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Monthly Archives: April 2010
THE ESSENCE OF HOKKU
Because it is so important to understanding hokku, here is a repeat of an earlier posting: I have never been an admirer of Confucius, yet one can say of the teaching of hokku what Confucius said: “The Master said, “Do … Continue reading
POETS OF THE DEAD WORLD
It is difficult to write hokku while living in a big city. The reason is that to build a city, natural life is removed — trees and grasses, bushes and weeds, soil and streams and all the creatures that live … Continue reading
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Tagged deforestation, Emerald Forest, environment, haikai, haiku, hokku
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CONTEMPLATIVE VERSE
One of the major influences on the writers of hokku was the old collection of the “Three Hundred Tang Poems.” These were the famous classics of the Chinese Tang Dynasty that were to Japanese writers what college anthologies of poetry … Continue reading
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Tagged Contemplative Verse, haikai, haiku, hokku, Jia Dao, Tang poems
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RAIN DRIPPING INTO A BASIN
I periodically emphasize that I do not translate old hokku here just to be translating them, but rather to show through them how hokku are to be written today in English and other languages. Some time ago I discussed this … Continue reading
CHERRY BLOSSOMS COME BLOWING
Bashō wrote a very spring-like verse almost too pretty for hokku: From the four directions, Cherry blossoms come blowing in; Lake Nio. We could be a bit less literal and make it: From all directions, Cherry blossoms come blowing; Lake … Continue reading
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Tagged Bashô, cherry blossoms, haikai, haiku, hokku, Lake Biwa, Lake Nio, spring
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A WILLOWY WALDEN
Not long ago I introduced two short-verse “alternative” forms. Both were intended for those times when a hokku is too small in space for what needs to be said. We find such an example in English translations of one of … Continue reading
THE GREEN WILLOW ROAD
Buson the artist-writer was also a classicist heavily influenced by Chinese poetry. Put very simply, Chinese poetry in general has a feeling of great distances, while Japanese poetry more often concentrates on the small and near. Nonetheless, one sometimes finds … Continue reading
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Tagged Buson, Chinese poetry, Gustav Mahler, haikai, haiku, Hans Bethge, hokku, parting, spring, willows
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Grown Old
The woman Seifu wrote: Doll faces; Unavoidably, I have grown old. The interest here is in harmony of opposites. The faces of the dolls look still the same age, but the writer, by contrast, finds herself inevitably grown old — … Continue reading
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Tagged aging, dolls, haikai, haiku, hokku, R. H. Blyth, Seifu, spring
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MY DESERT IS WAITING
Today I came across a wonderful example of excessive, exotic romanticism. It is the beginning of a description of the 1929 movie “The Desert Song”: “GREEDILY the copper coin of the sun was tossed by some invisible hand into the … Continue reading
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HOKKU AS ILLUSION AND AS REALITY
Buson wrote: A Korean ship Passes without stopping; The haze. It is virtually impossible to recognize in English translation, but this verse is an example of the romantic tendency in Buson’s hokku — romantic in the sense of “evoking an … Continue reading
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Tagged Buson, haikai, haiku, hokku, romanticism, Treasure Island
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THE HOKKU, THE WALDEN, AND NOW THE LOREN
Kyorai, one of Bashō’s students, wrote: Hito aze wa shibashi naki yamu kawazu kana One path wa for-a-while cries silent frogs kana An aze is specifically a path through rice paddies. When Blyth translated this, he changed … Continue reading
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Tagged frogs, haikai, haiku, hokku, Kyorai, loren, Loren Eiseley, rice paddies, waka, Walden
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APRIL AND LILACS
Yesterday I took a walk in the cool sun of spring, and passed a lilac bush in bud. And then for all that evening, this line kept coming into my head: When lilacs last in the dooryard bloom’d… It is … Continue reading
YOURS TRULY INTRODUCES THE WALDEN
Buson wrote a spring verse that is very tricky to put into English: Hana ni kurete waga ie tōki no-michi kana Blossoms at darkened my home far field-road kana Blyth, who often preferred to convey the … Continue reading
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Tagged Buson, cherry blossoms, haikai, haiku, hokku, waka, Walden
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