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. 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. It comprises two images in the form of fragment (Line 1) and
phrases (Lines 2 and 3) so that the two images juxtapose each other either as
association or contrast. The poem reflects the present happening in nature with
a seasonal reference. The art of haiku dwells in capturing the image in an
aesthetic and simple way without any poetic ornamentation and allowing the
readers to interpret in their own style.
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). 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 (1716-1783), Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827) and Mosaoka Shiki (1867-1902) are
the Masters of the Haiku literature,
including Chiyo-ni (1703-1775), a
great women haikuist. In 1877, W G Aston, first translated haiku in English.
Writing of 3-line haiku may date back to the 1600s in the western language in
Dutch. The first successful haiku written in
English was "In a Station of the Metro" by Ezra
Pound in 1913. Initially, haiku is written with 5-7-5 format (with 17
‘on’ or ‘morae’). In Japanese literature, there is no such syllabic
concept as in English. These formats are indeed the phonic or sound expression.
Hence it is not possible to translate the Japanese haiku into English in the
same format. For example ‘akai’ in Japanese has three sounds (a/ka/i). The word
‘akai’ means red and it is one syllable in English. Later on, in the English
language, the schemata are widely kept as s/l/s form in haiku writings. The
haiku masters have composed with poetic brilliance unveiling observations in
quietude and simplicity.
Basho’s famous ‘frog’ haiku remains as an iconic
example in the haiku literature:
古池や蛙飛びこむ水の音
furu ike ya
kawazu tobikomu
mizu no oto
*
old
pond
a frog jumps into
the sound of water
a frog jumps into
the sound of water
(Tr. Jane
Reichhold)
Similarly Busan wrote a haiku with splendid
imagery:
evening wind—
water laps
the heron’s leg
(Tr. William Higginson)
Issa’s one of the fine haiku:
O snail
Climb Mount Fuji,
But slowly, slowly!
(Tr. R H Blyth)
And Shiki’s haiku with poignancy
how
much longer
is my life?
a brief night...
is my life?
a brief night...
The haiku contains two images,
the “fragment” and the “phrase” while writing in English with a causer or pause
in between (Kireji). Haiku is an objective-based expression. It is not a sentence, hence there is no capital
letter or punctuation 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. In Japanese, the Kireji (ya, kana,
keri, nari) is expressed by syllables, but in English, it is denoted by
punctuation. The “Kireji”, in its
sublime form, sparks the juxtaposition or disjunction of the two images
(syntactic pivot) facilitating a “leap”. 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 fragment is written
in the first line and the phrase is expressed in the remaining two lines. The
fragment could also be expressed in the third line. One can put “dash” or
“dots” (ellipsis) to separate the distinct images. Minimum use of adjectives,
articles, gerund, 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 and it is non-rhymic. The poem 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. It is better to refrain from incorporating ordinary cause and effect,
abstractions while writing haiku. The poet should not be judgmental. On the
contrary, he can explain the cause of feeling rather than his self-feeling and
put it in the present tense to create the haiku spirit with poetic musicality. At no point, it should be a sentence broken
into three lines. There are different linked forms or genres of haiku such as
Monoku (one- line haiku), haibun (prose interspersed with haiku), haiga (image,
drawing or photo with haiku). Senryu, written in haiku style, is more of witty,
satire nature with human attributes and without seasonal or nature reference.
Art of haiku writing is a way of imaging around
nature (kocho-fuei), behavioural sense of man, animal and non-being
entities and exploring the human feeling and relationship. Haiku is unique in
its form and simplistic expression with reference to season or nature as a
whole. The tiniest object of nature has its genuine worth in this world. I feel
it is the realisation of this truth and zen-feeling that has given rise to the
genesis of the Haiku poem. The haiku discovers the meaning of each entity
through the aesthetic (wabi-sabi) way. This makes it a distinct style
from other poetry forms. It reflects simplicity and honesty in expression
without any artificiality, complexity or pretention. It enunciates a contemplation of spiritualism and the realization of self-
being a part of nature. The basic elements (teikei) of haiku are the seasonal
reference (kigo), the surrealistic silence in the form of pause
(kireji), depth and mystery (yugen),
contained space (ma), becomingness (kokora), lightness
(karumi) and creativeness (zoko) and elegance (fuga). 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). Unexpetedness (atarashimi) and drifting mood (nioi) in expression
render beauty to haiku.
The
art of juxtaposition (renso) is an exploration of reasoning and a
poetical logic that resides in one’s imagism sensibility processes. However,
subtle metaphoric expression with logical credence continues to explore the
enlightened (satori) nature. Indeed it is an expression of poetic
elegance (miyabi) in simplicity (iki) style.
