Chōka with Envoy, #1

Reading Time: 5 mins and under

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Safe from the east wind, 
this spring day feels like summer; 
the light is clear and 
bright. I imagine past years: 
dandelions push 
through the paving stones, only 
to wilt under an 
ongoing haze. Now, how warm 
a change there's been - how tranquil!

Read on, and you will 
find a home, where once there were 
mourning doves released 
on the day of judgement - but 
how soon is the end?

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The above is my response to Tanka Tuesday‘s poetry challenge: 24 Seasons. Using the twenty-four seasons of Japanese poetry – including kigo – we’re free to write a syllabic poem of our choice.

Challenge #30 is to engage with Seimei: Clear and Bright (4th – 18th April) in a different way. We’re invited to compose a ekphrastic poem of our choice, using as many kigo words or phrases as possible. The ekphrastic image for the Northern hemisphere is by Kaoru Yamada; view it by following the link at the start of this paragraph.

I chose the chōka form, using the following kigo words and phrases (some from Colleen*, some from William J. Higginson**):

• east wind (all spring);
• spring day (all spring);
• clear and bright (the season);
• dandelions (‘In the Ground & Water’);
• haze (‘In the Sky’);
• warm (all spring);
• tranquil (all spring);
• mourning doves (‘In the Sky’).

Since east wind turned out to be a kigo phrase, I’ve added a second piece of art to my ekphrastic chōka: Bleak House, by Charles Dickens. I watched the 2005 TV series at a point in the COVID lockdowns when I was struggling with my wisdom teeth and sensitive ears, and beginning to want to live/be somewhere else… much like the beautiful escape in Kaoru Yamada’s artwork.

The TV version’s quite frankly insane plot twists pulled me through. Now, I’m reading the original novel. For those who don’t know the story, ‘Bleak House’ is the name of a manor house that became dilapidated due to the destructive bureaucracy of the metaphorical ‘bleak house’: the legal courts of Chancery.

By the time the novel begins, however, the eponymous manor house has been restored to be much more of a home – even if it sometimes feels a little… off, since its occupants and visitors are all a bit messed up in some way:

• John Jarndyce blames the east wind whenever he experiences something negative.
• Esther has low self-esteem so turns all her appreciation on others – in this case, the good home he’s built after the previous head Jarndyce died. The law moves in a slow haze.
• Miss Flite keeps a cage of birds, only to be released on the [D/d]ay of [J/j]udgement. I’ve used square brackets there because it’s unclear whether she means the final day of the case, or the final day of Earth, or both.

Yes, it’s a lot – and I haven’t even mentioned the murder. It’s also a long, long novel. Somehow, Dickens (and Andrew Davies, who adapted it for TV) still makes it fun.

Rules of Chōka***

• The storytelling form of poetry for over a thousand years in early-medieval Japan.
• Unrhymed and (possibly) untitled.
• A combination of 5- and 7-syllable lines, followed by a shorter poem (often a tanka) called an envoy.
• Syllable structure: either 5-7-5-7-5-7-5-7-7 or 5-7-7-5-7-5-7-7-7; I’ve used the former here.

Find a list of responses here soon, at the beginning of Challenge #31 🙂

Bibliography

*Colleen M. Chesebro, ’24 Seasons Syllabic Poetry Challenge, No. 28, 4/2/24, Part I, Clear and Bright (April 4 – 18) Seimei 清明24′, Tanka Tuesday < https://tankatuesday.com/2024/04/02/24-seasons-syllabic-poetry-challenge-no-28-4-2-24-part-i-clear-and-bright-april-4-18-seimei-%e6%b8%85%e6%98%8e24/ > [last accessed: 23/4/2024].

**William J. Higginson, ‘The Five Hundred Essential Japanese Season Words’, Renku Home < http://www.2hweb.net/haikai/renku/500ESWd.html#SPRING > [last accessed: 23/4/2024].

***Colleen M. Chesebro, ’24 Forms’, Tanka Tuesday < https://tankatuesday.com/24-forms/ > [last accessed: 23/4/2024].

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Image by Tanka Tuesday