On Haiku

Matsuo Basho

Just as I was falling asleep on a recent evening I found myself musing about the images that can be captured in the form of haiku, just 17 syllables long, three lines of 5 then 7 then 5.

As I relaxed into sleep, the following fully formed haiku simply materialized:

Morning moon shines bright.

My dog stretches and yawns. Damn!

We missed garbage day.

Not great poetry, I admit, but interesting enough for me to turn on the light and write it down.

It surprised me to discover when I re-read my silly example the next morning that it somehow managed to capture all the traditional Japanese elements necessary for traditional haiku.

First of all, haiku seeks to convey everyday scenes, crystallizing them into two distinct but linked images. These images are usually scenes containing an oblique reference to the season ("kigo" in Japanese). The seasonal reference is often achieved by use of a metonym such as a frog for spring or rain for fall. In my example, a sleepy dog stands for winter.

Second, haiku always contains an abrupt transition from the first image to the second ("kiru" in Japanese). This transition can be accomplished by use of a word ("kireji" in Japanese) or by other ellipsis. It usually occurs at the end of a line and separates, while linking, the two images. In my example the word "damn" at the end of the second line is an obvious kireji linking the image of a cold winter morning with the chore of putting out the garbage.

Finally, haiku should have the traditional 5-7-5 syllable structure. Surprisingly, my automatic poem almost achieved this structure. The next morning I found my original effort had 6 syllables in the last line until I substituted the word "missed" (1 syllable) for the original "forgot" (two syllables).

Basho by Buson

Haiku emerged as an independent poetic form in 17th century Japan. In its earliest forms a haiku was only the first verse of a longer collaborative linked poem known as "renga." Stand alone haiku was popularized in Japan by Matsuo Basho (1644 - 1694). Basho and his students wrote a great many stand alone haiku and Basho also used haiku to provide vivid images for longer prose works and travel diaries. This sub-genre is known as "haibun." Basho's most famous haibun is the Japanese literary classic, "Oku no Hosomichi" (usually translated as Narrow Roads to the Deep North or to the Interior or as Back Roads to Oku). 

I first encountered haiku in the 1960s in undergraduate school when I was required to read an English translation of Basho as part of a course in Japanese culture. I immediately loved Basho's vivid images of old imperial Japan. I even memorized his most famous haiku:

Old pond . . .

A frog leaps in

Sound of water

Haiku remained mostly unknown in the west until the middle of the 20th Century. This is not surprising given that Japanese culture in general was not well understood by westerners until well after the Second World War. A few poets such as Ezra Pound and Amy Lowell recognized the beauty and potential of haiku in English in the early decades of 20th Century but it took a long time to really catch on. When it did catch on, it went totally viral, as we like to say in the Internet age.

Why? I think the answer can be found in my frivolous example. We think in images. We remember in images. When we sleep, dream or meditate, these images rearrange themselves in our mind in accordance with our personality. When two clear images collide in an interesting way, we can turn the result into poetry.

Basho's gravestone