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Tanka

2 stages from Japanese to English.

Today it means a classical Japanese poetic form of thirty-one syllables in five lines

Where does the word "tanka" come from? It comes from Japanese tanka, adopted directly into English (early 1900s).

1
Stage 1 of 2
tanka
Japanese · ancient
"a short, five-line classical poem"
literally 'short poem', a classical 31-syllable verse form predating haiku
2
Stage 2 of 2
tanka
English · early 1900s
"a traditional Japanese five-line, 31-syllable poem"
borrowed by Western poets and scholars studying Japanese literature
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