Westerners
describe haiku (pronounced as hi-koo) as epigrams and snapshots. Dutchman Hendrik
Doeff (1764–1837)
was known to be the earliest westerner to have written haiku. The first haiku-influenced
poems written in English was arguably by Ezra
Pound, In a Station of the Metro, published in 1913. Harold
G. Henderson (1889-1974) describes haiku as “Primarily
it is a poem; and being a poem it is intended to express and evoke emotion...
haiku is a very short poem... more concerned with human emotions than with
human acts, and natural phenomena are used to reflect human emotion.” The
pioneer translators of the Japanese haiku into English are Arthur Waley (1865-1966),
R B Blyth (1898-1964) and others. At present haiku become a global ‘small
poetry’, commonly written in s/l/s format.
The classical haiku is about realization and reverence of nature. Our ancient Vedic culture is a culture of nature and divinity. In the Rig Veda, verses (suktas) in Sanskrit are written in praise of nature and its significance. The Indian Nobel Laureate, Rabindranath Tagore during his first visit to Japan in 1916, cited reference of haiku poems in his travelogue “Japan-Jatri” and translated Basho’s two haiku. His collection of haiku-like short and epigrammatic poems 'Fireflies' was published in English and Bengali in 1926. His one-line poems (monoku like), “The Stray Birds” are more of proverbial expression with poetic lucidity. In 1916, the great poet Subramania Bharati wrote a classical article on “Japaniyat Kavitai (Japanese poetry)”. Prof. Satyabhushan Verma is the pioneer of Indian Haiku who first translated Japanese haiku into Hindi 'Japani Kavitaian' (published in 1977). A poem, “Hokku’ by Roshen Alkazi is a two-line verse: The solitary bird/ sings (Seventeen More Poems, Writers
The classical haiku is about realization and reverence of nature. Our ancient Vedic culture is a culture of nature and divinity. In the Rig Veda, verses (suktas) in Sanskrit are written in praise of nature and its significance. The Indian Nobel Laureate, Rabindranath Tagore during his first visit to Japan in 1916, cited reference of haiku poems in his travelogue “Japan-Jatri” and translated Basho’s two haiku. His collection of haiku-like short and epigrammatic poems 'Fireflies' was published in English and Bengali in 1926. His one-line poems (monoku like), “The Stray Birds” are more of proverbial expression with poetic lucidity. In 1916, the great poet Subramania Bharati wrote a classical article on “Japaniyat Kavitai (Japanese poetry)”. Prof. Satyabhushan Verma is the pioneer of Indian Haiku who first translated Japanese haiku into Hindi 'Japani Kavitaian' (published in 1977). A poem, “Hokku’ by Roshen Alkazi is a two-line verse: The solitary bird/ sings (Seventeen More Poems, Writers
Workshop, 1970) is among one of the earliest
examples of haiku writings by Indian poets. Urmila Kaul, I H Rizvi, D H Kabadi,
Angelee Deodhar, A. Thiagarajan, R. K Singh, K. Ramesh, Kala Ramesh and scores
of other contemporary Indian poets have written beautiful haiku in English.
Haiku has also been composed by many regional languages.
My Experience:
Humbly, I wish to share a few words about my small
steps in the long poetic journey. I use to enjoy
the poetic feeling and metaphoric expression and started writing at an early
age of around thirteen. I composed proverbial-short poems (one to two lines,
similar to monku) while writing essay on some topics. In early school
career, I sublimely endowed with natural
beauty and used to write articles pertaining to scenic landscapes of
resplendent nature.
Earlier I wrote both longer and shorter versions of
poems with internal rhymes. Gradually, I feel more comfortable in writing the
shorter version. It clusters poetic energy to unveil the touch of beauty
through brevity. Interestingly some of my earlier writings were of haiku-like
verses though I was not aware of the genre at that time.
A few of my Odia poems, composed
during the early seventies, resemble like Haiku:
darkness all around
I search
light within
Eka Akaar (The Shape: A sequence poem, 1972-73)
In 1978 a few of my haiku-like stanzas written in
“Odia” appeared in the Deepti
magazine, edited by Shasidhar Pattnaik, under the short-verse sequences “Satyameba” (Truth Alone). The translation of one of the poems, Jibanata (Life) is as follows:
half-moon in the sky
her body veiled in mixed
colours of clouds
Deepti, Vol.8, Issue
III, Oct-Dec 1978
The Living Anthology
One of my short poems, titled ‘Seed’, “It is tiny/
Because it nests/ With care/ The mightiest in it”,
Kavita India, Vol. III, Nos. 2&3, 1990 was published in “The World Haiku Review”, Vol. 7,
Issue 2, 2009 with minor edits by the editor, Susumu Takiguchi.
creation is mystical
vast value of life
compressed in a seed
I was thrilled when I got an e-mail from the editor
and renowned haiku poet, Werner Reichhold, on 23rd Sept 2009 about acceptance
of the poem which was later republished in Lynx-Aha
Poetry, XXV:1 Feb 2010.
