dropping of gems
  From the melting snow.
  
  11
  Fujiwara no Teika
  1162 – 1241
  
  On their way home,
  On the wings of wild geese
  That have drooped
  In the turbulent frosty skies,
  The spring rain falls.
  
  12
  Monk Jakuren
  1139? – 1202
  
  As spring passes
  I do not know
  Where its harbour will be:
  A brushwood barge on the River Uji
  Falling into the haze.
  
  13
  Fujiwara no Yoshitsune
  1169 – 1206
  
  The oak forest:
  Have the dewdrops from the leaves, too,
  Changed their colours?
  In the grasses beneath the trees
  Autumn has deepened.
  
  14
  Monk Jakuren
  1139? – 1202
  
  The rough winds of autumn
  Have laid low the grasses
  Where the stag had his bed.
  From deep in the mountain
  Comes his cry.
  
  15
  Monk Saigyo
  1118 – 1190
  
  Cricket,
  Are you getting weak
  As the autumn nights grow cold?
  Your cry sounds faint
  And becomes more distant.
  
  16
  Fujiwara no Teika
  1162 – 1241
  
  The autumn wind blows
  The traveler’s sleeves inside-out.
  The lonely evening sun shines
  On a wooden bridge
  Clinging to the mountainside.
  
  17
  Monk Jakuren
  1139? – 1202
  
  The drops from sudden showers
  On the leaves of cedar
  Are not yet dry
  As mists rise through them;
  An autumn evening.
  
  18
  Shunzei’s Daughter
  171? – 1254
  
  I cannot expect a visitor now.
  Autumn has come
  Bringing blustering storms,
  The grassy path to the house
  Buried under dead leaves.
  
  19
  Fujiwara no Teika
  1162 – 1241
  
  There is not even shelter
  To rein in my horse
  To shake the snow off my sleeves.
  Around the Sano Crossing
  On this snowy evening.
  
  20
  Princess Shikishi
  1149 – 1201
  
  Broken by the sound of the wind
  That plays on the bamboo leaves
  Near the window
  A dream even shorter
  Than my fleeting sleep.
  
  21
  Monk Saigyo
  1118 – 1190
  
  Sending my soul away
  To where the moon has sunk
  Behind the mountain,
  What shall I do with my body
  Left in the darkness?
  
  The 21 poems have been selected and newly translated into English by
  
  Dr Hisashi Nakamura, York St John College.
  
  
• 
  Universal Spirituality , oh how we have grown by Draig aine
  this is a column dedicated to poems of growth and understanding, I hope you enjoy

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