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.
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.
Visual Template
