Individual Presentation or Panel Title
Autumn Night: Dreaming in Tanka
Abstract
A close reading of select Ono no Komachi’s poetry from The Ink Dark Moon: Love Poems, translated by Jane Hirshfield with Mariko Aratani. Ono, a Japanese female poet of the Heian period, uses tanka, a short poetic form consisting of only five lines, to create direct and deceptively simple poems. On a superficial reading, these appear to be only short love letters with little depth and significance; however, a careful study of Ono and Hirshfield’s craft exposes the function of the enjambments (when a sentence ends and a new one begins in the same line), line breaks, alliteration, and kigo—autumn represented by the moon. These poetic devices work to question the concept of reality, comparing, but mostly blurring, waking life to dreamscape. I hope to present a fascinating study on poetic text that performs its content by unpacking Ono’s small poems and illuminating the subtle framework of these women writers’ craft.
Location
Goodwin Private Dining Room
Start Date
21-4-2012 1:30 PM
End Date
21-4-2012 2:20 PM
Autumn Night: Dreaming in Tanka
Goodwin Private Dining Room
A close reading of select Ono no Komachi’s poetry from The Ink Dark Moon: Love Poems, translated by Jane Hirshfield with Mariko Aratani. Ono, a Japanese female poet of the Heian period, uses tanka, a short poetic form consisting of only five lines, to create direct and deceptively simple poems. On a superficial reading, these appear to be only short love letters with little depth and significance; however, a careful study of Ono and Hirshfield’s craft exposes the function of the enjambments (when a sentence ends and a new one begins in the same line), line breaks, alliteration, and kigo—autumn represented by the moon. These poetic devices work to question the concept of reality, comparing, but mostly blurring, waking life to dreamscape. I hope to present a fascinating study on poetic text that performs its content by unpacking Ono’s small poems and illuminating the subtle framework of these women writers’ craft.