Haiku is a very short form of Japanese poetry typically characterized by three qualities:
- The essence of haiku is "cutting" (kiru). This is often represented by the juxtaposition (Juxtaposition is the act or placement of two things (usually abstract concepts) near each other.) of two images or ideas and a kireji
("cutting word") between them, a kind of verbal punctuation mark which
signals the moment of separation and colors the manner in which the
juxtaposed elements are related.
- Traditional haiku consist of 17 on (also known as morae), in three phrases of 5, 7 and 5 on respectively. Any one of the three phrases may end with the kireji. Although haiku are often stated to have 17 syllables, this is inaccurate as syllables and on are not the same.
- A kigo (seasonal reference), usually drawn from a saijiki, an extensive but defined list of such words.
Syllables or on in haiku
Main article: On (Japanese prosody)
In contrast to English verse typically characterized by meter, Japanese verse counts sound units known as "
on" or morae. Traditional haiku consist of 17
on, in three phrases of five, seven and five
on respectively. Among contemporary poems
teikei (fixed form) haiku continue to use the 5-7-5 pattern while
jiyuritsu ( free form) haiku do not
. One of the examples below illustrates that traditional haiku masters were not always constrained by the 5-7-5 pattern.
Although the word "
on" is sometimes translated as "syllable", one
on is counted for a short syllable, two for an elongated vowel, diphthong, or doubled consonant,
and one for an "n" at the end of a syllable. Thus, the word "haibun",
though counted as two syllables in English, is counted as four
on in Japanese (ha-i-bu-n); and the word "
on" itself, which English-speakers would view as a single syllable, comprises two
on: the short vowel
o and the moraic nasal
n̩. This is illustrated by the Issa haiku below, which contains 17
on
but only 15 syllables. Conversely, some sounds, such as "kyo" (きょ) can
be perceived as two syllables in English but are a single
on in Japanese.
The word
onji ("sound symbol") is sometimes used in referring to Japanese sound units in English although this word is no longer current in Japanese. In Japanese, each
on corresponds to a kana character (or sometimes digraph) and hence
ji (or "character") is also sometimes used
as the count unit.
In 1973, the Haiku Society of America noted that the norm for writers of haiku in English was to use 17 syllables, but they also noted a trend toward shorter haiku
.
Some translators of Japanese poetry have noted that about 12 syllables in English approximate the duration of 17 Japanese
on.
Kigo
Main article: Kigo
A haiku traditionally contains a
kigo, a defined word or phrase that symbolizes or implies the season of the poem, which is drawn from a
saijiki, an extensive but defined list of such words.
Kigo are often in the form of metonyms and can be difficult for those who lack Japanese cultural references to spot.
[citation needed] The Bashō examples below
include "kawazu", "frog" implying spring, and "shigure", a rain shower
in late autumn or early winter. Kigo are not always included in
non-Japanese haiku or by modern writers of Japanese "free-form" haiku.
[citation needed]
Kireji
Main article: Kireji
In Japanese haiku a
kireji, or cutting word, typically appears at the end of one of the verse's three phrases. A
kireji fills a role somewhat analogous to a
caesura in classical western poetry or to a
volta in
sonnets.
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.
The fundamental aesthetic quality of both hokku and haiku is that it
is internally sufficient, independent of context, and will bear
consideration as a complete work. The
kireji lends the verse structural support, allowing it to stand as an independent poem. The use of
kireji distinguishes haiku and hokku from second and subsequent verses of
renku
which, although they may employ semantic and syntactic disjuncture,
even to the point of occasionally end-stopping a phrase with a
shōjoshi ( sentence ending particle), do not generally employ
kireji.
In English, since
kireji have no direct equivalent, poets
sometimes use punctuation such as a dash or ellipsis, or an implied
break to create a juxtaposition intended to prompt the reader to reflect
on the relationship between the two parts.
The
kireji in the Bashō examples "old pond" and "the wind of Mt Fuji" are both "ya". Neither the remaining Bashō example nor the Issa example contain a
kireji although they do both balance a fragment in the first five
on against a phrase in the remaining 12
on (it may not be apparent from the English translation of the Issa that the first five
on mean "Edo's rain").
Haiku and the Principles of Juxtaposition
"The term
juxtaposition . . . can also refer to a rhetorical
technique which goes beyond the straightforward placement of
communicative elements next to each other. In this more specialized
sense, juxtaposition can be defined as:
combining together two or more communicative elements so as
to suppress the connections between them and emphasize the differences,
thereby provoking some surprise or puzzlement at their close placement.
Some simple principles of juxtaposition can be illustrated at work in
the following translations of 17th- and 18th-century Japanaese Haiku.
Haiku 1
Harvest moon:
On the bamboo mat
Pine tree shadows.
Haiku 2
Wooden gate.
Lock firmly bolted:
Winter moon.
. . . In each case there is only an implicit connection between the elements on either side of the colon.
Although it is possible to see a causal relation between a harvest moon
and pine tree shadows, the lack of explicit connections forces the
reader to make an imaginative leap. The connection between a locked
wooden gate and a winter moon demands an even greater imaginative
effort. In each poem there is a basic juxtaposition between a natural
image and a human one--a harvest moon and a bamboo mat, a bolted gate
and a winter moon--which creates a tension between the first and second
part."
source: wikipedia and grammar_about
