FOUR HAIKU

Recently I happened to see a group of translations of Japanese haiku in a textbook, and was reminded that there had been a great vogue for haiku when I was an undergraduate. Like many others, I tried my hand at writing haiku, but I thought then, and have continued to think, that the requirement of limiting oneself to five- and seven-syllable lines is unrealistic for the English language.

According to the two basic-Japanese textbooks that I have seen, English grammar is very different from the Japanese, and so are the time values of English syllables (and therefore English rhythms), and so is English intonation; and the times that I have heard Japanese spoken confirm this judgement. Because of these differences, the five- and seven-syllable lines of haiku in English sound excessively constrained---I would even say mannered, affected.

At different times I experimented with restrictions such as five, seven, and five words, and later five, seven, and five grammatical parts of speech (infinitives and phrases like "out of" counting as one part), but I did not find them satisfactory.

Then I hit on writing lines that approximated trimeter, tetrameter, and trimeter--and I liked the results. The form suggests the brevity of Japanese haiku, but not the artificial truncation required by syllabic haiku in English, and it appropriately awakens echoes of English lyric poetry just as Japanese haiku are intended to evoke well established Japanese literary associations.

Should anyone object that the results are not really haiku, I remind them that syllabic haiku in English are not really haiku either, but mechanical imitations. They are more abbreviated in relation to their language and culture than the Japanese; and they lack--because native speakers of English, writers as well as readers, lack--the cultural values and the associations, especially those of Buddhism, essential to the Japanese tradition.

The following poems are examples of natural-sounding haiku in English.

Below the thorny stem,
Fallen petals make another
Rose, a broken fan.
3.ii.10

Less than a minute’s rain!
Among the pebbles on the beach
The small drops darken, then fade.
3.ii.10

A full moon overhead:
Oculus lighting a cobalt dome,
Or just a perfect pearl?
5.ii.10

Creek water swift and clear,
Shifting sand-ripples under my feet,
Which of us travels farther?
5.ii.10