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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