Dog is misspelled
the child discovered
the Great
Lynx-Aha Poetry, XXV:1
Feb 2010
(Original poem, “God” first published in “World Poetry
Anthology”, 1992, Ed. Krishna Srinivas)
I could recall, Urmila Kaul, a bilingual poet,
published five of her 3-line haiku poems in the journal ‘Skylark’-47/48-1982,
edited by Baldev Mirza. Interestingly, my longer version of poem, ‘A Part of Civilization’
was published in the next opposite page of the journal.
I chanced upon to see the published review article
on “Indian English Haiku and R K Singh” by Razni Singh in e-zine “Got Poetry”,
December 2007. I went back to search my manuscripts of the eighties, and some
of the published ones closely resemble (though not in the strict sense) to
haiku and tanka. In Sept 2009, I posted four lines of poem “Pretending” (They speak of volume/ In reality it fills/
Thin hopes/ Of vacuum) in
PoetBay and received an appreciation from the poet, Tai, UK about the image of thin hopes of vacuum. I received
inspired-comment from the poet, Shells, UK suggesting to condense the poem into
a three-line in the form of haiku instead of four lines. Then I started
searching about haiku poem and the
related genres. I could come across the age-old exquisite poetic work of iconic
literary Japanese Masters. Since then it has been a thrilling experience and a
joyful journey of writing Japanese short poems.
Werner Reichhold encouraged me to go through some
of the haiku poems written by western haikuist and literature with Asian roots.
He appreciated and encouraged me to turn the observations/images with the
poetic touch. Paul, Alice Framton, Hidenori Hiruta, Fay Aoyagi, Robert D.
Wilson , Gabi Greve Lorin Ford, an’ya, Sasa Vazic, Susumu Takiguchi, Patricia
Prime, Isamu Hashimoto, David
McMurray, Anna, Isabelle, Karina Klesko,
John Daleiden, Beatrice Van de Vis, Gisele LeBlanc, Michele Pizarro Harman and
others inspired me a lot during my
formative stage of haiku writing.
Some
of my selected work:
rainy day
mud escapes
between toes
Ambrosia, Summer 2010
*****
early moonrise
cranes shift whiteness
to an old banyan tree
Honourable Mention, Haiku Reality / Haiku Stvarnost,
Vol.8, No.15, Winter 2011
*****
the tree--
spreads its branches
without noise
Simply Haiku, Vol.8, No.3, 2011
*****
deep dark space
many cosmic townships
with their own light
The Mainichi Daily News, 23.3. 2012
Haiku in English: Best of 2012, Mainichi Daily News
*****
green vegetables
my mother smiles with
morning freshness
Editor’s Best Choice, Sketchbook, Vol. 7, No. 3,
Issue 43, 2012
*****
cherry blossoms—
the scent bridging
the long river
Honourable Mention, Vancouver Cherry Blossom
Festival Invitation, 2013
*****
temple bell--
the lone bird adds
its cry
Frogpond, 36-2 Spring/Summer Issue, 2013
Published in Anthology, “A Vast Sky” 2015
*****
tree to tree--
I walk along carrying
shadows
Issa’s Untidy Hut, Haiku #149, 2013
*****
first rain
the paper boat carries
my childhood
Asahi Shimbun, May 31, 2013
Butter Fly Dream Anthology, 2014
*****
flowing river--
the bereaved girl
holds
a palm-full of water
Editor’s Choice (Sample Poems), Acorn, Issue #33,
Fall 2014
*****
Neil Armstrong--
baby’s maiden walk
on bright moon day
Commendation Award, The Kloštar
Ivanić International Haiku Competition, 2014
*****
early morning--
the sweeper gathers
autumn wind
Presence, Issue 49, 2014
*****
wild flower--
I breathe my
loneliness
The Heron’s Nest, Vol. XVI, No.4 December 2014
*****
fallen kites--
the slum boy gathers
the colours
Second Prize, Spring Haiku Contest, Diogen, 2014
*****
desert
journey—
camels
follow shadow
after
shadow
Creatrix 26, April 2014
Highly Commendation Award, Creatrix Haiku Prize
2015, WA Poets Inc, Australia
*****
thick clouds--
a gap takes me
to the ocean
Modern Haiku, Issue
46:2, 2015
*****
liquid garden--
sprinkles of sunlight
on coral blossoms
Shamrock 32, October 2015
*****
relationship--
the cold breeze remains
tightly folded
AKISAME (European Haiku Society) Issue 19:1, 2015
*****
paddy fields--
the sun for a while
pretends in green
Honorable Mentions, Haiku Reality, Vol. 13, No
21, Spring 2016
*****
tiny pebbles
the softness
of her talk
the softness
of her talk
Runners Up, Iafor Vladimir Devide
Haiku Award, 2017
*****
prison window
the softness of the wings
of a butterfly
Haiku Foundation Workplace Haiku, 27.9.2017
*****
moonrise the sky from the oncology wing
Presence # 61, 2018
a hole in the light: The Red Moon Anthology of
English-Language Haiku 2018
*****
end of summer
an antique table fan
pauses for a while
Anthology - All the Way
Home: Aging in Haiku, 2019
*****
evening market
cats join their voices
with the vendors
cats join their voices
with the vendors
Poetry Pea, January 2020
*****
tealights--
monks gather
enlightenment
Lucas Lily Pad, 3.2.2020
*****
coronavirus ...
