Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini. It is based on the short story by John Luther Long, Madame Butterfly: A Tragedy of Japan, 1900
Synopsis
In 1904, a U.S. naval officer named Pinkerton rented a house in Japan, for himself and his soon-to-be wife, "Butterfly". She was a 15-year-old Japanese girl whom he married for convenience, and he intended to leave her once he found a proper American wife. Pinkerton left Butterfly right after the wedding. Three years later, Butterfly was still waiting for Pinkerton to return. When he did return to Japan, he planned to break up with her. He was not aware that Butterfly had his son right after Pinkerton left her. While he was gone, he married an American woman named Kate. When Pinkerton and Kate found out about his son, they decided to take him from Butterfly and raise him in America. But, as Pinkerton sees how Butterfly has decorated the house for his return, he realizes he has made a huge mistake. He admits that he is a coward and cannot face her, leaving Kate to break the news to Butterfly. Agreeing to give up her child if Pinkerton comes himself to see her, she then prays to statues of her ancestral gods, says goodbye to her son, and blindfolds him. She places a small American flag in his hands and goes behind a screen, killing herself with her father's knife. Pinkerton rushes in, but he is too late, and Butterfly dies. wikipedia

Tanka is a Japanese unrhymed poem with about 12 to 31 syllables, usually arranged in five lines and read in about two breaths in length. The first poets who wrote tanka imitated the Japanese models of a 5-7-5-7-7 syllabic structure in five lines. This resulted in poems that were too long in comparison to Japanese tanka. The first tanka was padded or chopped to meet the fixed number of syllables. Additionally, the third line must transition from the descriptive and image-focused beginning lines into a reflective metaphor, simile, or personification for the closing lines. The subject matter varies, but most tanka are emotionally stirring or profound, and many are about love. click here if you want to read modern tanka examples === click here to read Tanka Society of America === click here if you want to read modern tanka rules
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Gypsy
"Learn all the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist." - Picasso

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