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Tag Archives: spring
THREE VIEWS OF CHERRY BLOSSOMS
There is a famous spring hokku by Bashō: A cloud of blossoms – Is the bell Ueno? Asakusa? Through a cloud of blooming cherry trees, the writer hears the sound of a distant, unseen temple bell. He wonders if it … Continue reading
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Tagged cherry blossoms, hokku, nature, senryû, spring, writing
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THE LONG DAYS OF SPRING: BUSON AND SHIKI
There are some hokku that do not seem quite right but nonetheless have value for what they are. There is, for example, this spring verse by Buson: Osoki hi no tsumorite tōki mukashi kana Long day ‘s accumulating … Continue reading
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Tagged Buson, haiku, hokku, long spring days, R. H. Blyth, spring, Yosa Buson
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SPRING AND SUPERFICIALITY: DETERMINING DEPTH IN HOKKU
One of the most difficult things for the beginning student of hokku to grasp is the difference in what we might call “levels” of hokku. It is common for someone unfamiliar with the principles of hokku to read hundreds of … Continue reading
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Tagged hokku, poetry, spring, writing, haiku, Buson, Otsuji, depth in hokku
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ONE BLOSSOM’S WORTH: TWO “PLUM” HOKKU
The connection of plum blossoms and spring, historically, is well known. As I have written before, however, the ume no hana spoken of in old Japanese hokku — conventionally translated as “plum blossoms,” were not really plum blossoms as we … Continue reading
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Tagged Buson, nature, plum blossoms, poetry, Prunus mume, Ransetsu, spring, spring hokku, translation, writing
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MORNING LIGHT / LUMINE MATINAL
Winter: Morning light; Melting frost Drips from the trees. Hiberno: Lumine matinal; Gelo disgelante Ab le arbores gutta. How quickly time passes! Already more than half of January is gone, and in less than two weeks we shall be at … Continue reading
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Tagged Candlemas, frost, Gelo, hokku, Imbolc, January, Latino Moderne, nature, poetry, spring, writing
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WHAT IS A FROG DOING IN AUTUMN?
As long-time readers here know, hokku is seasonal verse. Every verse is an event set in the context of a particular season. In old hokku (which was Japanese), this became too systematized, so that if one wrote about frogs, it … Continue reading
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Tagged frog, frogs, hokku, nature, poetry, R. H. Blyth, Reginald Horace Blyth, spring, verse, writing
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A LEAKY ROOF
A pleasant spring hokku by Bashō: Spring rain; A roof leak trickles Down the wasps’ nest. This reminds me of Blyth’s remark that to write hokku one should live in a house which either has a leaky roof or one with … Continue reading
Posted in Bashô
Tagged Bashô, hokku, poetry, R. H. Blyth, spirituality, spring, spring hokku, writing
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THE SCENT OF — WELL, ACTUALLY THE JAPANESE APRICOT
Here are a few spring hokku by Bashō. I have divided all but the last into three parts: First, the romanized Japanese and a rather literal translation; second, a “formal” translation of the original; third, a rewritten “American” version. (M)ume … Continue reading
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Tagged allusion, Bashô, hokku, japanese verse, literary hokku, plum blossoms, spring, ume, ume ga ka, writing
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CAT DANCING
Issa wrote: Harusame ya neko ni odori wo oshieru ko Spring rain ya cat with dance wo teaches child Spring rain; The little girl teaches the cat To dance. The little girl, unable to go out and play, has inflicted herself on the cat, … Continue reading
“GETTING” R. H. BLYTH
If you want to understand what R. H. Blyth meant by connecting Zen and hokku, it can be stated very simply. To Blyth, Zen was the elimination of the boundary between self and other, between subject and object. I have … Continue reading
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Tagged hokku, nature, poetry, R. H. Blyth, spring, writing, zen
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TAO YUAN-MING’S SPRING
