Naturalness – Haiku – March 23, 2015

tiny flowers
under the persimmon tree
the snow has melted

spring delight
with a bee in its bonnet
a dandy lion

© G.s.k. ‘16

Carpe Diem Special #203 Basho’s disciples: Mukai Kyorai’s “Master of Persimmons”

Blossoming Poppies – Haiku – March 22, 2016

rain drops
plummet onto the field
blossoming poppies

© G.s.k. ‘16

Carpe Diem #942 Thorn

Writing with Morikawa Kyoroku – March 12, 2016

Two haiku and a haiga by haiku master Morikawa Kyorroku – disciple of Basho (the biography is in the CDHK link found below):

akegata ya shiro wo torimaku kamo no koe

it is dawn
the castle surrounded
by quacking wild ducks

deep in the water,
softly moving his fins,
a carp, dreaming

© Morikawa Kyoroku

Now my attempts to write in the spirit of today’s poet:

morning light
the first blossoms of spring
bloom over-night

under the castle
sparrows clamber for breakfast
near the fountain

© G.s.k. ‘16

Carpe Diem Special #201 Basho’s disciples: Morikawa Kyoroku’s “morning glories”

Rain – Haiku Writing Techniques – March 9, 2016

last rains of winter
raindrops tip-tap on the roof
and on window panes

grey winter days
looking at the rain fall
cold wet memories

students and workers
riding through the town on bikes
under cold rainfall

§§§

watching the rain fall
counting the days until spring
discarding winter
and yet the mountains are white
with late snowfall

endless rainfall
smell of mould and cabbages
waft through the air
greeting the weary visitors
in the ancient farm-house

© G.s.k. ‘16

Carpe Diem #933 Rain

First a look at Shiki:

You’ll often read that haiku shouldn’t  be describing a scene – one is to look for that “a-ha!” quality that will have our reader touch upon a sort of surprised moment creating a sensation of some inner meaning.  However, in modern haiku, Masoaoka Shiki  felt that haiku had become trite, dusty and “contrived” with all its artificial rules and puns accumulated  from the old renga schools.   Shiki, like other Meiji Period writers truly enjoyed the realism of Western literature, and this is evident in his approach and recommended composition form based on Shasei (“realistic observation of nature”) or sketch from life which he interjected into his prose writing, haiku and tanka  as his principal style.

A lightning flash:
between the forest trees
I have seen water.

But this month we walk with Basho … so here is a quote from today’s episode at CDHK:

“In the way of Basho:

a rainy day
the autumn world
of a border town

© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold

In this haiku Basho uses the so-called “sketch” or “shasei” technique. Though this technique is often given Shiki’s term “shasei” or “shajitsu” it’s not really a technique which is invented by Shiki. This technique has been in use since the beginning of poetry in Asia. The poetic principle is “to depict the thing just as it is”. There are some inspirations for haiku that are best said as simply as possible. Shiki wrote his haiku almost all with this “shasei”, but Shiki realized himself in 1893 that the overuse of this technique could produce many lackluster haiku, so it should never be the only method employed in a haiku.

early autumn
the sea and rice fields
one green

© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold

(There are many more examples of Basho’s poetry on today’s post so click the link)

Morning Haiku and Waka – Basho’s Writing Techniques – March 6, 2016

swinging bridge
first one thinks of
meeting horses

© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)

“This haiku was written in autumn 1688 and is about a bridge in Kiso. The Kiso area was known for high quality horses raised there on August 15th it was the customary for the emperor to inspect his horses. All the horses from this district had to cross this bridge to go to Tokyo.

Due to his renga-writing skills. Basho was a master at making wild, wide leaps in the linking of the images in his poems. Today the haiku writing technique used by Basho is Leap Linkage.  In this haiku the linkage leap is so wide that a footnote of explanation for readers four centuries and thousands of miles away to follow it is needed. This is one of the problems of making an innovative or wide leap – how to get the reader’s mind to track it over the abyss without getting lost. The important point in creating with this technique is that the writer is Always totally aware of his or her truth. This is rare in haiku, because in haiku the poet needs the reader. Usually, if the reader thinks about the words long enough and deeply enough, he can find the author’s truth, or better still, a new one.” (CDHK)

§§§§

This is my attempt for the leap linkage technique:

On New Year’s day I was invited by a friend to go on a walk.  We climbed up a steep hill-side to a metal cross that over-looks the lower Sarca valley.  Being completely out of shape the only thing that kept me walking was the spectacular photographs that I’d have been able to take.  Unfortunately my camera’s batteries died after the third or fourth photo.  I admit to being terribly disappointed.  Later returning to her car at sunset I took a few photographs with my telephone. The above is one of them.

