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WD_148/ 2005
(  Satoshi Kinoshita )
| Series: | Works on paper: Drawings 2 | | Medium: | oil pastel and wax crayon on paper | | Size (inches): | 15.6 x 12.5 | | Size (mm): | 400 x 320 | | Catalog #: | WD_0148 | | Description: | Signed, date and copyright in pencil on the reverse.
From moon wreathed
bamboo grove,
cuckoo song.
-Basho (1644-94), interpretation of Basho's works by Lucien Stryck/ www.haikupoetshut.com/basho1.html
Resplendent poetry is close to the heart of some:
The old pond
A frog leaps in.
Splash!
Be reminded; this old poem by Japanese Basho serves to show how they learnt to write poetry in Japan. It can come close to the old forms of proverbs in Scandinavia, and no one knows it ...
Sound and skilful rhyming we find deep inside many Nordic proverbs talk to us apart from the counsels that may aid easier living. As I have let you in on, if we carefully divide one of our proverbs in two or three, we do indeed get pretty close to modern haiku poems.
Jumping over the brook for water
not needed.
There you have it. I suggest you experiment to find the variant or variants you like at once. One can be:
Jumping over the brook
for water
- not necessary.
You can think of it. And the excellent man can learn to combine various proverbs into co-working poems too. We host a cascade of such novel items. And in case you didn't know it, many of Basho’s haiku poems were actually the hokku (initial verse) of a renga (linked verse).
Spring themes and fun on high heels:
MODERNISTIC six lines: Most haiku poems make do with 3 lines, and the traditional, Japanese poetic form consists of 17 syllables arranged in three lines of 5, 7, and 5 syllables each. I suggest you feel flexible about it.
Besides, a poem that is intended to amuse for a moment rather than last for all time, is not bad either.
The British author Reginald Horace Blyth learnt to listen well to the marked Zen man Dr. D. Suzuki; wrote many books on Zen and haiku poetry; and stands as an eminent translator as well, holds this poem in high esteem. Here is the neat content of a poem he liked:
Heh heh heh, heh heh heh.
Heh heh heh, heh heh heh.
Heh heh heh, heh heh heh.
They were quite modern or modernistic in Japan the old days, then. I think there were six lines of "heh" in the original, all in all, but shouldn't half of it be enough here?
The immediate poem was spent right after a guest in a party farted. It is found in the Norwegian artist Arne Dorumsgaard’s little book Om å gjendikte kinesisk poesi [Kig]. It tells about how he set about translating a lot of books from the Far East's poetry and lore - a poetry in which possible mysticism can be found in glimpses or contained in terse phrases. The outsider may only guess at much of it, or pass it by unwittingly unless things are pointed out. Doerumsgaard does much for the reader here.
Dorumsgaard has devoted a whole book in a series to translating Basho: "Fra duggens verden" [Fdv]. Also, Paal Helge Haugen has translated an anthology of haiku poems in a very good book, Blad frå ein austleg hage: hundre Haiku-dikt [Bfa]. These are all Norwegian works. Japanese Verse [Jap], a Penguin Book, is my favourite in the matter.
"Through the North": Basho’s best work can very well be The Narrow Road Through the Deep North (1694). It is considered outstanding through certain glimpses it yields to receptive individuals. ?
Haiku defined:
THE WORD haiku (plural: haiku) comes from Japan. It is an unrhymed verse form of Japanese origin, and hokku is an alternative name. Haiku poems have only three lines and may read very much like telegrams. The lines usually contain 5, 7, and 5 syllables respectively - 17 Japanese syllables in all. Being cast in this briefing form, a haiku poem generally contains a seasonal reference.
And a tanka poem, from which the haiku form first derived as its three opening lines, contains two more lines of 7 syllables each, i.e. 31 syllables in all. [Source: Merriam-Webster's Dictionary]
Modern haiku too:
She's sixteen years old
She wears her hair straight back
She has no goose-flesh.
Leonard Cohen (alias Zen-monk Jikan for a time).
