INTRODUCTION
What is Haiku?
Haiku is one of the most important and honored kind of traditional Japanese poems. It is a 17-syllabe verse form usually consisting of three metrical units of 5, 7, and 5 syllabes. It has no rhyme and is often written in three lines respectively of 5, 7 and 5 syllabes.
Yet even within these strict constraints, haiku poets can write with subtlety and depth. Haiku elicits meaning from our own knowledge and connections between concepts. That's why In haiku there are in fact two poets: the one who writes and the one who reads.
Why to make Haiku ?
I think that people can make Haiku to express their vision of life. Haiku helps us to think about how deeply we are related to nature. Making or reading Haiku, people can understand the meaning of their life more deeply because Haiku poem shows the author's view of his own life while the haiku poem draws nature externally. In other words, nature drawn in Haiku poems has potential abilities to be a metaphor of authors' philosophy of life. This is why a seasonal keyword is a necessary element in Haiku poem. This keyword is called "kigo", and is closely related to climate, culture and nature. So each culture can have is own "kigo". Some are common, because strictly related to nature, for example:
"first green","gentle wind" and "cherry blossom" are kigo for spring;
"rainbow", "cicada" and "fireworks" are kigo for summer;
"moon", "red leaves" and "grapes" are kigo for autumn;
"snow", "owl" and "potato" are kigo for winter.
In Haiku is used "Indirectness" because the haijin doesn't like to state, he prefers to suggest. Because of that, it may take some time for the western beginner to deeply understand Haiku. That's why it is said (but this is true also for people cultivating Haiku by years) that Haiku is to be read and read many times, in different moments, and it will convey, each time, a new message. The sum of those messages is the content of Haiku.
There has been confusion between the three related terms Haiku, Hokku and Haikai. The term hokku literally means "starting verse", and was the first starting link of a much longer chain of verses composed alternatively by two or more people, known as haikai. Because the hokku set the tone for the rest of the poetic chain, it enjoyed a privileged position in haikai poetry, and it was common for an haijin to compose a hokku by itself, without asking to somebody for the rest of the chain.
Mainly tanks to Masaoka Shiki, this independence was formally expressed at the end of last century, through the creation of the term haiku. Haiku was to be written, read and understood as an independent poem, complete in itself, rather than part of a longer chain.
Strictly speaking, then, the term haiku comes to light only in the last years
of the 19th century. The famous verses of such Edo-period (1600-1868)
masters as Matsuo Basho, Yosa Buson, and Kobayashi Issa (this last one is the one I like more), even though they really are independent haiku, are properly referred to as hokku and must be placed in the perspective of the history of haikai.
If you think Haiku interesting, please go to next pages, read and enjoy.
SHOAN
Vittorio-Maria Brandoni |
Go to: Haiku 3
Go to: Haiku 2