A Favorite Tanka

At the wedding
The guests argue about love
Versus lust
I look at you in your hat,
Feel both.

~ Miriam Sagan

This tanka from the journal American Tanka (#8, Spring, 2000) instantly charms me with its immediacy and freshness. The theme of love versus lust is universal, as ancient as Adam and Eve, but here given a quirky, individual new treatment. I share the poet's sentiments and admire the adept, pithy manner in which she has expressed them. Sagan sets the scene aptly. What more appropriate forum than "At the wedding" could there be for this debate? Then the word "hat" comes as a surprise in the fourth line because of its contextual originality (this article of clothing is not commonly associated with loving or erotic thoughts). "Your hat" personalizes the universal. The fourth line is also personal--"I look at you in your hat" -- yet is is followed by "Feel both," which succinctly states an eternal axiom in response to this debate. Like the best tanka, according to modern Japanese theory, this one both expresses a universal truth and crystallizes a personal experience.

~ Amelia Fielden (Australia)

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