An Introduction to Haiku
by Edward
Zuk
The
following questions and answers can help you learn more about the fine
haiku being written in English and how you too can begin to write these
brief yet resonant poems.
What is a haiku?
This
question actually has two answers, depending on whether one is a
Japanese or Western poet. For the Japanese, the
haiku is generally considered to be a nature poem written in a pattern
of 5-7-5 syllables.
For
Western poets, the 5-7-5 pattern is less important, and most poets
reject it in favour of other ways of
organizing their poems. In place of this structural
requirement, Western poets usually view the haiku as a short poem
written in three lines. Western haiku use concrete
images to capture a moment of insight.
What is the point of a haiku?
A
good haiku captures a scene or experience in a few choice words. It
suggests the depth and intensity of that moment, leading the reader to a
deeper awareness of the world. At their best, haiku capture as much
insight as a poem of far greater length, and many people find that these
poems contain a beauty all their own.
Can I write haiku?
Of
course. Anyone can write haiku, from schoolchildren
to retirees. Hundreds of thousands of people from
all walks of life write and enjoy haiku.
So how do I start?
The
best way to begin is to read as many haiku as possible to learn what the
form can and can’t do. We will provide a few
guidelines below to get you started, but there is no substitute for
reading haiku on your own and figuring out what makes them work.
The haiku on this site will provide a good starting point, and we have
included a page of links to other haiku on the web to help your search.
Before long, you will also want to read one of the many ‘how to write
haiku’ books that are available. These works will
discuss the nuances of writing haiku in far more depth than we can here.
Lee Gurga’s Haiku: A Poet’s Guide
and Harold G. Henderson’s Haiku in English are two of the
best introductions to the form.
What are some of the basics of haiku
writing?
The
first thing to realize is that the haiku, due to its history and
brevity, uses techniques that are different from other types of poems.
Only part of what you know about other types of poetry will apply to
writing haiku.
This is only natural. After all, you would not
expect to be able to use the same writing techniques in a novel, sonnet,
and scientific report. Different types of writing
require different approaches.
The
haiku is, above all, a form that uses sensory images to convey its
ideas. If you are writing a general
statement about life without any sights,
sounds, smells, tastes, or tactile images, you are writing an
epigram, not a haiku.
In a
haiku every word must count. Because you are limited
to three short lines, you do not have the leisure to waste any words.
Every image and reflection in a haiku must help make your point.
Haiku poets value brevity and suggestiveness in their art, and they work
hard to evoke an entire scene in a few words.
Haiku have, on the whole, remained nature poems, but not every
description of nature will make for a good haiku. The best haiku evoke a
scene that leads the reader to an increased awareness about the world;
they fix an image in the reader’s mind while evoking a deeper mood or
insight.
How can you paint a scene while reflecting on
the world in such a short space?
This
is a difficult task, but it is possible.
I thought that a haiku had to contain 17
syllables. Why do so many Western haiku fail to
follow a 5-7-5 syllable pattern?
In
Japan, the majority of haiku do contain 17 syllables arranged in a 5-7-5
pattern. However, this pattern does not always translate well into
English. Most haiku written in a 5-7-5 pattern in
English seem to be ‘longer’
than their Japanese counterparts since it takes more
English words to fill out the required length. A 5-7-5
English haiku will be wordier than one written
in Japanese. In recognition of this fact, most haiku
poets in the West write haiku with fewer than 17 syllables.That
said, there are haiku poets writing in English who follow the 5-7-5
pattern with wonderful results.
So how do Western poets organize their haiku
if they don’t follow a 5-7-5 syllable count?
The
question of what form, if any, a Western haiku can take is still the
subject of debate. There has been no universal
agreement on this point.
Some
poets view their haiku as free verse, letting the subject matter dictate
how many syllables they have. In other words, they
do not concern themselves with the form of their poems so long as their
poems remain short and true to the spirit of haiku.
Other haiku poets see the form as a ‘one-breath poem’ and make certain
that their haiku can be recited comfortably in a single breath. Other
poets try to arrange their lines in a short-long-short pattern.
To
date, there have been two attempts to replace the 5-7-5 syllable count
with different types of poetic structure.
The
first of these attempts tries to count English syllables in the same way
that the Japanese count theirs. To do this, count
every long vowel as two syllables (count vowels that are modified by an
‘r,’ – such as ‘ar,’ ‘er,’ ‘ir,’ ‘or,’ and ‘ur’ – as two syllables too).
Final consonants count as a separate syllable.
The phrase “modern haiku” would then be counted as seven
syllables:
mo-de-r-n ha-i-ku.
These rules may seem strange, but they do approximate how the Japanese
view their language. By doing this, a haiku written in English will
contain roughly the same number of words and images as a Japanese haiku.
The second of these attempts counts the number of stresses rather than
the total number of syllables. For example, the
phrase “writing haiku” contains two stressed syllables:
WRITing haiKU. The haiku then
becomes a form of three lines containing a 2-3-2
pattern of stresses.
What
else do I have to know about the form of a haiku?
Whatever their structure, most haiku include the following:
Most haiku contain a kigo , or a word or short phrase that
places their poem in a definite time of year. For
example, if you use the word “daffodil” in a haiku, the reader will
assume that you are describing a scene in spring.
