Tanka

“ TANGA, s. Mahr. ṭānk, Turki tanga. A denomination of coin which has been in use over a vast extent of territory, and has varied greatly in application. It is now chiefly used in Turkestan, where it is applied to a silver coin worth about 71⁄2d. And Mr. W. Erskine has stated that the word tanga or tanka is of Chagatai Turki origin, being derived from tang, which in that language means 'white' (H. of Baber and Humayun, i. 546) . Though one must hesitate in differing from one usually so accurate, we must do so here. ”

“ It consists almost invariably of five syllables, and therefore supplies him without any trouble with a first line ready made, no unimportant consideration when the entire poem consists of only thirty-one syllables. These epithets are several hundreds in number, and are collected into dictionaries which serve the purpose of a Gradus ad Parnassum. They are most useful in a country where the composition of Tanka has been for centuries little more than a mere mechanic art.
Another trick of the Japanese poet is what Mr. Chamberlain [3] has aptly termed "pivot-words." ”

“ There were four varieties of tankas then current in Tibet, two of Nepalese minting, two made at Lhasa, the best being that known as Gadan tanka, and made at the Castle of Gadan.— (W. R.) ↑
62 In 1879 Chandra Das crossed the Chorten nyima la, probably 20 to 30 miles south of the village of Tebong (called then by him Thekong) . He followed the Chorten nyima river from its source in the mountain of the same name to near its mouth at Tebong, where his route joined the one described in the present narrative.— (W. R.) ↑ ”

“ Nought I saw there but a Tankard, from the which that night I’d drank hard,—
Drank as drank our good forefathers in the merry days of yore,—
In the corner stood the Tankard, where it oft had stood before,—
Stood and muttered, “Pay your score!”
Much I marvelled at this pewter, surely ne’er in past or future
Has been, will be, such a wonder, such a Tankard learned in lore! ”

“ The next morning we had leisure to look round before the arrival of Malcolm with the Mongols. Tankar is a busy little town of some 10,000 inhabitants, and owes its importance, not to its being a market centre, but to the fact that it is the first and last Chinese town passed by caravans journeying to and from Lhassa and Mongolia. ”

“ It seemed to us that we were playing a game with the devil, with Tanya as the stake on our side. And when we had learned from the bulochniks that the soldier began to court "our Tanya," we felt so dreadfully good and were so absorbed in our curiosity that we did not even notice that the proprietor, availing himself of our excitement, added to our work fourteen poods (a pood is a weight of forty Russian pounds) of dough a day. We did not even get tired of working. Tanya's name did not leave our lips all day long. ”

“ We felt that the soldier was touched to the quick and that a danger was threatening Tanya. We felt this, and at the same time we were seized with a burning, pleasant curiosity—what will happen? Will she resist the soldier? And almost all of us cried out with confidence: "Tanya? She will resist! You cannot take her with bare hands!"
We were very desirous of testing the strength of our godling; we persistently proved to one another that our godling was a strong godling, and that Tanya would come out the victor in this combat. ”

“ More than once in the course of the chequered career of the Tanks it was this consideration which saved the Corps from extinction.
But it is not, of course, enough that the Tank offers protection to those who fight in it. A trench or a hole in the ground will do the same. But the Tank is essentially a mobile weapon of offence. It is the weapon for the nation which does not fight willingly, but when it fights, fights to win, and to win quickly with as little bloodshed as possible. ”

“ At the back of the photograph was some Japanese writing.
"Is Tanaka there?" Asako asked her maid Titine.
Yes, of course, Tanaka was there, in the next room with his ear near the door.
"Tanaka, what does this mean?"
"Japanese poem," he said, "meaning very difficult: very many meanings: I think perhaps it means, having travelled all over the world, he feels very sad."
"Yes, but word for word, Tanaka, what does it mean?"
"This writing means, World is really not the same it says: all the world very many tell lies." ”

