YaDu

S.E.Asia. (Burma)

Ya Du

The yadu is a Burmese climbing-rhyme verse. Each of the stanzas —up to three in all— has 5 lines. The first four lines have 4 syllables each, and the last one can have 5, 7, 9, or 11 syllables. The last two lines rhyme in the usual way. The climbing rhymes occur in syllables four, three, and two of both the first three lines and the last three lines of a stanza. There should be a reference to the seasons since the word yadu means "the seasons.

As the Than Bauk is to the Haiku, then the Ya Du is to the Tanka 

and consists of four syllable lines and a fifth one that can 

comprise of 5, 7, 9,or 11 syllables. 

The staircase rule applies to the four lines, 

and the last syllable of the fourth and fifth 

line must rhyme, giving a pattern of:

O. O. O. a.

O. O. a. O

O. a. O. b

O. O. b. c.

O. O. O. O. O. O. O. O. c.

Example Poem

Blue sky’s curved moon

appeared at noon, as

gray loon’s song note

surged afloat clouds --

bird’s songs circled dreams, quietly abound.

We watched it stay

on its way, silk

breaths swayed tree leaves;

freshly weaved thoughts

seized summer notions the afternoon moon brought.

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