Transcript Document

Haiku
is one of the most important modes of
Japanese poetry,. A traditional hokku consists
of a pattern of approximately 5, 7, and 5
morae, phonetic units which only partially
correspond to the syllables of languages such
as English. It also contains a special season
word (the kigo) descriptive of the season in
which it is set. Hokku often combine two (or
rarely, three) different elements into a unified
sensory impression, with a major grammatical
break (kire) at the end of either the first five
or second seven morae
Even before the written records in Japan (760
AD) people spoke tanka to gods and in praise
of the reigning monarchy. Tanka, with its 5-75-7-7 sound syllable count, its lofty ancestry,
its shortness and ease for recall, became the
favorite poetical form of the Japanese
Imperial Court. And thus, both reached their
highest popularity and brilliance during the
same centuries -- ninth to eleventh.
Tanka/Renga
In those years -- 9th - 12th centuries -- when was so
fashionable, poets competing in contests revived an
old Chinese form by linking tanka poems together in
a novel way. The poem was "broken" in half so one
author wrote the 5-7-5 part and another responded
and finished the poem by adding his (mostly men
did this though it was first done by a woman!) 7-7
part. Instead of stopping there, someone else wrote a
new 5-7-5 poem to "answer" to the previous 7-7 link
and they named the genre renga -- meaning linked
elegance. This proved to be so much fun poets were
soon writing poems of 1,000 and even 10,000 links.
By the 14th century tanka had become stale
and staid so renga became all the rage. There
were then two main styles: a serious, courtly
style and the comic-bourgeois form favored
by the newly rich merchants.. Because of the
popularity of renga and the extreme necessity
for a really good hokku (starting verse), poets
began to collect a backlog of "good" hokku to
stick up their sleeves in case anyone asked
them to start a renga.
Basho Matsuo(1644 - 1694)
is known as the first great poet in the history of haikai (and haiku).
who lifted the 17-syllable haiku out of the earlier--and longer-forms of waka and renga poetry to make of it a genre in its own
right.
During his lifetime several poets, principally Kikaku, Ransetsu,
Kyorai, Joso, Kyoroku, Shiko, Sampu, Yaha and Hokushi,
became his devoted students, embodying in their own poetry
the aesthetic principles Basho had taught them.
Thus a poetic tradition was established, and was passed on
through the generations.
The Gentlest and Greatest Friend of
Moon and Winds
It is generally believed that Basho was trained as a
Buddhist monk at Kinpukuji in Kyoto during the years
1666-1671, where his studies included Japanese and
Chinese classics and calligraphy.
In 1672 he moved to Edo (Tokyo), where he became
actively engaged in writing poetry. Throughout the
years of his residence in this city (1673-1684) he also
practiced Zen meditation
In the summer of 1684, he started out on
one of his long walking journeys
. In the beginning of the book, The Records of a WeatherExposed Skeleton, he writes:
Following the example of the ancient priest who is said to have
traveled thousands of miles caring naught for his provisions and
attaining the state of sheer ecstasy under the pure beams of the
moon, I left my house on the River Sumida in the August of the
first year of Jyokyo among the wails of the Autumn wind.
And, like a priest, Basho wore the black robes of the Buddhist
monk, a habit he would retain for the rest of his life.
he had no interest whatever in keeping
treasures, since he was empty-handed,
He walked at full ease
In the midst of the plain
Sings the skylark
Free of all things
"Modesty, gentleness, and simplicity!" "These
are the truly beautiful things."
"Purity is the loveliest thing in life
"Real poetry is to lead a beautiful life
To live poetry is better than to write it.
"Zen thought and experience have had a pervasive
influence upon the practice of this art
First, Basho recommended that poets
choose commonplace events as their
subject matter.
I woke up suddenly
With the ice of a night
When the water-pot burst.
Old pond
Frog jumps in
Splash!
Old pond
leap - splash
a frog
a spring day. He was sitting in his riverside house in
Edo, bending his ears to the soft cooing of a pigeon
in the quiet rain. There was a mild wind in the air,
and one or two petals of cherry blossoms were falling
gently to the ground. It was the kind of day you
often have in late March--so perfect that you want it
to last forever. Now and then in the garden was
heard the sound of frogs jumping into the water
Basho was deeply immersed in meditation, but
finally he came out with the second half of the poem,
"Frog jumps in/Splash!“He thought for a while, but
finally he decided on "Old pond."
Basho recommended not only everyday
experience as the subject matter of poetry,
but everyday language as well. It was
pungent, lively, direct, and put the poet closer
in touch with the concrete reality of his
material existence.
First winter rain
The monkey also seems to wish for
A straw raincoat
The Zen influence on writing a poem
such stillness
the shrill of a cicada
pierces rock
Go to the pine if you want to learn about the pine, or to the
bamboo if you want to learn about the bamboo. And in doing
so, you must leave your subjective preoccupation with
yourself. Otherwise you impose yourself on the object and do
not learn. Your poetry issues of its own accord when you and
the object have become one--when you have plunged deep
enough into the object to see something like a hidden
glimmering there. However well-phrased your poetry may be,
if your feeling is not natural--if the object and yourself are
separate--then your poetry is not true poetry but merely your
subjective counterfeit. Submerge yourself into the object until
its intrinsic nature becomes apparent, stimulating poetic
impulse.
Finding one's true nature in the realization of the intrinsic
identity of all things is the aesthetic/religious experience of the
traditional haiku poet, which he tries to transmit in a poem that
approaches in its brevity the timelessness of the experience
itself. What is more remarkable is the experience of the identityin-multiplicity of all things:
Under the cherry blossoms
None
Are utter strangers. (Issa)
Basho's haikus
are dramatic, and they exaggerate humor or
depression, ecstasy or confusion.
have a paradoxical nature.
