Palindrome poem - Kaibunshi (English spelling) huí wén shī

Japanese: 回文詩 - かいぶんし（英語表記）huí wén shī

Also called a round rhyme or round rhyme style. A type of Chinese poetry. Usually refers to a poem that can be read from beginning to end, but also becomes a different poem when read backwards. Famous examples are Wang Rong's Spring Travel Round Rhyme (five characters, eight lines) and Goyuan's Round Rhyme (four lines, five characters). Volume 1 of Honcho Monsui contains Tachibana Zairetsu's Round Rhyme Poem (five characters, eight lines), but Japanese people have also sometimes devised such Chinese poems. In Japan, palindrome songs and palindrome kyoka have also been created, but in these cases the poem is the same whether read from beginning to end or backwards, which is different from the form of palindrome poetry.

Source: Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition Information

Japanese:

廻文詩，廻文体ともいう。中国詩の一体。初めから順に読んでも詩になり，末から逆に読んでもまた別の詩になる形にしたてたものを普通にはいう。斉(479‐502)の王融の〈春遊廻文詩〉(五言八句)，〈後園作廻文詩〉(五言四句)が有名。《本朝文粋》巻一には橘在列の〈廻文詩〉(五言八句)が載せられているが，日本人も時にこうした漢詩を工夫するところがあった。なお日本では，回文歌や回文狂歌も工夫したが，この場合は初めから読んでも逆から読んでも同じ歌になるという形のもので，回文詩の形とは異なる。

出典　株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典第２版について　情報

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