The Haiku Spirit
An essay by Dr. Pravat Kumar Padhy
An essay by Dr. Pravat Kumar Padhy
A brilliant article by a poet who is a Student and Master of
Japanese Aesthetics and Poetry. ‘The Haiku Spirit’ touches upon AND details the
very essence of Haiku from a philosophical-spiritual point of view. Dr. Padhy
also illustrates his teachings with a discussion on a ku by one of Inida’s most
beloved poets, Dr. Angelee Deodhar. Thank you, Dr. Padhy, we are indebted to
you.
Pranav
Kodial, 13.5.2020 Triveni World Haiku Utsav
HAIKU SPIRIT
By Dr. Pravat Kumar Padhy
Japanese literature is largely
inspired by Chinese literature during the Tang Dynasty (618-907) in China.
Kojiki (712), and Nihonshoki (720) are the books of the earliest Japanese
mythology, history, and poems. The word haiku is a combination of two different
words ‘haikai’ and ‘hokku’. Haikai is a linked-verse (collaborative) in haikai no renga poetry style
developed during the Edo period (1602–1869). Haikai, a type of renga poetry,
consists of at least 100 verses in 5-7-5-7-7 pattern. Hokku is the name given
to the opening verse (5-7-5, go schichi go) and the last two-line is
known as wakiku. Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) is the pioneer of writing Hokku. Haiku
poetry came into existence from hokku of haikai and Masaoka Shiki named hokku
as haiku (ha-i-ku, 3-sound in Japanese) in 1892. The etymology of the word Haiku from Japanese is ‘hai amusement + ku
verse. Haiku consists of 17 ‘on’ or ‘morae’ (sound), written in a
vertical single line (top to bottom) having the intertextual echoes A Japanese haiku comprises three sections namely kami
go (the top five-section), naka shichi (the middle seven-section), and shimo go
(the lower five-section).
Matsua Basho (1644-1694),Yosa
Busan (1716-1784), Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828) and Mosaoka Shiki (1867-1902) are
the Masters of the Haiku literature, including the woman haikuist Chiyo-ni (1703-1775).
Haiku
is a Japanese art form of poetry having a long and rich history of more than 400
years old. Art of haiku writing is a way of imaging around
nature (kocho-fuei), behavioural sense of man, animal and non-living
entities, and exploring the human feeling and relationship. Even the
tiniest object of nature has its genuine worth in this world. I feel it is the
realisation of this truth and the Zen moment that has given rise to the genesis
of the Haiku poem. It enunciates a contemplation of spiritualism and
the realization of self- being a part of nature. Haiku is an objective-based expression. The poet simply sows the seeds
of the image leaving the readers to harvest it’s
musicality and aesthetic value for times to come.
Haiku is unique in its form and simplistic
expression with reference to season or nature as a whole. The basic elements (teikei) of haiku are the seasonal reference (kigo),
the surrealistic silence in the form of pause (kireji), Juxtaposition (renso), depth and
mystery (yugen), contained space (ma), becomingness
(kokora), lightness (karumi),creativeness (zoko), elegance
(fuga) and simplicity (iki). It is an art of capturing the happening
at the present moment and leaving the interpretation to the readers without
telling it (show but do not tell) with brevity (less is more). Denis M. Garrison says, “It is a
commonplace to say that the haiku reader “co-creates the haiku” by adding from
his/her own experiential context to the haiku and, thereby, completing it.” Unexpectedness
(atarashimi) and drifting mood (nioi) in expression
render beauty to haiku.
Haiku is written about the keen observations of
happenings around nature or human aspects related to nature based on the
experience through five senses. Touchingness of things (mono na aware)
and touchningness of life (yo no aware) are the essences of haiku. This
makes it a distinct style from other poetry forms. It reflects simplicity and
honesty in expression without any artificiality, complexity or pretention. “A
haiku lets things become what they are”, Robert Spiess says. The image created
through haiku in its brevity (kakakoto) is undoubtedly is the spark of
self-realization. The poetic sincerity (fuga no makota) as aspired by
Basho is the cornerstone of haiku writings.
Simple
swinging of hands and twisting of fingers cannot create the experience of dance
performance. There need to be graceful postures, a poignant space in between
and selfless manifestation for the audience to share the divine nectar. Hence a
mere wordplay won’t compose a poem. There has to be a soul, freshness and
honesty in it to radiate its brilliance. This is the lighthouse of haiku
spirit. W Hackett says, ‘Lifefulness, not beauty,
is the real quality of haiku’.
Haiku is considered as the shortest non-rhyming Japanese
poetry form written in three lines, in 5-7-5 format, with 17 syllables in
total. In Japanese literature, there is no such syllabic concept as in English.
