Monday, May 31, 2010

Yosa Buson & Masaoka Shiki

Rounding out this blog's section on haikus are Masters Buson and Shiki. Both wrote most of their work in the late nineteenth century. Below are some of their works.


coming back-
so many pathways
through the spring grass

-Yosa Buson



fresh young leaves
the sound of a waterfall
both far and near

-Yosa Buson







in sorrow
wandering the hill
wild roses flowering

-Yosa Buson






雪ふるよ障子の穴を見てあれば


yuki furu yo
shōji no ana o
mite areba

snow's falling!
I see it through a hole
in the shutter...

-Masaoka Shiki

すゞしさや瀧ほとばしる家のあひ

suzushisa ya
taki hotobashiru
ie no ai

coolness—
a mountain stream splashes out
between houses

-Masaoka Shiki

Works Cited: "The Haiku of Yosa Buson." Greenleaf Company. N.p., n.d. Web. Jun 3, 2010.
"Haiku of Masaoka Shiki." Baymoon.com. N.p., n.d. Web. Jun 3, 2010.

Sunday, May 30, 2010

Haikus By Issa

Kobayashi Issa lived in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries and wrote over twenty thousand works of poetry in his lifetime. He is considered one of the four great haiku masters along with Matsuo Basho, Yosa Buson and Masaoka Shiki all of whose work will appear in this blog.

Two of my favorite haikus by Issa are below.

長閑や鼠のなめる角田川

nodokasa ya nezumi no nameru sumida-gawa

spring peace--
a mouse licking up
Sumida River

and-

山風を踏こたへたりみそさざい

yama kaze wo fumi kotaetari misosazai

fighting the mountain wind
on foot...
a wren



Works Cited: "Haiku of Kabayshi Issa" Haiku Guy. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Jun 2010

Saturday, May 29, 2010

Matsuo Basho's Frog Haiku



The above picture is Matsuo Basho's Frog Haiku, possibly the most famous haiku in the world. Basho lived in the 16oo's and wrote many classic haikus but his best known is this one, written below phonetically. Go ahead, speak it outloud and hear the poetry of it for yourself.

Furu ike ya
kawazu tobikomu
mizu no oto


I'll provide a translation. The thing is though, there's not just one. There are as many as thirty different translations of this poem, each one trying to get to the heart of what Basho was trying to convey. Here's the most literal of the translations:

Old pond — frogs jumped in — sound of water.
Translated by Lafcadio Hearn


But other translators attempted to not just translate the literal meaning of the words but to expand on what they thought Basho's original idea was. Some of my favorite translations are below.

A lonely pond in age-old stillness sleeps . . .
Apart, unstirred by sound or motion . . . till
Suddenly into it a lithe frog leaps.
Translated by Curtis Hidden Page
The ancient pond
A frog leaps in
The sound of the water.
Translated by Donald Keene
The old pond is still
a frog leaps right into it
splashing the water

Translated by Earl Miner & Hiroko Odagiri
Old dark sleepy pool
quick unexpected frog
goes plop! Watersplash.

Translated by Peter Beilenson
Listen! a frog
Jumping into the stillness
Of an ancient pond!
Translated by Dorothy Britton
At the ancient pond
a frog plunges into
the sound of water
Translated by Sam Hamill
Ancient silent pond
Then a frog jumped right in
Watersound: kerplunk
Translated by John S. Major

old pond
a frog leaps in —
a moment after, silence
Translated by Ross Figgins

ancient is the pond —
suddenly a frog leaps — now!
the water echoes
Translated by Tim Chilcott
There once was a curious frog
Who sat by a pond on a log
And, to see what resulted,
In the pond catapulted
With a water-noise heard round the bog.
Translated by Alfred H. Marks


Okay, so that last one takes a few liberties but the point is still the same. Notice how each different translation brings to mind a slightly different picture? The power of words can be very subtle.
Works Cited: "Matsuo Bashô: Frog Haiku." Bureau of Public Secrets. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Jun 2010.
Chowaney, Nonin. "Haiku by Basho." Zen Calligraphy. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Jun 2010.

What are Haikus?


Simply put, haikus are a style of poetry developed in Japan that are based on syllables. But this is too narrow a definition. First of all, it is misleading. English speaking people learn that that a haiku has three lines of 5,7 and 5 syllables when really, the English idea of a syllable is not what is counted in the Japanese language. If you wrote haikus in Japanese, you would count mora, not syllables. Mora (or on) are not counted the say way as syllables are. One mora is counted for a short syllable, one for an elongated vowel, diphthong (two consonants that create one sound such as “th”), or doubled consonant, and one more for an "n" at the end of a syllable. Now, since there is no history of counting English wordsounds this way, English haikus are based on syllables rather than mora. The way to write an English haiku that would be the closest linguistically to Japanese haikus would be to write one with twelve syllables as the duration of speaking time of twelve English syllables is very close to seventeen Japanese mora.

Two other Japanese concepts that get lost when haikus are translated into English are kigo and kirenji. Kigo is a “season word” that tells the reader in which season the experience being written about occurs. It’s not surprise of course that many haikus, Japanese, English and indeed any other language, are about nature.

Also not present in non-Japanese haikus are kirenji. Translated “cutting word”, kirenji is a form of spoken pronunciation. In traditional Japanese poetry, there are eighteen kirenji used for emphasis. Of course, not many languages have spoken pronunciation so it is hard to transfer this concept when translating haikus.

Last, but not least when trying to understand what haikus are is the idea that although we are counting syllables and lines and trying to stay within the parameters of the style, haikus have to present something. A good haiku should, with very few words, be able to evoke specific and detailed images. When writing haiku the most important thing is not really counting syllables or mora but choosing the perfect words to best describe what you want the reader to see in his or her mind. When you’ve got that, then you can write a good haiku.


Works Cited: "Official Definitions of Haiku and Related Terms." Haiku Society of America. N.p., 18 SEP 2004. Web. 3 Jun 2010.