“ The sum of her discourse was that they and their women would do well to come down with her to the schooner, recruit at once, and fly to a land of safety where men-of-war never came, where Tanna people reclined all day under the shade of banyan and banana, picked a little cane for their employers occasionally, lived upon tinned meat and sugared tea, and eventually returned loaded with riches in the shape of rifles, cartridges, cotton, and knives. ”

“ Prospective tank-drivers tramped up early every morning to the Tank Park or "Tankodrome"​—​a couple of large fields in which workshops had been erected, some trenches dug, and a few shell-craters blown. The Tankodrome was naturally a sea of mud. Perhaps the mud was of a curious kind​—​perhaps the mixture of petrol and oil with the mud was poisonous. Most officers and men working in the Tankodrome suffered periodically from painful and ugly sores, which often spread over the body from the face. We were never free from them while we were at Blangy. ”

“ But about Tanya we never let fall an evil word; none of us ever ventured so much as to lay a hand on her, even too free a jest she never heard from us. Maybe this was so because she never remained for long with us; she flashed on our eyes like a star falling from the sky, and vanished; and maybe because she was little and very beautiful, and everything beautiful calls forth respect, even in coarse people.
And besides—though our life of penal labor had made us dull beasts, oxen, we were still men, and, like all men, could not live without worshipping something or other. ”

“ Just as the Bible says a woman should forsake her parents and follow her husband, I intend to follow Tanaka.
Tanaka has yet to find a means to make a living. His savings have already been used up, and he had a wretched existence in the closing days of last year. I cannot endure standing idly by and watching his discomfort. Even if I do not receive any assistance from my parents, Tanaka and I will try to live in this world as far as it is possible by ourselves. ”

“ People from the Kanto and the Northeastern regions are quite different from them. They express their thoughts frankly, calling what is good "good," and what is bad "bad"; that's why I like them. But those of the central part of the country are indeed crafty. Tanaka is tricky, has lame excuses, and weeps like a woman...."
"Tanaka does seem to have that sort of fault."
"Wait and see, I'm sure he'll not agree with our terms tomorrow. He'll make various excuses to delay returning home."
Suddenly suspicion regarding the relationship between Yoshiko and Tanaka flashed through Tokio's mind. ”

“ When difficulties and contentions arose, the parties' instinctive impulse was to endeavour to invest her interest. "Tanagra is so sensible," outraged parenthood would exclaim; "Tan's such a sport. She'll understand," cried rebellious youth. People not only asked Lady Tanagra's advice, but took it. The secret of her success, unknown to herself, was her knowledge of human nature. Even those against whom she gave her decisions bore her no ill-will.
Her manner towards Miss Brent was a mixture of laughter and seriousness, with deft little touches of deference. ”

“ The frown on the brows of the man in the Prince Albert relaxed and he seemed to give a gasp of relief as he examined the intruder more calmly.
"The world has gone rabid with the smell of blood. Even here, all about us----" He broke off suddenly, turning to the girl. "You have fed him?"
"Yes, Kirylo. But I doubted----"
"We are not savages, Monsieur," he broke in. "You shall be made comfortable for the night. Come. Tanya, the lantern."
And he led the way across the lawn to the house, while Tanya mounted the daïs for the lantern and followed them. ”

“ The successes which the Allies have gained since the First Battle of Cambrai do not rest on any superior strategy on the part of Foch or on superiority in numbers, although the latter has undoubtedly contributed to it. The real reason has been the massed use of Tanks. Whereas the artillery can only cut wire and blot out trenches with an enormous expenditure of ammunition, the Tank takes all these obstacles with the greatest of ease, and will make broad paths in which the advancing infantry can follow. ”

“ They differ from the “hardshell” advocates of the superior weapon in considering it of the greatest importance that the balance and poise of the broadsword should suit the hand that is to wield it. But they believe that the Tank, like the ship and the aeroplane, is a weapon peculiarly suited to the British temperament, and that fundamentally it was for that reason that we, and not some other nation, first evolved it. For good or ill, our Commanders both on land and sea have certain peculiarities. Our men dislike standing on the defensive. ”