“Snow” would situate a haiku in winter, while the phrases “red leaves”
or “heat wave” would place your haiku in autumn or summer.
The kigo is an important tool that links a haiku to
the deeper rhythms of nature.
Most
haiku also try to recreate the kireji , which in Japanese
haiku is a word that cuts the poem into two distinct parts. In Western
haiku, poets use punctuation marks (dashes, commas, or colons) or
spacing (extra spaces between words or line breaks) to divide their poem
into two parts. But not all haiku use this device.
What about similes, rhyme, and the other
poetic devices that I learned in school?
On
the whole, haiku tend to be plain-speaking poems. Very few of them
contain similes, and rhymes have all but disappeared from the form. Most
haiku poets struggle to evoke a scene for the reader without any
embellishment or distortion, and they feel
that language that calls attention to itself distracts the reader from
what they are trying to say.
In
recent years, haiku poets have begun experimenting with alliteration,
slant rhyme, allusions, and other literary devices that are subtle and
not so distracting.
I know that the haiku comes from Japan.
But how did it get started?
It
is believed that the haiku developed a type of longer poem called the
renga , which is a type of linked verse that does not exist
in the West. In renga , a group of
poets work together to create a poem. A
renga begins with one poet composing a verse of 5-7-5 Japanese
syllables. The group then adds alternating links of
7-7 and 5-7-5 syllables to the opening verse. This
type of composition was a popular social event in Japan, and many
complicated rules about what can and cannot be said in a renga
helped make it a challenging exercise for all involved.
The
opening 5-7-5 verse of a renga was called a
haikai-no-renga .
Eventually, the haikai-no-renga were written as independent
poems in their own right. These poems were called
haikai . It was not until the 19th century that
Masaoka Shiki coined the word “haiku” to describe a 5-7-5 poem.
I want to learn more about the history of
the haiku. Where should I start?
Fortunately, there are many translations of Japanese haiku into English,
most of them of decent quality. One can easily read
samples from dozens of poets. But the best place to start is with four
haiku poets who are generally regarded as the most important, both in
Japan and in the West. They are Matsuo Bashō
(1644-94), Yosa Buson (1716-83), Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827), and Masaoka
Shiki (1869-1902).
Bashō was the first haiku poet to raise haiku into a serious art form.
Before his time, the haiku was usually a witty poem without any
deeper meaning. Bashō’s major contribution was to discover how the haiku
can express somber moods and a deep insight into life.
Once, when visiting the site of a famous battle, he wrote:
Summer grasses –
all the remains of
a warrior’s dreams
Bashō is also the greatest writer to combine haiku and prose.
His travel diaries, which alternate prose descriptions with
haiku, are among the masterpieces of world literature.
Buson was also a painter, and he brought to the haiku an exquisite
aesthetic sense. His ability to paint a picture in a
few words has captivated generations of poets:
A bush warbler singing
its small mouth
open
Those
interested in Japanese art should seek out Buson’s paintings, especially
those that illustrate his haiku.
Kobayashi Issa’s incredible popularity in Japan comes from the
circumstances of his life. His extreme poverty and
sufferings, described in his journals, have gained the sympathy of
generations of readers. He also showed a deep love
for children and small creatures:
A giant firefly
flickering
passes by
His
poetic diaries, which alternate prose with haiku, are well worth seeking
out.
Masaoka Shiki helped revive haiku at a time when it had become stagnant
and encumbered with
meaningless rules. Shiki coined the term ‘haiku’ and
strove to raise it to the artistic heights it had enjoyed in the work of
Bashō and Buson.
His haiku often reveal a surprising combination of images:
I bite a persimmon
and a bell sounds –
Hōryū Temple
Shiki is justly famous for his critical pronouncements in addition to
his poetry.
We
have listed some of the best translations of these poets in our
bibliography and list of haiku links on the web.
Why do haiku magazines talk about ‘haiku and
related forms’?
The
haiku does not exist in isolation. Both in Japan and in the West, the
haiku has become entwined with other types of poetry and art. As you
deepen your knowledge of haiku, you may become interested in these forms
as well.
The
senryu is another type of 5-7-5 poem in Japanese.
Traditionally, a haiku is a poem about nature, while the
senryu treats human foibles in a humourous way.
In recent years, the distinction between the two poems has become
blurred in the West, making it difficult to say whether a given poem is
a haiku or senryu .
The
haibun combines prose and haiku.
Typically, a prose description or narrative leads up to a haiku, or a
haiku suddenly rises out of a description of a scene or landscape.
Bashō’s travel journals (especially Oku no hosomichi
, or The Narrow Road to the Interior ) and Issa’s poetic
diaries are classic examples of haibun.
There is nothing quite like the haibun in English
literature, a fact which may account for its recent popularity.
As
we noted above, the renga is a linked verse composed by a
group of poets. In
Japanese, a renga
alternated links of 5-7-5 and 7-7 syllables.
In the West, renga alternate links of three and two
lines.
Traditional Japanese renga tend to be longer and
require mastering a complex set of rules regarding what can and can’t be
said in a given link. Western renga
tend to be freer and shorter.
A
haiga combines haiku with a painting.