These formats are indeed the phonic or sound expression or onji in line
length, and onji refers to the counting of phonic sounds in Japanese
poetry. Hence it is not possible to translate the Japanese haiku into English
in the same format. Generally, the strict syllable style is not followed in
English and it is written in the form of short/long/short lines, all in lower
case. The haiku contains two images, in the form of ‘fragment’ (Line 1) and ‘phrase’ (Lines 2
and 3), and they juxtapose each other either as association or contrast. The art of juxtaposition (renso) is an
exploration of reasoning and a poetic logic that resides in one’s imagism. Between fragment and phrase,
there lies a surrealistic silence in the form of pause (kireji), or cutting
word. In
English, it is denoted by punctuation and one can put “dash” or
“dots” (ellipsis) to separate the two distinct images and to provide structural
support for haiku. If the poet thinks that the expression is explicit
for the reader to understand the images without difficulty, the natural pause
itself takes care of the cutting word. The “Kireji”
(ya, kana, keri, nari), in its
sublime form, sparks the juxtaposition or disjunction of the two images
(syntactic pivot) facilitating a “leap”. Haiku is not a sentence, hence there is no
capital letter or full stop in haiku writing, and there is no title of the
haiku. Additionally, the two images should not reflect the simple cause and
effect. Minimum use of adjectives, articles, gerunds, refraining from the use
of simile, metaphor (with exception of implied poetic predicament), adverbs,
verbs, and conditional clauses are some of the essential characteristics of
writing haiku. In general, the haiku should not be personified.
My Choice:
Dr. Angelee Deodhar (1947-2018) is revered as the
iconic figure of haiku literature in India. Her contribution to Japanese
short form of poetry is internationally recognized. I had the opportunity to meet her in February
2018 in the Art and Literature Festival, Bhubaneswar. She once said in an
interview in the blogzine GLO-TALK:
“In two and a half decades of learning about haiku I
have understood one thing,
that all writing is a lonely calling – to write a
passable haiku one must be alone much – observe and respond from a felt depth.”
Indeed, poetry emanates from the inner realization in
solitude. She has written many beautiful haiku. I pick up the following haiku
for the readers to feel the simplicity that she experiences, and her honest
depiction.
sharing an umbrella
your wet left shoulder
my right one
your wet left shoulder
my right one
(HAS Members’ Anthology, 2001)
(Mann Library’s Daily Haiku, May 12, 2013)
Let us explain the haiku in a simple way for a better
understanding of the budding poets. The spirit of natural expression and
creative synthesis have been infused by Angelee in the haiku. The haiku is written
in short/long/short style having a total of 14 syllables. ‘sharing an umbrella’
constitutes the fragment of the haiku.
Line 2 and Line 3 ‘your wet left shoulder/ my right one’
constitute the image of the phrase part of the haiku. You may notice that there
is an implied brief pause or silence (kireji) after Line 1. She has not
purposefully put any dash or ellipsis after Line 1 as it is not much demanding
here. The haiku has a seasonal reference (kigo) ie rainy season (tsuyu).
Here she artfully captures the happening in present and leaves room for the
readers to unfold the rest. Both the images (fragment and phrase) juxtapose
each other. There is a sense of musicality and freshness in the haiku.
In the above haiku, Angelee tries to express her observation
in probably the ever simplest way. Robert Spiess says “A haiku lets things become
what they are”. She, with all
humbleness, translates the images into pleasant words with a touch of honesty. The image
‘your wet left shoulder/
my right one’ unveils the intimacy of feeling of
the two persons- might be mother and daughter or husband and wife. It could be
two close friends or lovers and both are partially drenched in rain. Now let us
explore the arrangement of words in Line 2 and Line 3, and how she tries to
explore the poetic elegance (miyabi). There has been a spatial
manifestation by using words like ‘left’ and ‘right’. The splendor of
expression ‘your wet left shoulder’, ‘my right one’ depicts the aesthetic human
feeling. Technically she tried to create a matrix of ‘opposites’. The expression makes one spellbound. The
precision use of word, and word arrangements speak the highest order of poetic
skill. This is called “poetic spells” as
Martin Lucas opines about the essence of haiku. Fostering an ideal family life
and close bonding are depicted in the haiku in its layered meanings. All need
to adjust to the circumstance by sharing pleasure and pain in equal measure to
usher in human cohesion. The poetess manifests the simplicity (iki) with
the element of lightness (karumi) in the above haiku. One imbibes an
inner pleasure by sharing the sense of compassion. The haiku portrays the
essence of graceful relationships and mutual affection in life.
The beauty of a flower is a divine art,
the colour is the physics, the aroma is its chemistry. I wish the budding poets to
bloom into blissful flowers emanating the inner fragrance and sharing with
others.
I am
delighted to express my gratitude to Pranav for awarding me the opportunity to
interact with the dear budding haiku-lovers of Triveni World Haiku Utsav Group.
***********
Brief-Bio:
Pravat Kumar Padhy has obtained his Masters of
Science and Technology and a Ph.D from Indian Institute of Technology, ISM
Dhanbad. He has a certification of the Executive Education Programme on “Advanced
Management” from IIM-Bangalore.
His poetry has been featured in many journals and anthologies
including History
of Contemporary Indian English Poetry, and others. His poems received
many awards, honours, and commendations including the Editors’ Choice Award at Writers Guild of India, Asian American
Poetry, Poetbay, Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival International Haiku Honourable
Mention, UNESCO International Year Award of Water Co-operation, The Kloštar
Ivanić International Haiku Award, IAFOR Vladimir Devide Haiku Award, and
others. He guest-edited “Per Diem,The Haiku
Foundation, November Issue, 2019,” (Monoku about ‘Celestial Bodies’). His haiku is showcased in the exhibition “Haiku Wall”, Historic Liberty
Theatre Gallery in Bend, Oregon, USA. His tanka, ‘I mingle’ is featured in the “Kudo Resource
Guide”, University of California, Berkeley. He is credited with seven collections of verses including
“Cosmic Symphony”- A Haiku Collection. His poem, “How Beautiful” is included in the
Undergraduate English Curriculum at the university level.
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