“ Tanya is my betrothed, she has faith in my love, my honour, we are bound together for life, and cannot, must not, be put asunder.' He vividly pictured to himself all Tanya's qualities, mentally he picked them out and reckoned them up ”

“ So spit them out; they are bitter, “Tanks.”—In the Persian the word is “Talâb,” and in the original in Punjabi it is “Surr,” a Sanscrit word signifying a large pond or tank. A small tank in Punjabi is called a “Bunni.”
There is hardly a tank in India that is not more or less associated in the minds of the people with some legend, and many are held sacred to one or other of their titulary gods and goddesses.
Some tanks are supposed to contain treasure which is reserved under the custody of a Yaksha, or sprite.
—Crooke. ”

“ The arguments of those who maintain that the Tank must always be dependent upon the older arms are nearly all based upon the assumption that the Tank is already limited. “It is pointed out that they cannot cross rivers, that they are not proof against shell-fire, against mines, against special forms of attack. ”

“ True, it would not be by her hand that the Czar would meet his death, yet view it from whatever angle she might it was nothing less than murder. She had only to drug Tarnowski on the night before the Czar's arrival in Warsaw and the plot would take care of itself, Everything would be done by others, without the possibility of her being implicated, even if Tarnowski himself should confess everything! The tiny bottle containing the brown powder that made men sleep was hidden almost at her elbow. ”

“ A subaltern who had seen any fighting with the Tanks would suddenly find himself regarded as the greatest living expert on some obscure technical point, and the newly joined who had never seen a Tank “looked with awe upon these battle-tried warriors.”
Men and officers were allowed to volunteer for the Tank Corps from other units either in France or at home. The notion of fighting in a Tank was popular, for on many of the men of the old arms—especially the infantry—the ordinary battle routine had—to put it conservatively—begun to pall. ”

“ Tarnowski grunted impatiently.
“It is childishly simple! You know that I have my men everywhere,—that nothing goes on without my knowledge. I have agents provocateurs in every nihilist group in Warsaw.”
“BUT suppose one of these agents should betray you?” she demanded. “You know what it would he, eh?” She nodded toward the Prefecture. “A corner of the courtyard over there at three in the morning, a firing squad, and a new chief of police of Warsaw.”
“You don't seem to understand!” he replied with some irritation. “Nobody could ever connect me with it. I shall do it all through Tongeroff. ”

“ Then her face became grave. “Don't you think you are playing rather a dangerous game? You, the Chief of Police of Warsaw, cannot afford to take chances. What would become of you—if anything went wrong?—And of me?” she added.
Tarnowski pressed her hand and returned it to its former place by the samovar. He was a fool only about himself and—like a certain strong man of Holy Writ—about women. And he was very much taken with the Countess Czvorska; and as much as his cold-blooded, calculating nature would permit, he was in love with her. ”

“ They paid the new arm the compliment of an intricate system of defence and counter-offence which included concealed Tank traps made on the model of elephant-pits, formidable double-traversed trenches, a branch of special anti-Tank artillery, heavily reinforced concrete stockades, and an elaborate system of land mines.
With so many obstacles to avoid or to negotiate, with their fate often hanging upon a prompt and accurate use of their guns, the crew inside the Tank were doomed by the conditions under which they fought to an almost incredibly limited view of the surrounding world. ”

“ As they moved a thousand concealed guns hailed down their fire upon the German line. Even through the din of the barrage and the clamour of their own engines the Tank crews could hear, as they advanced, the tearing and snapping of the German wire as they trampled it under them. The bewildered enemy was overwhelmed. He had only one last hope. Perhaps the wide trenches themselves would hold back this inexorable company!
But when each of the second line of Tanks stopped, ducked its head, laid its “stepping stone” in the trench and crawled easily over it, the enemy completely lost his balance. ”