Both as cheeky as the other. The image that completes the haiga is an old blackberry bush that peeks through to our garden from a neighbour's garden; it was cut down around a year ago, and this photo of it reminded me of our peeking visitor.
Haiku is a lovely form indeed, this one sounds particularly happy :)
It is interesting how short haikus are, yet so "full of content", so to say. I often toy with the idea of adding haikus to tea tasting notes as some things which can not be expressed with normal words could be transmitted via haiku...
Thanks for reminding me again that study of haiku is worthwile. Few years ago, when a sort of japanomania happened around here, everyone wrote haiku (generally quite bad) and so I had to start ignoring them to keep sanity. It is nice to read some meaningful haiku again. Jakub
Haiku are very dense, yes indeed. There are certainly very many haiku that are a little less interesting (including, undoubtedly, many, if not all, of my own), but a good haiku can provide a "snapshot" of a moment unlike any other form of literature. Ezra Pound, one of our own grand poets, wrote some of the first haiku in the English language, and I admire the transformative effect that they had on his usual (rather too grandiose) style. It is the same even for humble writers such as me: the haiku, like good zazen, forces us to concentrate on one thing, to focus ourselves, and to disregard all that is unnecessary and extraneous, distilling the charm of a moment into its fundamentally true, sincere essence.
I recommend some of the anthologies of English haiku, which, as well as containing some lovely English-language examples from the last 50 years, help convey the "rules" of haiku. These are very important. Unlike most haiku written by schoolchildren, a real haiku is not merely a restriction on syllable count - that rule is itself only applicable to the nature of the Japanese language. The real "rules" (or guidelines) are in place to help produce good haiku.
Naturally, the rules are there to be broken, as they have been by every haiku master over the centuries (Basho, Issa, etc.).
"Learn the rules, then forget them", as Basho himself taught.
Hello Hobbes, which haiku collections would you particularly recommend? I would like to read more (I'm reading through Issa haiku, but I think it is worth to read more authors).
Yes, you are quite right, a good haiku provides a snapshot, the "aha moment" - I have met such "feeling snapshots" only when reading Lorca. But haiku are beautifully clean.
I agree that the getting rid of extraneous is a crucial part (and I often struggled with it in my meager attempts at haiku, as well as with getting rid of abstraction).
Actually, the getting rid of unnecessary is a helpful concept in most areas - teaching, presenting, writing articles... people who can not cut out the unnecessary details often simply bog down the listener/reader and their point is often unclear. Jakub
P.S. I am no haiku connoisseur so my opinion is not worth a penny, but most of your haiku have struck a chord in me and that is why I enjoyed them. It is nice to "feel" some of your thoughts/moments :)
Cor van der Heuvel has a wonderful collection: "The Haiku Anthology". Not expensive, and includes classic haiku in English (not translations from Japanese), and very inexpensive. It also has an illuminating introduction. I must have read this book 20 times over, such is its lasting, fresh charm.
5 comments:
Both as cheeky as the other. The image that completes the haiga is an old blackberry bush that peeks through to our garden from a neighbour's garden; it was cut down around a year ago, and this photo of it reminded me of our peeking visitor.
Toodlepip,
Hobbes
Haiku is a lovely form indeed, this one sounds particularly happy :)
It is interesting how short haikus are, yet so "full of content", so to say. I often toy with the idea of adding haikus to tea tasting notes as some things which can not be expressed with normal words could be transmitted via haiku...
Thanks for reminding me again that study of haiku is worthwile. Few years ago, when a sort of japanomania happened around here, everyone wrote haiku (generally quite bad) and so I had to start ignoring them to keep sanity. It is nice to read some meaningful haiku again.
Jakub
Dear Jakub,
Haiku are very dense, yes indeed. There are certainly very many haiku that are a little less interesting (including, undoubtedly, many, if not all, of my own), but a good haiku can provide a "snapshot" of a moment unlike any other form of literature. Ezra Pound, one of our own grand poets, wrote some of the first haiku in the English language, and I admire the transformative effect that they had on his usual (rather too grandiose) style. It is the same even for humble writers such as me: the haiku, like good zazen, forces us to concentrate on one thing, to focus ourselves, and to disregard all that is unnecessary and extraneous, distilling the charm of a moment into its fundamentally true, sincere essence.
I recommend some of the anthologies of English haiku, which, as well as containing some lovely English-language examples from the last 50 years, help convey the "rules" of haiku. These are very important. Unlike most haiku written by schoolchildren, a real haiku is not merely a restriction on syllable count - that rule is itself only applicable to the nature of the Japanese language. The real "rules" (or guidelines) are in place to help produce good haiku.
Naturally, the rules are there to be broken, as they have been by every haiku master over the centuries (Basho, Issa, etc.).
"Learn the rules, then forget them", as Basho himself taught.
Toodlepip,
Hobbes
Hello Hobbes,
which haiku collections would you particularly recommend? I would like to read more (I'm reading through Issa haiku, but I think it is worth to read more authors).
Yes, you are quite right, a good haiku provides a snapshot, the "aha moment" - I have met such "feeling snapshots" only when reading Lorca. But haiku are beautifully clean.
I agree that the getting rid of extraneous is a crucial part (and I often struggled with it in my meager attempts at haiku, as well as with getting rid of abstraction).
Actually, the getting rid of unnecessary is a helpful concept in most areas - teaching, presenting, writing articles... people who can not cut out the unnecessary details often simply bog down the listener/reader and their point is often unclear.
Jakub
P.S. I am no haiku connoisseur so my opinion is not worth a penny, but most of your haiku have struck a chord in me and that is why I enjoyed them. It is nice to "feel" some of your thoughts/moments :)
Cor van der Heuvel has a wonderful collection: "The Haiku Anthology". Not expensive, and includes classic haiku in English (not translations from Japanese), and very inexpensive. It also has an illuminating introduction. I must have read this book 20 times over, such is its lasting, fresh charm.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Haiku-Anthology-Cor-Heuvel/dp/0393321185
As for Japanese haiku, Penguin Classics has the definitive Basho.
Toodlepip,
Hobbes
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