The reason for this arises mainly from the difference in the Japanese and English languages. In general, the English language contains words of greatly varying syllabic length, much more than Japanese does. Moreover, it is often possible to express nearly the same thought or sentiment in English with fewer words than in Japanese, or vice versa.
Perhaps most importantly, English words require pronounciation with a definite stress on a particular syllable, whereas Japanese words do not. Thus in Japanese, it is perfectly acceptable, and even considered aesthetically preferable at times, to pronounce sentences in a strict monotone that would be considered robotic to the English ear. As a consequence, forcing English-language tanka into strict syllabic structures can often feel too constrictive to the creativity of the poetry.
Generally, tanka in English are often best expressed with fewer than thirty-one syllables. You may find that while attempting to compose tanka with the traditional number of syllables in the Japanese form, you will "use up the feeling" in far fewer than thirty-one, and you may be forced to overload the poem with images or stretch the sentiment beyond the "moment in time" that is the most important element of a tanka, no matter what the language in which it is composed.
That is not to say, of course, that some tanka may require exactly thirty-one syllables, or even a few more than that. As you experiment with the form, you may find this to be so. In any case, American Tanka welcomes your submission no matter what the syllabic length, so long as it is of five lines and conforms to the other requirements of our submissions guidelines.