If anything, the literature of Basho has a
character that the more he described men's
deeds, the more human existence's smallness
stood out in relief, and it makes us conscious
of the greatness of nature's power.
The wind from Mt. Fuji
I put it on the fan.
Here, the souvenir from Edo.
*Edo: the old name of Tokyo..
Sleep on horseback,
The far moon in a continuing dream,
Steam of roasting tea.
Spring departs.
Birds cry
Fishes' eyes are filled with tears
Summer zashiki
Make move and enter
The mountain and the garden.
*zashiki: Japanese-style room covered with tatamis and open to the garden.
Basho's motives and motivations, as a man and a poet:
“In
this mortal frame of mine which is made of a hundred bones
and nine orfices there is something, and this something is called a
wind-swept spirit for lack of a better name, for it is much like a
thin drapery that is torn and swept away at the slightest stir of the
wind.This something in me took to writing poetry years
ago,merely to amuse itself at first, but finally making it its lifelong
business. It must be admitted, however, that there were times when
it sank into such dejection that it was almost ready to drop its
pursuit, or again times when it was so puffed up with pride that it
exulted in vain victories over the others. Indeed, ever since it began
to write poetry, it has never found peace with itself,always
wavering between doubts of one kind and another. At one time it
wanted to gain security by entering the service of a court, and at
another it wished to measure the depth of its ignorance by trying
to be a scholar, but it was prevented from either because of its
unquenchable love of poetry. The fact is, it knows no other art
than the art of writing poetry, and therefore, it hangs on to it more
or less blindly.”
Haiku, which seem so light, free and
spontaneous, is built on discipline
And Basho had his motto: "Learn the
rules; and then forget them."
The fact that the smallest literary form - haiku has the most rules never ceases to amaze and
astound
FRAGMENT AND PHRASE THEORY
a haiku must be divided into two parts. This is the
positive side of the rule that haiku should not be a
run-on sentence. There needs to be a syntactical
break dividing the ku into two parts. From the
Japanese language examples this meant that one
line (5 onji) was separated from the rest by either
grammar or punctuation (in the Japanese an
accepted sound-word - kireji - was as if we said or
wrote out "dash" or "comma"). Call
the shorter portion, the fragment and the longer
portion, or rest of the poem, the phrase.
An example of the fragment found in
the third line is often used as answer
when creating a riddle (a valid and
well-used haiku technique) as in:
a vegetarian
with legs crossed in zazen
the roasting chicken
It is also possible to write ku in which the
reader would have to decide which part was
the fragment by combining either lines #
one with # two or reading lines # two and #
three together to make the phrase. An
example might be:
moonlit pines
dimming
the flashlight
techniques
using riddles, associations, contrasts,
oneness, sense-switching, narrowing
focus, metaphor and simile), double
entendre, close linkage, leap linkage,
pure objectivism, the language of the
anecdotes, the sermons, the Zen
dialogues
Learn the rules."
Seventeen syllables in one line.
2. Seventeen syllables written in three lines.
3. Seventeen syllables written in three lines divided into 5-7-5.
4. Seventeen syllables written in a vertical (flush left or centered)
line.
5. Less than 17 syllables written in three lines as short-long-short.
6. Less than 17 syllables written in three vertical lines as short-longshort.
7. Write what can be said in one breath.
8. Use a season word (kigo) or seasonal reference.
9. Use a caesura at the end of either the first or second line,
10. Never have all three lines make a complete or run-on sentence.
Have two images that are only comparative when illuminated by the
third image. Example: spirit in retreat / cleaning first the black stove /
and washing my hands
12. Have two images that are only associative when illuminated by
the third image. Example: fire-white halo / at the moment of eclipse /
I notice your face
13. Have two images that are only in contrast when illuminated by
the third image. Example: two things ready / but not touching the
space between / fire
14. Always written in the present tense of here and now.
15. Limited use (or non-use) of personal pronouns.
16. Eliminating all the possible uses of gerunds (ing endings on
wording).
17. Study and check on articles. Do you use too many the's? too little?
all the same in one poem or varied? 22. Save the "punch line" for the
end line.
22. Save the "punch line" for the end line.
23. Work to find the most fascinating and eye-catching first lines.
24. Just write about ordinary things in an ordinary way using ordinary
language.
25. Study Zen and let your haiku express the wordless way of making images.
26. Study any religion or philosophy and let this echo in the background of
your haiku.
27. Use only concrete images.
. Use images that evoke simple rustic seclusion or accepted poverty. (sabi)
Use images that evoke classical elegant separateness. (shubumi)
. Use images that evoke nostalgic romantic images. Austere beauty. (wabi)
. Use images that evoke a mysterious aloneness. (Yugen
. Use rhymes in other places within the haiku.
. Use alliteration. Example by Calvin of Calvin & Hobbes: twitching tufted
tail / a toasty, tawny tummy: / a tired tiger
. Use of words' sounds to echo feeling.
. Always end the haiku with a noun.
Haiga
is a style of Japanese painting which derived from the same
aesthetics and ideas as haikai and haiku poetry, and often
accompanied such poems in a single piece. Like the poetic
forms it accompanied, haiga was based on simple, yet often
profound, observations of the everyday world. "since they are
both created with the same brush and ink, adding an image to a
haiku poem was... a natural activity."[1]
Just as the haiku form often contains a juxtaposition between
two of its lines and a third line, haiga can also contain a
juxtaposition between the haiku itself and the art work. In
short, the art work does not necessarily directly represent the
images presented in the haiku.