The great haijin (haiku master) Bashō once advised his followers and disciples not to follow him, but to emulate the masters of old who had inspired Bashō, such as the medieval grandmaster of tanka, Saigyō.
Gabriel Rosenstock, poet and haikuist, decided to apprentice himself to the wandering spirit of Saigyō by transcreating his tanka in Irish and English. He has followed the classic configuration of 31 syllables in the 5-7-5-7-7 pattern.
In this way, Rosenstock hoped to master the meditative, compressed form of tanka verse, the oldest poetic genre still being cultivated widely today, and become a 21st century tankaist.
Gabriel Rosenstock is a bilingual poet, tankaist, haikuist, novelist, playwright, short story writer, essayist, children's author and translator.
Just Fiction! Edition
Saigyō
A life of poetry and meditation
Gabriel Rosenstock