Haiku poetry marks brevity of expression

The origin of the Haiku Poetry goes back to 15 century and was born against the backdrop of mediaeval period. The dominant theme of the Haiku was nature. According to its subjects, Haiku poetry is divided into four seasons; Summer, spring, autumn and winter. The objects, emotions which are linked with four seasons are turned into lines. Judging by the subjects, emotions, and one could definitely identify the Haiku Poem whether it is belonged to which season.

In this column, we examine, briefly, Japanese Haiku poetry and how it has become extremely popular even in foreign languages although Haiku poetry could not be written and appreciated only in Japanese. What adapted in foreign tongues is the structure of Haiku and its brevity of expression.

Haiku, perhaps, is the most liberal form of poetry in Japanese literature. It is considered the ultimate fruition of Japanese poetry which has been evolving over centuries. However, Haiku poetry is still alive in the rich contemporary Japanese literary landscape. A prominent trait of Haiku poetry is that it is intrinsically fused with Japanese culture. What is obvious is that a foreigner who is even well-versed in Japanese may not be able to fully appreciate cultural and philosophical nuances embedded in Haiku poetry. One prominent school of thinking is that Haiku poetry cannot be translated into other languages and that Haiku poetry cannot be written in foreign tongues. What the translator does is to introduce Haiku poetry to a cosmopolitan audience.

According to Prof. Ariya Rajakaruna who wrote a comprehensive Sinhala translation of Japanese Haiku Poetry entitled ‘Japan Haiku Kavya’, among the diverse genres of poetry, Haiku is the shortest form of poetry. He observes, “Haiku poem has 16 syllables; 14 letters. It is written in Japanese with one line. But, Haiku poem is made up of three parts. The first part is made up of five syllabic letters, the second of four syllabic letters and the third part is of five syllabic letters. There are many instances where contemporary Haiku poets have broken this rule of syllabic letters. The Haiku poems rendered into foreign tongues, these three parts have been separately presented as three lines. ”

Experience

Describing the prominent traits of Haiku poetry, Prof. Rajakaruna observes, “The brevity is the predominant characteristics of Haiku poetry. Haiku poet may condense his ideas as much as possible. What impelled for the birth of such short metre in Japanese poetry is the concept that poetry is an undividable wholesome one. It is only the essence of an experience which should be turned into a poem. Poetic ideas should be meaningful; rich and generate zest. They should be capable of creating powerful imagery; and should be expressed in least number of words. ”

One of the salient characteristics of Haiku poetry is that poet express his/ her personal experience without highlighting individuality in the poem. In essence, Haiku poetry is highly symbolic and it symbolic meanings are embedded in all the animate and inanimate objects that inspired the poem. Poem is a mean by which one may express one’s emotions and experiences in an indirect manner and the indirect expression is a concept which influences the Haiku poets. Haiku poetry generates suggestive meanings more than the superficial idea generated by the wording. Since the poet condenses his or her ideas to the minimum, Haiku poetry generates suggestive meanings. It is believed that suggestive meanings are the life of Haiku poetry.

Origin of Haiku

The origin of the Haiku Poetry goes back to 15 century and was born against the backdrop of mediaeval period. The dominant theme of the Haiku was nature. According to its subjects, Haiku poetry is divided into four seasons; Summer, spring, autumn and winter. The objects, emotions which are linked with four seasons are turned into lines. Judging by the subjects, emotions, and one could definitely identify the Haiku Poem whether it is belonged to which season.

Referring to the reverential attitude on the part of Haiku poets to nature and its animate and inanimate objects, Prof. Rajakaruna observes, “As all the Haiku poets appreciate nature, they began to develop a reverence and deep-felt devotion to nature. Sometimes, they describe the impermanent nature of life and desolateness. They who appreciate the life do not ever hate it; do not try to escape from life being disillusioned of it and to hind in nature; they do not sing love songs considering nature or its diverse subjects comparing to a woman or a loved one; they also do not consider nature as an omnipotent god. Haiku Poets seem not to distinguish the gulf between nature and life. Haiku poetry without confining to appreciation of nature, explore life and human nature and therefore, humanism is amply manifested throughout Haiku literature.”

Matsuo Basho

Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) was the greatest Haiku poet in the early stage of the genre. He firmly believed that he should strive to make the greatness of life felt through poetry. He devised a poetic diction exploring the links between nature and life. His subjects for poetry were unconventional.

Describing that aspect of Basho’s poetry, Prof. Ariya Rajakaruna observes, “Basho was a poet who wrote poetry on object deemed not suited for literature. He appreciated nature and its beauty. His attempts made poetry popular among the masses. Among the poets after him, were a large number of poets from the masses. He used the language of the masses for his poetry while enriching it. He showed how to pass down the poetry on to the masses without distorting its colloquial nature. Seeing the law, high, and superficial nature of poetry in each and every tradition, he classified them into high, medium and low poetry. ”

Prof. Rajakaruna points out that Basho is credited with considering a common occurrence as a subject of his poetry. For instance, the poem below describes how silence was broken by a frog jumping into a pond in a forest.

“ old pond . . .
a frog leaps in
ater’s sound”

Basho is best known for Oku no Hosomichi or Narrow Roads to the Interior which is considered as one of the classics of Japanese literature. After Basho, among the prominent Haiku poets are Taniguichi Buson (1716–1783), Kobayashi Issa (1767-1827) and Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902). Owing to poor understanding of the structure and the philosophy behind Haiku poetry, Haiku poetry is largely misinterpreted in contemporary Sri Lankan literary landscape.

What the budding poets should bear in is the fact that Haiku Poetry cannot be written in foreign tongue. But Haiku structure can be profitable used in composing poems.