A style of Japanese poetry.
It is a poetry style without rhyme and only a fixed rhythm of sounds and numbers.
It flourished in the Nara period, and the "Man'yoshu" is the most famous. Originally, there were long songs and short songs. The short songs were attached to the long songs, and the style was relatively simple.
Later, short songs developed independently and replaced long songs. The style gradually became more delicate. There is no limit to the number of sentences in each long song, 5-syllable sentences and 7-syllable sentences are used alternately, and then the 7-syllable sentence ends.
Each tanka is stipulated to be 5 sentences, with 31 tones, arranged in the syllables of 5·7·5·7·7. Most of the waka written by Japanese poets are tanka.
For example, the long song has the alternating syllables of "五七五七". The fragments of "Ancient and Modern Japanese Song Collection" have been repeated many times, and finally end with the syllable of "五七七": the short song has the syllable "五七五、七七" *** is composed of 31 syllables, while the sento song is composed of 38 syllables "五七七,五七七". Among them, tanka is the main song style of waka. Due to the limitations of the form, special attention is paid to the wording and conciseness, conciseness and implicitness. , elegance and elegance are its main characteristics.