The Haiku Foundation Forums

tsunagi uma
繋ぎ馬 雪一双の 鐙かな

Buson - winter hokku


a tethered horse
with snow in both
stirrups

the cut marker KANA is at the end of line 3, so this is one sentence to translate.

http://www5c.biglobe.ne.jp/~n32e131/haiku/busonhuyu03.html
.

行く我にとゞまる汝に秋二つ
yuku ware ni todomaru nare ni aki futatsu

for me going
for you staying here
two autumns

for Natsume Soseki staying in Matsuyama,
when Masaoka Shiki left for Tokyo.
.
http://wkdhaikutopics.blogspot.jp/2011/10/natsume-soseki.html
.

This one

ANAKU Asociación Navarra de Haiku
LA EMBAJADA DEL JAPÓN EN ESPAÑA INFORMA

But seems out of use since 2011

http://asociacionanaku.blogspot.jp/

trying the newest in Japanese research for Basho

行く春や鳥啼き魚の目は泪
yuku haru ya tori naki uo no me wa namida

spring is leaving ..
birds sing
tears in the eyes of (my friend called) Fish

for Sugiyama Sanpu 杉山杉風

Sanpu was an official fish merchant of the Bakufu government in Edo.
He was also an ardent haikai poet and supported Matsuo Basho in many ways, helping him to establish his Basho school of haikai.
He was one of the Basho jittetsu 芭蕉十哲 10 most important followers .
Sanpu provided the Basho-An in Fukagawa for Basho to live in.

When starting out to the long and dangerous trip of "Oku no Hosomichi",
Basho wrote this famous haiku in his honor :

yuku haru ya tori naki uo no me wa namida

http://wkdhaikutopics.blogspot.jp/2012/10/sugiyama-sanpu.html
.

Quoteno matter how long
I stare at hydrangeas —
pure blue

Basho trans. Makoto Ueda
from Makoto Ueda's Matsuo Basho: The Master Haiku Poet.

Dear Alan,
do you know the Japanese for this poem?

I found two about ajisai from Basho, but this is not among them.

. ajisai ya katabira doki no usu asagi .
. ajisai ya yabu o koniwa no betsu zashiki .

http://matsuobasho-wkd.blogspot.jp/2012/09/aaa.html

Thanks
Gabi

The Japanese Angle

Writing haiku in one line or three lines .. this is not discussed often with my Japanese friends, because it does not constitute a problem to them.
Also dividing a haiku in fragment and phrase seems an American approach to formalizing and explaining haiku.

I have gotten another inspiration to this discussion, an approach I usually take when a Japanese cultural phenomenon just does not fit in any other language so easily: give the child a different name.
Let us not argue about the lines, but call them
SECTIONS / SEGMENTS.

A Japanese haiku comes in three sections:

kami go (the top five section)
naka shichi (the middle seven section)
shimo go (the lower five section)

So, given the natural rhythm of the Japanese language, it is easy to recognize these sections when spoken.

Writing these three sections usually depends on the Japanese paper you are given.

On a small slip (tansaku) it goes from top to bottom.
On a square decoration sheet (shikishi) it goes in three lines, usually from right to left.
NHK Haiku writes in three lines from right to left, name of the artist most left.
Very seldom it is written in three lines from left to right, the Latinized way.
With a wordprocessor, it comes out as one line, from left to right, if not formatted differently.

So, there are many ways to write it in Japanese too, but ALWAYS the three sections are clearly discernable.

Thus, in English it should not be such a big problem whether you write it in one line or in three, but you should take care to make your three sections easily discernable, most probably in a way of using the format of
short * long * short
for the sections as a kind of imitation of the original Japanes haiku parent.


And would you introduce writing your one-line haiku from top to bottom, just to imitate one way of Japanese writing?


Monoku, one line ku, one-liner, one sentence ku, run-on sentence ku, one-line poem and other expressions are also sometimes used in English.
But this often also refers to a different kind of poem.

MORE
http://happyhaiku.blogspot.jp/2000/07/one-sentence-haiku.html

.
船と岸と話してゐる日永かな
fune to kishi to hanashite iru hinaga kana

a boat and the shore
are talking together . . .
days getting longer

Masaoka Shiki　
Tr. Gabi Greve

a boat and the shore ... Japanese haiku-shorthand for
a person on the boat and a person on the shore.
This is not a personification of the boat and shore doing the talking.

- - -
Yosa Buson has this

春雨やものかたりゆく蓑と笠
harusame ya mono katariyuku mino to kasa

spring rain -
a mino-raincoat and a rain-hat
talk to each other

Again, no personification, but the people who use the coat and hat.

