The 8th Hoshi-to-Mori International Tanka Contest - 2006 Comments on the Selection, English Field Theme ： " Sound " This year, it was a great pleasure for me to read the large number of entries for the admirable Hoshi-to-Mori Tanka Contest. However, despite the word tanka in that title, and Mr. Kazuo Ito's careful instructions about the nature and the rules of the competition, I was surprised to find that many of the entrants, both Japanese and non-Japanese, apparently did not know the correct form of the tanka - a verse of five lines of 5-7-5-7-7 syllables - 31 in all. Instead, many people wrote "free verse" or haiku or some other form of the poetic art. So such careless entrants were at once disqualified. Unfortunately, this left a very small number of entries aspiring to be genuine tanka. From among them, I had difficulty in choosing half a dozen as finalists. Not one was worthy of the Supreme Grand First Prize. So I chose the "next best" three. The theme for this year's competition was SOUNDS - a very wide-ranging and attractive subject, and a very good one for a poetic contest, for poetry is itself composed of sounds. Wordsworth in a famous sonnet wrote about "the sound of rain, and bees murmuring..." Poets love playing with the sounds of words and names, and often try to imitate bird song or the liquid music of running water. Many of our competitors also tried to perform this difficult task, but failed either because of incorrect form or errors of English vocabulary. ＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊＊ So choosing the "best three" was a long and difficult task. There were two or three interesting entries about absence of sound. But in the end I chose three that tried to interpret the nature and meaning of sounds. 1） in the lukewarm pool slowly swimming a crawl stroke nostalgic and mild come the sounds I used to hear in mother's womb long ago （This is a good tanka with a universal theme. Man himself was born, like the Greek goddess Aphrodite, whose name means the foam of the sea, from the ocean deeps. The author of this fine tanka makes us remember that legend when she describes how, doing a lazy crawl in the swimming-pool, she was suddenly aware of the water sounds of her own birth - ordinary noises we all hear when swimming. But they suddenly remind her of her passage through her mother's womb - an extraordinary vision of birth, amid sounds "nostalgic and mild." It is a beautiful idea, well expressed in simple language. And the "sounds" the poet remembers so clearly are those primitive sounds we all first hear in our mother's womb, but forgotten. We are grateful to this tanka, and to its poet, for reminding us of the universal nature of that primal human experience. It is full of deep feminine insight. I wonder if a male tanka poet could ever have written on such a theme.） 2） I have listened to the sound of one hand clapping. It's nothing special. But the sound of two or more sings of how the world was born. （This is a beautiful philosophical idea, well expressed in simple language. I liked its honesty - especially the surprising third line. The final line speaks to us of eternal nature and of the need for human communication with all aspects of the world around us. The language is simple, and in these war-torn times we hear a plea for peace and international understanding, as when "the world was born."） 3） tonight spring fishing he cuts the outboard motor - now only the sound of water lapping the boat and the splash of a catfish （This is a good example of well-made tanka form, and the use of strong images depicting both sound and silence. The words are carefully chosen for their rhythmic and musical qualities, and the whole poem has a human, natural poetic feeling.） 23 July 2006 James Kirkup Signature Go to the award of the 8th contest Go to the top Copyright(C)2001 Hoshi-to-Mori, All Rights Reserved.