fenced in
a teasing purple sunset
New Year’s day

© G.s.k. ‘16

§§§§§§§§

(In Western haiku we learn that rhyme has no part of the form … which like many other rules of Western haiku has little to do with the reality of Japanese haiku. Let’s read what Chèvrefeuille tells you in this episode of CDHK dedicated to haiku writing techniques of Master Basho.)

nebu no ki no hagoshi mo itoe hoshi no kage

a silk tree
even through the leaves waery
of starlight

© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)

In the way of Basho

“Rhyme is a major component of Western poetry. In Japan most of the sound units (onji) are built on only five vowels, and rhyming occurs naturally. Yet, haiku translated into rhymed lines often need so much padding to make the rhyme work that the simplicity of the poem gets lost. However, if the reader takes the time to read the romaji version of the above haiku by Basho. one can see how often the old master employed the linkage of sound in his work. The rhyme, in the above haiku, occurs here with hagoshi(“through leaves”), hoshi (“star”), and the seven “oh” sounds.” (CDHK)

(So we must conclude that the problem is not writing rhyming haiku, but translating Japanese haiku which is often rhymed but untranslatable as a rhyming poem in western languages if we wish to keep the haiku poetic/aesthetic form.)

My attempt at haiku rhyme:

inside city walls
without stalls metal horses
line Padua’s malls

© G.s.k. ‘16

(As Chèvrefeuille would say, not  very strong haiku today … perhaps I’ll try these techniques sometime again in the future 😉 )

 

Carpe Diem #931 Bridge and Carpe Diem #932 silk tree

Hello!

As many might have remarked, I’ve not been as assiduously writing as I usually do.  This is not due to any lack of enthusiasm, but shoddy Internet.  It takes forever for a single page to come up on my browser if there is a connection at all, which is becoming terribly frustrating.  So this post will be in fact a response to two prompted themes bridge and silk tree from Carpe Diem Haiku Kai.

The Great Buddha – Haiku – January 22, 2016

new fallen snow
whitens the head
of the Great Buddha

© G.s.k. ‘16

Carpe Diem Special #193 Revise That Haiku … a trip along memory lane

Daibutsu no katahada no yuki toki ni keri

the snow has melted
on one shoulder
of the Great Buddha 

© Shiki

 

As you all (maybe) know in this special feature the goal was to revise the given haiku and write/compose a new one. Not an easy task and it needs some courage to revise a haiku by one of the greatest five haiku-poets ever (Basho, Chiyo-Ni, Buson, Issa and Shiki), but … well it challenges you to look in a different way to the classical haiku.

 

Carp Diem – Basho’s wrapped in a straw mat – May 26, 2015

illumination
walking down an empty street
lamp light in Venice

© G.s.k. ‘15

§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§§

komo wo ki te tare bito imasu hana no haru

wrapped in a straw mat
who can this great one be?
flowers of spring

© Basho (Tr. Jane Reichhold)

The above haiku is an example of a technique much-loved by the Japanese haiku poets, the riddle technique.  Here’s what our host, Chèvrefeuille tells us about the technique:

The riddle is probably one of the very oldest poetical techniques. It has been guessed that early spiritual knowledge was secretly preserved and passed along through riddles. Because poetry, as it is today, is the commercialization of religious prayers, incantations, and knowledge, it is no surprise that riddles still form a serious part of poetry’s transmission of ideas.The ‘trick’ is to state the riddle in as puzzling terms as possible. What can one say that the reader cannot figure out the answer? The more intriguing the ‘set-up’ and the bigger surprise the answer is, the better the haiku seems to work. As in anything, you can overextend the joke and lose the reader completely. The answer has to make sense to work and it should be realistic. Here is a case against desk haiku. If one has seen plastic bags caught on cacti, it is simple and safe to come to the conclusion I did. If I had never seen such an incident, it could be it only happened in my imagination and in that scary territory one can lose a reader. So keep it true, keep it simple and keep it accurate and make it weird.

Oh, the old masters favorite trick with riddles was the one of: is that a flower falling or is it a butterfly? or is that snow on the plum or blossoms and the all-time favorite – am I a butterfly dreaming I am a man or a man dreaming I am a butterfly. Again, if you wish to experiment (the ku may or may not be a keeper) you can ask yourself the question: if I saw snow on a branch, what else could it be? Or seeing a butterfly going by you ask yourself what else besides a butterfly could that be?
One famous haiku with this “riddle technique” I had to share here with you all. I think you all will know this haiku by Arakida Moritake (1473-1549):

A fallen blossom
Returning to the bough, I thought —
But no, a butterfly.

© Moritake