hadaka: all that comprises life

[AlanSummers]

That's the hai in haiku.  The Japanese language is deliberately oblique yet filled with amazing humour. ;-)

Alan

I'm sure that's a very profound statement, but...  what on earth did he say?

[Sue]

Really? So is this an in-joke only for those who speak Japanese?

or can we ordinary mortals share in it?

[AlanSummers]

I believe the translation is very inclusive, but generally speaking we aren't as up to speed on gugen and honkadori as the classic Japanese haikai experts were. 

Here's an article that might be interesting:
http://www.haijinx.org/I-1/articles/yuasa-p1.html

Alan

[Sue]

who is this 'we'?

if what you mean is 'sub-textual alternative readings', a 'message', and 'allusion' then I personally use them all the time. As do many others. I have even been known, on occasion, to use so-called "vulgar language". This POV which you seem to be espousing seems to be stuck in a narrow and elitist rather tidy little view of haiku, Alan.

There is nothing intrinsically valuable about using the word 'fart' in a haiku, or any other word considered 'vulgar'. Unless of course it is there merely for its shock value ...which may have some contextual value. It is an honest enough word. Issa uses it well. However, in England only pre-adolescent boys find such words inherently funny. On the wit-scale poems about poopy pants score very low on my scales. But here, I can't find the ones I did a few months ago but I'll rattle a few off for you....

sweeping
the fallen leaves
pissing into the wind

Father Ted
dead
feck fecking feck

the Queen
did her family all fart
to the speech?



Sue

[AlanSummers]

Few of us aka we, including modern Japanese writers/readers, as well as Western writers/readers are familiar in depth as the Classic Japanese writers and readers.  For various reasons including the fact they weren't distracted by modern contrivances.

My statements aren't about farting, but what can be perceived as non-poetical subjects in general.

This is a post to showcase them.

Alan

[AlanSummers]

Some recent haiku aka vanguard haiku, and some famous ones from the past:

his twin
lost in battle, the pain
of a phantom limb

André Surridge

World Haiku Review
Haiku 3, January 2011
Vanguard Haiku
Honourable Mention


a black-yellow moth...
on the wall of our home, the day
after my sister-in-law died

Natsumi Kosuge
World Haiku Review
Haiku 1, August 2011
Honourable Mention


first snow
I no longer have a child
to measure its depth

Melissa Allen
World Haiku Review
Zatsuei (Haiku of Merit)
Haiku 1, January 2011

in the woods
a christmas wreath
turns brown

Joseph M. Kusmiss
World Haiku Review
Zatsuei (Haiku of Merit)
Haiku 1, January 2011


And well worth a revisit:
http://www.thehaikufoundation.org/2010/02/10/viral-5-6/



鮟鱇の骨まで凍ててぶちきらる
ankō-no hone-made itete buchikiraru


the anglerfish frozen
right down to its very bones
is hacked to pieces

—Katō Shūson (1905–1993)
(translated by Dhugal J. Lindsay)


the sack of kittens
sinking in the icy creek
increases the cold

Nick Virgilio, Haiku West 1.1, 1967


red flipped out
chicken lung
in a cold white sink

Anita Virgil, A 2nd Flake, 1974


turned earth
the splayed ribcage
of a March hare

John Barlow, Frogpond 30.3, 2007

[AlanSummers]

From today's Per Diem:

the twists
in old coyote shit
Autumn wind

-- Burnell Lippy

[Don Baird]

pissing ...
in the wind
a light mist

[AlanSummers]

Per Diem: Daily Haiku


morning sun—
fish scales glisten
in the otter scat

- H. Gene Murtha


Otters, and otter scat:
http://www.bear-tracker.com/otter.html

[Vida]

What an interesting discussion!

If I may return to this,

waga oya no
shinuru toki ni mo
he o kokite

Even at the time
When my father lay dying
I still kept farting

I don't think the poet is being funny, or vulgar, or overly philosophical.  Now, I don't know much about the Japanese culture, and I may be wrong in my understanding.
He compares two events, one seems to be huge- a death, the other- very small. But they are not so different. We have no control over any of them. They happen independently of what we do or what we wish.
The poet does not mean disrespect to his dying father, he just had a bad meal, or he has a bad stomach. His father does not die in purpose, it's his time. We can postpone, or try our best to fix each of this events, but neither our bodily functions nor our death are  our servants.  :)
What I got from the poem is that we don't have to consider any event too big or too small. They are equally important and unimportant.
I think the poem is genius :). If I have understood it right  ;)

Best,
Vida

PS I really enjoyed all poems!

[AlanSummers]

Dear Vida, many thanks for your close reading.

[Andy]

Vida, wonderful insight.

Andy

[John McManus]

It may just be me, but I find this haiku incredibly moving and sad . . .

a crow pecks
at something small and still . . .
autumn dunes

Peggy Heinrich, published in The Heron's Nest, volume XIII, #3, 2011.

warmest,
John

[Vida]

Both frozen butterfly and butterfly in my memory lack their wings

Hashimoto Takako

(One Hundred Frogs, Hiroaki Sato)

[Chase Gagnon]

too early for sunrise
the horizon glows with the red
of burning villages

This ku wowed me!
Amazing.
Thank you for posting these great examples, Alan  :)

Do you by any chance know where i would be able to purchase a collection like this?
I would be very interested.