.
Anthropomorphism (personification, gijinka　擬人化)
is usually avoided in traditional Japanese haiku, since it collides with the idea of "shasei", but of course, there are exceptions when a very special effect is aimed at.
The skilfull use of a juxtaposition can be used.
.
MORE
http://wkdhaikutopics.blogspot.jp/2007/02/anthropomorphism.html
.
.
and some samples by Matsuo Basho

植うる事子のごとくせよ児桜　
. uuru koto ko no gotoku seyo chigo-zakura .


予が風雅は夏炉冬扇のごとし
. yo ga fuuga wa karo toosen no gotoshi .


鮎の子の白魚送る別れ哉　
. ayu no ko no shirauo okuru wakare kana .
Basho (the whitefish) at Senju, departing from his young disciples (ayu no ko).


降らずとも 竹植る日は 蓑と笠
. furazu tomo take uu hi wa mino to kasa .
farmers described by their outfit, a raincoat and rain hat


山吹の露菜の花のかこち顔なるや
. yamabuki no tsuyu na no hana no kakochigao naru ya .

>
MORE
http://matsuobasho-wkd.blogspot.jp/2012/06/names-of-persons.html
.
Greetings from Japan
Gabi

The issue seems to be unavailable.
Any new HTML for it ? ???

Gabi
(chasing after Basho)

I just found a great hokku by Basho . . .

鮎の子の白魚送る別れ哉　
ayu no ko no shirauo okuru wakare kana

young ayu sweetfish
are seeing off the whitefish
and say good bye . . .
Tr. Gabi Greve

Written in March of 1689 元禄2年3月.

The whitefish are the first to go upstream to spawn, the ayu follow them one month later.
Basho and Sora (whitefish) are ready to depart for "Oku no Hosomichi"
and he has to leave his young disciples (ayu no ko) behind at Senju.

This hokku has the cut marker KANA at the end of line 3.
.
Basho at Senju
http://matsuobasho-wkd.blogspot.jp/2012/11/oku-station-2-departure.html


Greetings from Japan
Gabi
.

winter stars - that makes it night

day dreams - that makes it day

so you have a lot of time passing within one haiku.

I prefere the first version

winter stars
the darkness between
my dreams
.
or

winter stars -
the darkness between
my dreams

or

(another kigo) -   (?snowed in)
the darkness between
my day dreams
.

All the best with figuring this one out!
Gabi from Japan
.

Matsuo Basho used a lot of "nature" images,
but in fact writing about his friends.
http://matsuobasho-wkd.blogspot.jp/2012/06/names-of-persons.html


Personification is part and parcel of Japanese haiku - and hopefully also in ELH.
http://wkdhaikutopics.blogspot.jp/2007/02/anthropomorphism.html


Greetings from a snowy morning in Japan.
Gabi

Pop Quiz (single question):
Is haiku in English a socially relevant poetics in the 21st century?
。
Looking at the many haiku forums on FB, twitter  and elsewhere, I think yes,
it has become a "socially relevant poetics" .

This has nothing to do with the quality of the poems offered.  :'(
.
Greetings from Japan,
where haiku is  very much a "socially relevant poetics".
We got TV programs on "how to" and more books on "how to" than you would expect ...

Even my little village of  400 mostly elderly folks  has its regular "haiku meetings" ...
and not to speak of the many "social groups" who meet regularly to compose haiku in all towns and big cities.
.
Sorry, this got longer that I wanted, and "sorry" for the Japanese background.
Gabi
.

Basho has influenced me most,
although my living conditions in Japan are more "Issa-like".

I have started to organize the Basho files of the WKD and will go on doing so in 2013, since good translations are treasures and background information is vital to most of his work.
So I concentrate on the cultural keywords he has used in his hokku.

Feel free to ask for any special hokku by Basho for more background info.

Gabi

Visit Basho here
http://matsuobasho-wkd.blogspot.jp/
.
Or check the Basho newsletter for my regular updates.
.

In Japanese
all the vowels come in long and short versions ...

a and aa
e and ee
i and ii
o and oo
u and uu

and the pronounciation is different for each one.

zoka in Japanese is different from zooka
.
my husband is my shujin, but not a shuujin (a prisoner)
.
It is the fine difference that is important in spoken language understanding.
.
Gabi

the natural 5/7/5 "on" (sounds like 'own')

ON is pronoucned with a short o (btw, AEIOU in Japanese are the same sounds as in the German language... good for me)

I think it is better to compare the sound with the beginning of

ongoing  ONgoing

音字 onji

http://happyhaiku.blogspot.jp/2000/07/theory-5-7-5.html
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Greetings from a cold morning in Japan.
Gabi
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