GABRIEL ROSENSTOCK

— 5-line poems of love, desire and emptiness —

Ekphrastic tanka by Gabriel Rosenstock in Irish & English to artwork by Frederic Bazille. Japanese version by Mariko Sumikura.

«Ekphrasis is the art of describing works of art, the verbal representation of visual representation. The word “ekphrasis” comes from the Greek ek and phrasis, ‘out’ and ‘speak’ respectively, verb ekphrazein, to proclaim or call an inanimate object by name. One of the earliest known examples in western literature is the description of Achilles’ shield in Homer’s Iliad. Thus it is fair to say that ekphrasis has been with us for nearly three thousand years. Many poets, such as Chaucer, Shakespeare, Wordworth, Keats, Auden, Carlos Williams and Ashbery, have used it in their poetry.» (From Atlas Poetica, A Journal of World Tanka)