Haiku Poetry

The research, which constitutes the first part of the author’s multivolume History of the New Japanese Poetry, traces the process of emergence and evolution of verse in the new forms after the Meiji Restoration. A totally new worldview forged in the fire of polemics on the pages of critical journals paved the way for the innovative aesthetics of the XX century Japan. The eloquent melodic Romanticist shintaishi poetry by Shimazaki Toson and Doi Bansui born from the synthesis of East and West, the lyrical masterpieces by the great Symbolists Kitahara Hakushu, Miki Rofu, Kinoshita Mokutaro and a brilliant constellation of other young talents laid the foundation for the modern Japanese poetry and poetics. The book is richly illustrated with portraits of the poets and original paintings.

Haiku poetry developed over centuries in Japan, taking on such distinct characteristics that protective Japanese haikuists regard it as an inimitable part of their literature, aesthetics, and culture. At the same time, teachers all over the world have children write “haiku” poems in their own languages. There are also many English haiku contests and anthologies, some including Japanese judges, sponsors, editors or entrants, suggesting the internationalization of haiku. Therefore to decide between the conflicting claims as to whether non-Japanese are able to write real haiku poetry or not, the essential characteristics of this genre must be clarified.

This inquiry builds on the work of such thinkers as David Abram and Maurice Merleau-
Ponty; like their work, it addresses the fact that people in the Western developed world,
through their acculturations, sacrifice intimacy with the natural world. The article explores
one remedial measure: the Yamato Kotoba language of the Japanese. This is a language
before the Chinese injection of spoken and written words, one that preserves the earlier
words better suited, the authors propose, to expressing the interpenetrating experience of
the person with—in this case the Japanese—natural setting. Such an intimacy appears, for
instance, in Basho’s Haiku. In the same vein, Japanese Koto Dama deploys the spiritual power
that resides in words—as they are both spoken and unspoken. These linguistic phenomena
are explored and explained insofar as they preserve, capture, and celebrate human intimacy
with nature. In the words of Merleau-Ponty, they re-member humans as “flesh of the world’s
flesh.”

Il poeta giapponese Masaoka Shiki  (1867-1902) deve la sua fama non soltanto ai numerosi e pregevoli haiku e tanka  che compose, ma anche all'aver saputo insufflare nuova forza in questi due generi poetici che stavano attraversando una fase di crisi. Shiki, che viene ricordato anche per la sua attività di critico letterario, è noto infatti soprattutto per la concettualizzazione e diffusione di un nuovo ideale estetico: lo shasei. Il termine, come illustreremo più avanti, si può tradurre con "riproduzione dal vero", e comporta l'osservazione diretta dell'oggetto della poesia e la sua riproduzione fedele ("ari no mamani utsusu", ossia "riprodurre così com'è"). Entrambi i princìpi sembrano trasformare il poeta in un semplice mezzo per riportare ai lettori, nella maniera più oggettiva possibile, qualcosa a cui loro non assistono direttamente. Sembrano quindi essere esclusi a priori i sentimenti e l'immaginazione, e il far poesia sembra trasformarsi più che altro in una sorta di "giornalismo poetico". In realtà, analizzando il pensiero e la produzione poetica di Shiki nel corso degli anni, ci si accorge che il poeta riesce a conciliare realismo e immaginazione, e quest'ultima risorsa diventerà per lui irrinunciabile quando, ormai troppo malato (cfr. nota 1), rimarrà isolato dal mondo esterno. In questo articolo verrà quindi analizzata la funzione dell'immaginazione nell'ambito della produzione poetica di Shiki attraverso l'analisi del saggio Kuawase no tsuki ("Il tema della luna, in una gara di haiku), in cui il poeta illustra il processo creativo che porta alla composizione di haiku, e verrà messo in luce il modo in cui, con il tempo, cambierà la sua maniera di intendere il realismo

Keynote address slideshow with links to the Zoom recording and related publications. The ancient intuitive language of images is still within us. People have always lived myths and taken lessons from legends. The lore and iconography of the Pilgrimage of Shikoku provide vivid examples. Poetry relies on metaphors, while true haiku communicate through nature symbolism. Although the author's research and practice span e-learning, bilingualism, language teaching, Japan, Asia, and the academic life, this keynote address shows his even broader personal interests including depth psychology, comparative culture, and East-West philosophy.

Resumen: El presente trabajo se ocupa de estudiar la materialidad del haiku japonés de principios del siglo XX. Luego de un panorama general de los estudios del haiku en Occidente, se ocupa de la presentación de una categoría teórico-analítica para abordar el haiku japonés: re-trazar. Sirviéndose de algunas nociones de la deconstrucción y recorriendo el problema de la traducción en dicho marco, el re-trazar se configura como un hacer que se sitúa entre la traducción y la crítica del haiku. Para poner en ejercicio dicha categoría se estudian algunos haiku de un poeta característico del periodo ya mencionado: Taneda Santōka.

Palabras clave: Poesía japonesa, Haiku, Traducción, Santōka, Siglo XX.

The article presents analyses of a numerous group of Polish contemporary poems which are close to genre determinants of haiku. The key categories of description are sensual mimesis and modern
epiphany. The author pays attention to the traps the poets producing the miniatures inspired by Japanese 17-syllable poems may fall into, which are, on the one hand, triviality and antitheticality of compositions, and, on the other hand, excessive (in the perspective of haiku) stylistic richness and intellectualisation of the pieces. The following parts of the sketch are devoted to the strategies of refreshing the poetics of the genre: defamiliarisation of perception, metaphorisation and conceptism. The
author also focuses on strictly semantic issues: using ambiguity, exploiting oriental topoi, transgressing the taboo of haiku – erotism, death. The final part of the paper provides an answer to the question
whether the authors of “most real” Polish haiku are continuators of Eastern tradition or epigones.

For many years I have taken interest in the invention of
imaginary worlds. In childhood, worldplay, as I call it, often
begins in those special places where persistent make-believe
happens: a woodland glade, perhaps, or a Lego block house,
or a hand-drawn map of a treasure island. In adulthood,
imaginary world invention is highly (though not exclusively)
associated with the literary arts, with compelling visions of
a Wessex or a Middle-earth. I am particularly fascinated by
what it takes to evoke the “realness” of a parallel place or
paracosm: a skein of associations, a visual image or two, a
handful of words? In many of the sumi-e paintings, haiku,
and “haibun-ga” of Lidia Rozmus these questions take flight.
full moon
between me and Mole Hill
headless snowman1
What follows is an edited version of a conversation with the
poet-painter, which took place in August 2013 at the Haiku
North America Conference held on the Queen Mary in Long
Beach, California.

I first “met” Eve Luckring in the pages of A New Resonance
6, where her haiku were presented as “thumbnail sketches for
short stories,” alive with introspection and self-discovery.1
Bumping into her again, in the pages of haiku journals, in an
online kukai, I found myself relearning her lineaments, for her
poetry, it seemed to me, headed rapidly for the frontiers of haiku
territory. Because Eve is also an artist at work in video, sound,
photography and installation, the trajectory intrigued but did
not surprise me. Polymaths, individuals with strong interest and
activity in more than one field of endeavor, dominate the annals
of creative achievement. Challenged and compelled by her art,
I jumped at the chance to get to know her in person. This is an
edited, compressed version of our face-to-face conversation in
Los Angeles, June 18, 2014.