Haiku. 06.17.07
HUEN 3100
Author: Dr. Leland Giovannelli
Haiku: Brevity in Image
Earlier this semester, you encountered Aristotle’s ideas on the imitation inherent in
Tragedy. We discussed his ideas as they applied to Oedipus, and then adapted them to English
and American poetry. Now we will turn to a minimalist form of Japanese poetry—haiku—and ask
some of the same questions: does Aristotle’s typology apply here? Of what is haiku imitative? Are
the terms Character and Plot at all relevant to haiku? If not, can we find appropriate terms in
which to discuss it?
I. Historical and Theoretical Introduction1
The haiku style of poetry—the shortest poetic form in world literature—was
developed in Japan about 500 years ago and perfected about 300 years ago. It is still
popular. Hundreds of thousands of Japanese are serious haiku writers, and thousands of
haiku clubs and magazines currently flourish in Japan. (In Japan reading haiku is
considered as much of an art as writing them.) Western writers encountered haiku in
translation at about the beginning of the 20th century, and interest in this poetic form
spread to all parts of the Western as well as the Eastern worlds. Outside of Japan, the
largest and most active community of haiku poets works in English.
Haiku exemplify many aspects of almost all traditional Japanese art: clarity,
simplicity, understatement, focus on concrete detail, and avoidance of abstraction. In fact,
haiku do not employ metaphor, simile, or symbol, and are generally not expressed in
complete sentences. To this extent, haiku strongly differ from most traditional Western
poetic styles. On the other hand, George Orwell’s advice to use “the fewest and shortest
words that will cover one’s meaning” and to allow “the meaning choose the word, and
not the other way about”2 are directly relevant to appreciating and writing haiku.
II. What makes a poem a haiku?
Probably the most widely accepted definition in English is that by poet Cor van
den Heuvel:
A haiku is a short poem recording the essence of a moment keenly perceived in which nature
is linked to human nature. What distinguishes haiku is concision [i.e., conciseness],
perception and awareness—not a set number of syllables.
Here are two classic English examples. Read them slowly, carefully, and out loud several
times.
1
2
pausing
halfway up the stair—
white chrysanthemums
not seeing
the room is white
until that red apple
Much of the material in this handout by Michael McNierney is based, with authors’ permission, on
William J. Higginson, with Penny Harter, The Haiku Handbook (Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1985).
Further editing by LG.
2
George Orwell, “Politics & the English Language,” from Shooting an Elephant and Other Essays (New
York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1946).
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Haiku. 06.17.07
The list below articulates the traditional characteristics of this kind of writing.
Characteristics of a Haiku
1. A haiku is a short poem, usually fewer than ten syllables in English, and usually, but not
always, three lines long. You were probably taught in grade school to adhere to exactly 17
syllables in the three lines: 5-7-5. This syllable count perpetuates a serious mistake made by
early translators of Japanese haiku.3 Forget the 5-7-5 count: it is arbitrary, wrong, and
needlessly mechanical.
2. A haiku consists of an image, clearly and directly expressed, or upon two such images
juxtaposed in a surprising or significant way. A haiku shows us something; it does not tell us.
It presents; it does not describe.
3. A haiku is concerned with emotions. It may be a mixture of things like surprise and delight in
noticing something one hasn’t noticed before, or it may be something indefinable like a
mixture of awe, sadness, and joy. Whatever the emotions are, they are never directly
expressed. A haiku achieves its effect through suggestion and nuance. More is left up to
the reader’s imagination than in most other forms of poetry. For example:
This is not a haiku:
I was sad
when I saw
the dead cat
This is a haiku:
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dead cat…
open mouthed
to the pouring rain
4. A haiku usually involves the author’s perception of and interaction with something in
nature.
5. It is concerned with the here and now, and is almost always written in the present tense,
even if it is about the past. The past is gone, but the act of remembering is in the present.
6. It uses no metaphors, similes, symbols, abstractions, or generalities.
7. A haiku involves all the senses, although not necessarily all in the same poem.
8. In haiku, complete sentences are not required; in fact, they are often not used because they
can detract from the desired economy of language.
9. As short as it is, a haiku in English is often composed of two parts separated by a dash, a
colon, an ellipsis (…), or extra space. These indicate a pause, which may be the unspoken
connection between two images.
3
Japanese is a very different language from English or any other Indo-European language. Japanese words
do not have syllables in the English sense but are composed of onji, which means “sound symbols.” Onji
are considerably shorter than English syllables. In some Japanese words, it takes two or three onji to write
what we would think of as one syllable. For example, take the word manyôshû. How many syllables does it
have? Most of us would say 3: man - yô - shû. But in Japanese, it is counted as 6 onji. Traditional Japanese
poets count onji, not syllables.
Haiku. 06.17.07
10. A haiku is meant to be shared. The writer shares his or her experience with the readers, who
in turn bring their own experiences to their interpretation and enjoyment of the poem.