Old and new things:
Old haiku poems help some of us to open up to certain Asiatic ways of seeing or presenting things. Modern haiku had better help us open up to those parts of ourselves that stay centred in a truth when we perceive it. Haiku poems that have remained active and latent over the centuries, tried to do just that, as a matter of traditionally handed over ways of looking at things. And Zen Buddhist philosophy was into it.
The capacity to open up and remain receptive and perhaps advance into further possibilities through ascended inner perceptions of oneself in unison with nature; in one's circumstances of life; and among many common purposes, could bear on one's willingness to see and listen as well.
In handed-over haiku one might try to penetrate to some fundamental wisdom or axiom. To do so, it helps some to know just how a haiku poem is built up, and what are the main images or symbols made use of in similar contexts (settings).
The old and modern poem can seek to describe an aspect of natural things or eternity portrayed through nature symbols and images, as paired with human scenes. What happens when the different planes of references blend, fairly often calls forth much interest.
Mysterious thinking may be handed over and good stuff from the castle of truth inside lies in many fair and common purposes. Inner preparedness paves the way for more success linked to gentle perceptions.
Favourite haiku poets:
"There were major men behind -"
The following leans heavily on the Britannica Online information given in the places referred to right above. The purpose is not to look pompous, but could help explain somehow:
A. Basho (1644-94):
B. Buson (1716-84):
C. Issa (1763-1828):
A. Basho:
BASHO abandoned the samurai (warrior) status he had earned, for poetry and gradually got a reputation as a skilled poet and able critic. As a poet he is marked by love of the unobtrusive, as in the poem:
Scent of chrysanthemums ...
And in Nara
All the ancient Buddhas.
There are deep meanings in the poem. It is not as brittle as it looks like in English translation either. Such poetry has earned him a reputation as the greatest Japanese haiku poet of Japan - he is also known for many travels through books he wrote of what he saw and took part in.
FOLLOWING Zen lines of thinking he tried to compress the meaning of the world he got aware of, into "the simple pattern", at the same time trying to hint at interdependence of all objects. He often strove for that. His very first verse in the "new style" or new-found style may serve as an example:
On a withered branch
A crow has alighted:
Nightfall in autumn.
Elegant poetry can be simple to look at, yet much descriptive, it can rest on comparison and contrast of rather independent phenomena - just as in the poem above.
And what about the poet? He may need to rest aloof of odious common living, at least from time to time. Living a life that was in true accord with the gentle spirit of his poetry, Basho maintained an austere, simple hermitage - a simple hut - where he withdrew from society altogether on occasion.
He is much know for imbuing his scenarios with what we may hint at as part of the "spirit or program of Zen". ?
Basho (1644-94):
B. Yosa Buson, a good poet:
BUSON of a wealthy Japanese family came to pursue a career in the arts as a painter. Yet he won even more renown as an expert haiku poet, one that also experimented with the handed-over haiku form, eventually.
Buson's poetry known as "ornate and sensuous, rich in visual detail".
BUSON strove to revive the tradition of Basho, his forerunner in the haiku art, but never reached the level of Zen-linked and humanistic understanding won by Basho.
Buson is known for saying, "Use the colloquial language to transcend colloquialism," and also that haiku "one must talk poetry." ?
WE HOST some translated poems of his on another page.
Buson (1716-84):
C. Severely treated Issa, writer of endearing poetry in time:
IT stands out that the humbled Issa got rather far out when it comes to concerns, far wider than those of pet-owners. Such focus makes his poetry interesting. Also, everyday subjects are treated with ordinary language, but take on a lyrical quality through sharp, inquisitive wit with overt sympathy on top of that.
His way with words is of simple, unpretentious language. Much harassed by his stepmother, he captures isolation fairly much and often, and brilliantly.
THEY SAY his haiku poetry is one of sentimental simplicity - and first and foremost endearing.
Issa (1763-1828):
-/oaks.nvg.org/an2ra2.html/ © 1996-2004, T. Kinnes — Updated in Summer 2004.
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