University of California Berkeley 
 
' 
 
SADAKICHI HARTMANN 
 TANKA AND HAIKAI 
 
 Japanese Rhythms 
 
 AUTHOR'S EDITION 
 SAN FRANCISCO, 1916 
 
ME r T uaRAfn 
 
 Published previously in 
 The Reader, The Stylus, 
 and Bruno's Chap Books. 
 
 Edition limited to 200 
 copies. 
 
 Copyrighted, 1916, 
 By Sadakichi Hartmann 
 
TANKA I. 
 
 WINTER ? Spring ? Who knows ? 
 White buds from the plumtrees wing 
 And mingle with the snows. 
 No blue skies these flowers bring, 
 Yet their fragrance augurs Spring. 
 
 The Tanka (short poem) is the most popular and char- 
 acteristic of the various forms of Japanese poetry. It con- 
 sists of five lines of 5, 7, 5, 7, and 7 syllables 3 1 syllables 
 in all. The addition of the rhyme is original with the 
 author. 
 
TANKA II. 
 
 , were the white waves, 
 Far on the glimmering sea 
 That the moonshine laves, 
 Dream flowers drifting to me, 
 I would cull them, love, for thee. 
 
TANKA HI. 
 
 MOON, somnolent, white, 
 Mirrored in a waveless sea, 
 What fickle mood of night 
 Urged thee from heaven to flee 
 And live in the dawnlit sea? 
 
TANKA IV. 
 
 LIKE mist on the lees, 
 Fall gently, oh rain of Spring 
 On the orange trees 
 That to Ume's casement cling 
 Perchance, she'll hear the love-bird sing. 
 
TANKA V. 
 
 THOUGH love has grown cold 
 The woods are bright with flowers, 
 Why not as of old 
 Go to the wildwood bowers 
 And dream of bygone hours! 
 
TANKA VI. 
 
 r *T*ELL, what name beseems 
 * These vain and wandering days! 
 Like the bark of dreams 
 That from souls at daybreak strays 
 They are lost on trackless ways. 
 
TANKA VII. 
 
 OH. climb to my lips, 
 Frail muse of the amber wine! 
 Joy to him who sips 
 Cups of fragrant sake wine 
 Flowing from some fount divine. 
 
TANKA VIII. 
 
 IF pleasures be mine 
 As aeons and aeons roll by, 
 Why should I repine 
 That under some future sky 
 I may live as butterfly ? 
 
TANKA IX. 
 
 WERE we able to tell 
 When old age would come our way, 
 We would muffle the bell, 
 Lock the door and go away 
 Let him call some other day. 
 
HAIKAI I. 
 
 WHITE petals afloat 
 On a winding woodland str 
 What else is life's dream! 
 
 The Haikai is a Tanka minus the concluding fourteen 
 syllables. It was favored in the sixteenth century. Fre- 
 quently it is purely poetical and the association of thought 
 produced too vague to be conveyed in English with such 
 exaggerated brevity. 
 
HAIKAIIII. 
 
 A T new moon we met! 
 ** Two weeks I've waited in vain. 
 To-night! Don't forget 
 
HAIKAI IV. 
 
 , red maple leaves, 
 There seem more of you these eves 
 Than ever grew on trees. 
 
12 8197 
 
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