Haiku Spirit and My Favourite Ku Pravat Kumar Padhy, Positive Vibes 5th June 2020

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,  Fukunda 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.

Haiku by the Masters: Some Examples

old pond
a frog jumps into
the sound of water

-Basho (Translated by Jane Reichhold)

The sea darkens
and a wild duck's call
is faintly white

-Basho

A crow
has settled on a bare branch –
autumn evening

-Basho

Evening wind:
water laps
the heron’s legs

-Buson

a gust of wind -
and the water birds
become white

-Buson

Do not tread on the grass

Where fireflies glowed

Last night

-Issa (Tr. Asataro Miyamori)

O snail

Climb Mount Fuji,

But slowly, slowly!

-Issa (Tr. R H Blyth)

A carp leaps up

crinkling   

the autumn moonlight

-Shiki (Tr. Burton Watson)

I'm trying to sleep!
Please swat the flies
lightly

―Shiki (Tr. Michael R. Burch)

morning glory!
the well bucket-entangled,
I ask for water

-Chiyo-ni (Tr. Donegan and Ishibashi)

My Favourite Ku:

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

(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.

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