Contemprary Tanka Poet Mariko Kitakubo. Article details.
Room C 370, Fort Mason, San Francisco CA, April 13, 2008
Minutes of the Spring Meeting of the Haiku Poets of Northern California, Room C 370, Fort Mason, San Francisco CA, April 13, 2008
The meeting was opened by president, Garry Gay, at 1:30 p.m.
*snip*
After a break for refreshments, Paul O. Williams gave an overview of the history of tanka, beginning with the 7th century introduction of waka to Japan from China. Tanka Flourished as a form of love poetry exchanged among the aristocratic class in the Heian Era and remains a popular practice in modern Japan. Paul noted that while some Americans and other English speaking people began writing haiku about 50 years ago, most of us were not aware of tanka until recently. He credited The Ink Dark Moon (translated by Jane Hirshfield with Mariko Aratani, Vintage Books, 1986) with introducing many Americans to the tanka form. Paul commented that tanka is more similar to western poetry than haiku."Tanka invites you to be more open, to say something and then say how you feel about it," he said. Paul then introduced our guest Mariko Kitakubo, a prominent Japanese tanka poet and the author of four tanka collections. Her most recent book, On This Same Star, translated by Amelia Fielden, is her first collection of tanka available in English. Paul said of her new book On This Same Star, "it is hard to exaggerate how good it is."
Mariko, beautifully attired in kimono with a hand-embroidered obi,read a selection of tanka in Japanese, with dramatic pauses and changes in the emotional tone of her voice which greatly enhanced the effect of the poems even for those of us with limited or no knowledge of the Japanese language. Linda Galloway read each poem in English. A sample of the poems read:
an accident
of birth -
on this same star
trees, wild beasts
fish, people
bearing clouds aloft
the wind blew past
into autumn -
no-one gives me
a backward glance
‘keep a dog
keep a parrot,’
they say-
I will keep a young man
a scrawny young man
More information as well as additional poems are available on
Mariko’s website:
https://tanka.kitakubo.com/english/ as well as on the tankaonline
web site:
https://www.tankaonline.com/
Mariko's book On This Same Star can be purchased through the Pacific Asia Museum store in Pasadena. To order, please contact the store at 626-449-2742, extension 6 or contact the store manager, Tai Ling Wong via email at tailinwong@yahoo.com. The price is $15 plus shipping.
After a brief time for socializing and book singing, the meeting adjourned at around 4:45.
Submitted by Susan Antolin, Newsletter Editor
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