Renga

renga

Japanese linked-verse poetry in which two or more poets supply alternating sections of a poem. The form began with the composition of a traditional five-line poem (tanka) by two people. A popular pastime from ancient times, even in remote rural areas, it developed fully in the 15th century. Composition spread to court poets, who drew up “codes” to establish renga as an art. An example of renga is the melancholy Minase sangin hyakuin (1488), composed by Iio Sogi, Shohaku, and Socho. Later the initial verse (hokku) of a renga developed into the haiku form.

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Renga 

(linked verse), a genre of Japanese poetry popular in the 15th and 16th centuries. Several poets, generally three, collaborated on a single renga. Each in turn composed a stanza based on images in the preceding stanza. The result was a chain of stanzas in the form of a tanka, but longer, reaching 100 and sometimes 1,000 stanzas. The classical renga was usually a nature lyric. Its composition, like that of the tanka, was governed by strict rules. A humorous renga, the haikai renga, developed alongside the classical renga and was free in choice of themes and images. The three-line hokku, or haiku, originated from the first stanza of the humorous renga.

REFERENCES

Basho. Lirika. Moscow, 1964.
Grigor’eva, T., and V. Logunova. Iaponskaia literatura. Moscow, 1964.
Literatura Vostoka v srednie veka, vol. 1. Moscow, 1970.
Konrad, N. I. Ocherki iaponskoi literatury. Moscow, 1973.
Konrad, N.I. Iaponskaia literatura. Moscow, 1974.