Haiku

Haiku - plural haiku, is a form of Japanese poetry, consisting of 17 moras (or on), in three metrical phrases of 5, 7, and 5 moras respectively.^[1] Haiku typically contain a kigo, or seasonal reference, and a kireji or verbal caesura. In Japanese, haiku are traditionally printed in a single vertical line, while haiku in English usually appear in three lines, to parallel the three metrical phrases of Japanese haiku.^[2] Previously called hokku, haiku was given its current name by the Japanese writer Masaoka Shiki at the end of the 19th century.

Kireji and kigo

In Japanese haiku a kireji, or cutting word, typically appears at the end of one of the verse's three metrical phrases. While difficult to precisely define its function, a kireji lends the verse structural support,^[3] effectively allowing it to stand as an independent poem. Depending on which cutting word is chosen, and its position within the verse, it may briefly cut the stream of thought, suggesting a parallel between the preceding and following phrases, or it may provide a dignified ending, concluding the verse with a heightened sense of closure.^[4]

In English, since kireji has no direct equivalent, poets sometimes use punctuation such as a dash or ellipsis, or an implied break, to divide a haiku into two grammatical and imagistic parts. The purpose is to create a juxtaposition, prompting the reader to reflect on the relationship between the two parts.

A haiku traditionally contains a kigo, a defined word or phrase which symbolizes or implies the season of the poem.

Among traditionalist Japanese haiku writers, kireji and kigo are considered requirements. Kigo are not always included by modern writers of Japanese "free-form" haiku and some non-Japanese haiku.

Examples

• Possibly the best known Japanese haiku is Bashō's "old pond" haiku:

古池や　蛙飛込む　水の音

This separates into on as:

furuike ya

(古池 や)

(fu/ru/i/ke ya): 5

kawazu tobikomu

(蛙 飛込む)

(ka/wa/zu to/bi/ko/mu): 7

mizu no oto

(水 の 音)

(mi/zu no o/to): 5

Translated:^[7]

old pond . . .

a frog leaps in

water’s sound

• Another example of classic hokku by Matsuo Bashō:^[8]

富士の風や　扇にのせて　江戸土産

This separates into on as:

fuji no kaze ya

(富士 の 風 や)

(fu/ji no ka/ze ya): 6

oogi ni nosete

(扇 に のせて)

(o/o/gi ni no/se/te): 7

Edo miyage

(江戸 土産)

(e/do mi/ya/ge): 5

Translated:

the wind of Mt. Fuji

I've brought on my fan!

a gift from Edo

• And yet another Bashō classic:

初しぐれ　猿も小蓑を　ほしげ也

hatsu shigure saru mo komino wo hoshige nari

the first cold shower

even the monkey seems to want

a little coat of straw

(At that time, Japanese rain-gear consisted of a large, round cap and a shaggy straw cloak.)

Haiku movement in the West

Although there were attempts outside Japan to imitate the "hokku" in the early 1900s, there was little understanding of its principles. Early Western scholars such as Basil Hall Chamberlain (1850–1935) and William George Aston were mostly dismissive of hokku's poetic value. One of the first advocates of English-language hokku was the Japanese poet Yone Noguchi. In "A Proposal to American Poets," published in the Reader magazine in February 1904, Noguchi gave a brief outline of the hokku and some of his own English efforts, ending with the exhortation, "Pray, you try Japanese Hokku, my American poets!" At about the same time the poet Sadakichi Hartmann was publishing original English-language hokku, as well as other Japanese forms in both English and French.

In France, haiku was introduced by Paul-Louis Couchoud around 1906. Couchoud's articles were read by early Imagist theoretician F. S. Flint, who passed on Couchoud's (somewhat idiosyncratic) ideas to other members of the proto-Imagist Poets' Club such as Ezra Pound. Amy Lowell made a trip to London to meet Pound and find out about haiku. She returned to the United States where she worked to interest others in this "new" form. Haiku subsequently had a considerable influence on Imagists in the 1910s, notably Pound's "In a Station of the Metro" of 1913, but, notwithstanding several efforts by Yone Noguchi to explain "the hokku spirit," there was as yet little understanding of the form and its history.

Contemporary English-language haiku

Main article: Haiku in English

Today, haiku are written in many languages, but most poets outside of Japan are concentrated in the English-speaking countries and in the Balkans^{[citation needed]}.

It is impossible to single out any current style or format or subject matter as definitive. Some of the more common practices in English are:

• Use of three (or fewer) lines of 17 or fewer syllables;
• Use of a season word (kigo);
• Use of a cut (sometimes indicated by a punctuation mark) paralleling the Japanese use of kireji, to contrast and compare, implicitly, two events, images, or situations.

While traditional Japanese haiku has focused on nature and the place of humans in it, some modern haiku poets, both in Japan and the West, consider a broader range of subject matter suitable, including urban contexts. While pre-modern haiku avoided certain topics such as sex and overt violence, contemporary haiku sometimes deal with such themes.

The loosening of traditional standards has resulted in the term "haiku" being applied to brief English-language poems such as "mathemaku" and other kinds of pseudohaiku. Some sources claim that this is justified by the blurring of definitional boundaries in Japan