Dec 4, 2008 09:16
15 yrs ago
English term
to write a poem
Non-PRO
English to Japanese
Art/Literary
Poetry & Literature
Poetry
Hi,
I seem to remember that the expression wasn’t as straightforward as “to write” plus “poetry” – I think quite a different phrase was used of the Emperor’s writing a poem, in particular.
Best wishes,
Simon
PS In case it's of interest, what sparked this question off was my learning that in Persian you can't say "I write poems"; you have to say "I say poems".
I seem to remember that the expression wasn’t as straightforward as “to write” plus “poetry” – I think quite a different phrase was used of the Emperor’s writing a poem, in particular.
Best wishes,
Simon
PS In case it's of interest, what sparked this question off was my learning that in Persian you can't say "I write poems"; you have to say "I say poems".
Proposed translations
+4
2 hrs
Selected
詩を作る／歌を詠む
We do say "shi wo kaku," literally write a poem, but also say "shi wo tsukuru" or literally make a poem. As for emperor's case as you mentioned, we could also say "uta wo yomu." Emperor is not a decisive factor, however. When we refer to poem in general, we say "shi（詩）," and the corresponding verb is "kaku（書く）" or "tsukuru（作る）." There is also a traditional type of poem called waka（和歌） or Japanese (traditional) verse, also known as tanka（短歌） or literally short verse. Waka/Tanka consists of 31 syllables. For such type of poem, we usually say "yomu（詠む）" In a broader sense, this is basically the same as hon wo yomu （本を読む） or read books. But we use different kanji 詠む for composing waka/tanka.
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "many thanks excellent"
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