MOST PEOPLE have heard of the Japanese form of poetry known as haiku, but tanka is a much older form, and Galway will get to experience it on Saturday.
From 3pm in the Wa Café on the second floor of the Galway City Museum, Japanese tanka poetry and Irish poetry will be read. Tanka are traditional poems consisting of 31 syllables with 5-7-5/7-7 mora pattern.
Japanese poet Hisa Kagawa will read her tanka from the recent volume Perspective, which received Bokusui Wakayama Award 2008. Galway poet Moya Cannon will read from her collections Carrying The Songs, Oar, and The Parchment Boat. She is a member of Aosdána.
The Church of Ireland’s Rev Patrick Towers, who lived in Japan for many years, will be the host for the event and translate Hisa’s tanka into English.
Refreshments will be served by Wa Café girls dressed in kimonos. Admission is free.