even the shadows
drift away
even the shadows
drift away
Butterfly Dream, 21.3.2020
*****
on the back of a refugee a pregnant dog thrashing
the shore current
is/let, 21.3.2020
*****
spring evening
spring evening
moonrise brightens
your homecoming
The Cicada’s Cry, Spring 2020
*****
lockdown--
aroma of jasmine flower
crosses the fence
My Haiku Pond Academy, April
2020
The haiku discovers the meaning of each entity
through an aesthetic way. Haiku imparts
life to every object of realization and its vivid image. Essentially the genre
of expression acts as a diligent medium
to have a wide spectrum of exploration within ourselves associating with the
rest. Writing haiku unveils the poetic parlance and lively moments conjoined
with all the entities within the ambit of nature and human behaviour. This
leads you to start realising the value of the tiniest dust particle to diamond,
raindrops to ranges of the mountain, the distance of the sun to closeness to
your shadow, tender grass to the giant trees, and rhythms of sound to the voice
of silence.
Discussion on syllable
counts, whether to express in one, two, or three lines or occasionally four
lines may remain as debatable point, especially in the neo-literary revolution.
The image-moment around us, phrasing and its poetic association with human
behaviour, love, emotion, humour, season, climate, observances, plants,
animals, geography and elements of senses are to be poetically embedded to
enliven the soulful feelings of haiku writings.
The classical haiku by
Basho expressing the element of
synesthesia is unique:
The sea darkens
And a wild duck’s call
Is faintly white
(Tr. Makotoa Ueda)
The basic ingredients
need to be respected with a fair degree of modernity. Sincerity, the honesty of
experience and imagination, originality and simplicity, choice and order of
words, musicality are some of the key aspects of good haiku writings. In the
end, it should reflect the wisdom of poetic credence in line with the aesthetic
spirits and contemporary values. The original haiku in the Japanese language is
a class of its own. One can perceive the spark-moment and express it with
refreshing images. The time and topography have been changed over the years.
Rightly Basho said, “Learn of the pine from the pine; learn of the bamboo from the
bamboo”.
One can try to evolve a contemporary
sketch of neo-haiku irrespective of whether he lives in the village, urban area
or elsewhere. That is the beauty of Japanese masters’ craftsmanship. Let us
revere them and their classical contributions even we dream to shift to Moon or
Mars! It has always been to have trans-creation of tender expression of nature
through the art of words for the readers to derive emotion, goodness, quietude
and divine pleasure of the haiku moment. The poem needs to carry the essence of
zoko (creativeness), fuga (Elegance), yugen (depth and
mystery), Koko (becomingness), wabi-sabi (austere simplicity,
naturalism, and solitude: Japanese aesthetic virtues) and ma (opening, space). W
Hackett says,‘Lifefulness, not beauty, is the real quality of haiku’.
Solemnly I still continue to march ahead with my
tiny steps! An incredible journey so far!
Note: The article is an abridged version of assimilation
of my earlier essay “Haiku: The Art of Words
and My Maiden Journey”,
Living Haiku Anthology, and part of ‘Preface’ from my recently published haiku collection,
“Cosmic Symphony”.
References
for further reading:
***************
Publication Credit: Literary Vibes,
LXIII, April 2020
http://www.positivevibes.today/article/newsview/294#PADHY
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