III. Analysis of a haiku
The following commentary demonstrates that although haiku are richly suggestive
and allusive, interpretation of them is not arbitrary. It must be based on a careful
reading of every word and its relationship to every other word, as well as to the
intellectual and emotional response of the reader and to his or her own experience. On the
other hand, not every responsible interpretation must be identical.
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dusk
from rock to rock
a waterthrush
These nine syllables… suggest a mountain and forest setting. The bird moves
about in a deepening solitude. Its movement helps to call into image, into being, the
movement of the stream, whose waters are evoked simply by the bird’s name…The
thrush moves in mystery—for in the dusk it seems to appear here, then there, as if by
magic. The essence of the bird is being revealed to us as much by what we don’t see as
by what we do. The harsh “k” sounds of the words for the surrounding “inanimate”
features of the landscape—dusk and rock—contrast with and help to isolate, because of
its relative softness, the word “waterthrush,” which stands for the only spot of life in the
gathering darkness. Yet the iambic flow of the line, combined with the bird’s unifying
movements, draws everything together into a whole in which the bird is not alone at all,
but is one with rock, water and dusk—one with existence—and we are too.4
IV. Japanese classics
Matsuo Bashô (1644-1694) was born into the samurai class (the upper, warrior
class) but devoted his life to Zen Buddhism and poetry. Although he didn’t invent haiku,
he turned it from what had become a trivial, superficial form of light verse to something
much more profound. He is considered Japan’s greatest poet (having something like the
place of Shakespeare in our culture) and has influenced every haiku poet in every
language down to the present day. Many of his poems express a sense of the mystery of
life and the universe. His poem about the frog is the most famous poem in Japan and the
best-known haiku in the world.
5
6
8
7
old pond…
a frog leaps in
water’s sound
on a barren branch
a raven has perched—
autumn dusk
9
the rough sea—
stretched toward Sado Isle
the Milky Way
the stillness—
soaking into stones
cicada’s cry
10
the bird flies
out and vanishes—
the lone island
not even a hat
in the cold rain—
ah, so what?
Cor van den Heuvel, “Concision, Perception, Awareness—Haiku,” New York Times Book Review, March
29, 1987.
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Yosa Buson (1716-1784) was an influential painter, and many of his poems
reflect the visual, sensual, and objective qualities of an artist. By his day, the poetry of
Bashô’s followers had declined in quality, and he went back to the master himself for
inspiration.
11
12
the coolness—
the voice of the bell
as it leaves the bell
14
13
spring rain:
an umbrella and a coat
go chatting together
15
on the temple bell
fast asleep—
a butterfly
in shimmering air—
insects I can’t name
whiteness floating
16
peony falling—
dropped overlapping
two or three petals
I’m going
you’re staying:
two autumns
V. Your own reading. Do not rush. Let the image(s) soak into your mind, without
analyzing them; be aware of what feelings and associations come up for you. Later, read
them again in light of the following questions. Make notes of your answers.
1. What are the images in each poem? What senses created them? What emotions emerge
from them? What experience of the poet does the poem capture? To what experience of
your own does it speak?
2. Haiku has been called “an open door that looks shut” and “a wordless poem.” How can
you relate these descriptions to the poems you read?
VI. Writing Haiku. When it comes time to write haiku of your own, don’t worry; just
try. Writing haiku, like any art, takes a great deal of time and practice to master. Bashô
said that if a person writes two or three really good haiku in his lifetime he is a haiku
poet; if he writes ten, he is a master.
Poets or Translators of numbered haiku
1. Elizabeth Searle Lamb
2. Anita Virgil
3. Michael McClintock
4. John Wills
5. trans. William Higginson
6. trans. William Higginson
7. trans. William Higginson
8. trans. Makoto Ueda
9. trans. M. McNierney
10. trans. M. McNierney
11. trans. R.H. Blyth
12. trans. R.H. Blyth
13. trans. Yuki Sawa
14. trans. Hiag Akmakjian
15. trans. William Higginson
16. trans. M. McNierney
Henley: Invictus. 06.15.07
Henley: Invictus. 06.15.07
Invictus
William Ernest Henley (1849-1903)
Out of the night that covers me,
Black as the Pit5 from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell6 clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings7 of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,8
And yet9 the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.
It matters not how strait10 the gate,
How charged11 with punishments12 the scroll,13
I am the master of my fate;
I am the captain of my soul.
5
The Pit: the Pit of Hell.
Fell: fierce, cruel, deadly.
7
Bludgeonings: brutal beatings. A bludgeon is a short stick, especially one with a weighted end, used as a weapon.
8
The shade: the land of shadow; the underworld; Hades.
9
Yet can mean still, to describe something that persists in time.
10
Strait: narrow (as in Strait of Gibraltar).
11
Charged: filled. (Compare, in speaking of guns: a charge of shot, a discharged revolver, etc.)
12
Punishments: not necessarily the legal consequences of evil deeds, but rather simply hardships endured. Compare
with “punishing blows” endured by a boxer.
13
Scroll: roll of paper, papyrus, parchment, etc., used for writing; in this context, especially: the scroll on which
one’s destiny is written.
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