All Comments on 'How to Write a Tanka'

Really enjoyed reading this. I had never heard of this form. The selections you quoted are indeed very sensual (sensuous? I'm never sure which I mean)

Unlike your piece on How to Rhyme, this one is properly titled as "a how to" because it does teach how to write a tanka; your "rhyme" piece just explains rhymes and is not a how to.

One thing I don't understand: a syllable is a syllable in any language: that is to say it's a complete sound made with no pauses: so a syllable in japanese has to be the same thing: one complete sound.

So the only way an onji can be more than one sound is if it is composed of more than one syllable.

If this is true, than it's inaccurate to say a haiku or tanka are 5-7-5's etcetera; because the 5-7-5's are english syllables.

In English syllabics:

I'm'a no say this

To make'a you say something.

I'm'a only say:

You no can be right like that

When you can be wrong like that.

In Japanese onjistics rendered in Spanish:

No se lo que se sabe asi

Si asi se sabe na'.

Nada aqui se sabe asi

Si alla se sabe ma'