10 Best Famous Tanka Poems

Here is a collection of the top 10 all-time best famous Tanka poems. This is a select list of the best famous Tanka poetry. Reading, writing, and enjoying famous Tanka poetry (as well as classical and contemporary poems) is a great past time. These top poems are the best examples of tanka poems.

• All Famous Tanka Poems

The flowers and my love,
Passed away under the rain,
While I idly looked upon them:
Where is my yester-love?

Coarse the rush-mat roof
Sheltering the harvest-hut
Of the autumn rice-field;--
And my sleeves are growing wet
With the moisture dripping through.

When to Tago's coast
I the way have gone, and see
Perfect whiteness laid
On Mount Fuji's lofty peak
By the drift of falling snow.

Color of the flower
Has already passed away
While on trivial things
Vainly I have set my gaze,
In my journey through the world.

Lowly hut is mine
South-east from the capital:--
Thus I choose to dwell;--
And the world in which I live
Men have named a "Mount of Gloom."

If the "Magpie Bridge"--
Bridge by flight of magpies spanned,--
White with frost I see:--
With a deep-laid frost made white:--
Late, I know, has grown the night.

In the mountain depths,
Treading through the crimson leaves,
Cries the wandering stag.
When I hear the lonely cry,
Sad,--how sad--the autumn is!

Spring, it seems, has passed,
And the summer come again;
For the silk-white robes,
So 'tis said, are spread to dry
On the "Mount of Heaven's Perfume."

When I look abroad
O'er the wide-stretched "Plain of Heaven,"
Is the moon the same
That on Mount Mikasa rose,
In the land of Kasuga?

It is for thy sake
That I seek the fields in spring,
Gathering green herbs,
While my garment's hanging sleeves
Are with falling snow beflecked.