R. H. Blyth called this work by Tao Qian (Tao Yuan-ming, c. 365-427) and translated by Arthur Waley “the best translation… of the best poem in the world.” Swiftly the years, beyond recall, Solemn the stillness of this fair morning. … Continue reading
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Tagged Arthur Waley, Chinese poetry, poetry, R. H. Blyth, spring, Tao Qian, Tao Yuan-ming, writing
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THE SPRING HOKKU CALENDAR
Because the practice of hokku is so intimately connected with the seasons, I like to regularly remind readers where we are in the “old” hokku calendar in its traditional Western version, the Wheel of the Year, which very closely approximates … Continue reading
“PARTING” HOKKU AND THE LONG POETIC TRADITION
It used to be common — and still is, to some extent — for people in the modern haiku movement to see Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902) as a “rebel” of the end of the 19th century. But actually, Shiki was in … Continue reading
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Tagged farewell verse, hokku, Li Bai, Masaoka Shiki, Meng Hao-ran, nature, parting verse, poetry, Shiki, spring, writing
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A BASIC REVIEW OF THE HOKKU FORM IN ENGLISH
An English-language hokku is a verse of three lines, the middle line often — but not always — visually longer than the others. Chiy0-ni wrote a very effective spring hokku: Ebb tide; Everything picked up Is moving. Notice that: … Continue reading
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Tagged beach, Chiyo-ni, ebb tide, essential words, hokku, hokku basics, hokku form, hokku punctuation, spring, writing
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SPARROWS, VERANDAS, AND TWO QUITE DIFFERENT VIEWS
I recently mentioned some criticisms of R. H. Blyth that appear on a site called “Simply Haiku.” One can dismiss them (as I did — with quotes from Blyth to refute those I quoted) as simply wholesale misrepresentation and misunderstanding. … Continue reading
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Tagged haiku, hokku, Masaoka Shiki, R. H. Blyth, Reginald Horace Blyth, Richard Gilbert, Robert D. Wilson, Simply Haiku, sparrows, spring, zen
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THE VALIDITY OF HOKKU
Yesterday I discussed a kind of “fundamentalism” one finds among those who talk about hokku and haiku, and I wrote, essentially, that it does not matter to me (except historically) what any of the old hokku writers had to say … Continue reading
STAR CHILDREN
Consider the words of cosmologist Lawrence M. Krauss in his fascinating book A Universe from Nothing (Free Press, 2012): “One of the most poetic facts I know about the universe is that essentially every atom in your body was once inside … Continue reading
DROPPING CAMELLIAS AND “EXPLANDED” TRANSLATIONS
I wrote yesterday of R. H. Blyth and his method of translating hokku. He wrote six volumes of such translations, nearly all of which had to do with hokku, though he used the terminology of the Japan of his day … Continue reading
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Tagged camellias, Dansui, hazy moon, hokku, Modern Haiku, poetry, R. H. Blyth, spring, translation, writing
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HYAKUCHI: VANISHING COWS AND A SNEEZE
I have written before about the telegraphic brevity of old hokku, which often comes as a surprise to those who are accustomed to seeing it in English translations or to seeing modern English-language hokku. Here, for example, is R. H. … Continue reading
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Tagged hokku, Hyakuchi, poetic intuition, poetry, R. H. Blyth, spring, writing
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WILD CHERRIES, WATER WHEELS, AND (shudder!) WIKIPEDIA
It is unfortunate that when Reginald H. Blyth wrote his series of volumes extolling and explaining what were, for the most part, verses of hokku, he made the mistake of using the revisionist term then popular in the Japan of … Continue reading
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Tagged cherry blossoms, Chigetsu, haiku, hokku, hokku haiku differences, poetry, spring, writing
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HARMONY OF CONTRAST: PLUM BLOSSOMS AND CHARCOAL DUST
Plum blossoms; They scatter on an empty sack Of charcoal. That is a rewriting of a hokku by Yayū. It is of course a spring hokku. There are, as I have … Continue reading
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Tagged charcoal, harmony of contrast, hokku, plum blossoms, poetry, poverty, simplicity, spring, transience, writing
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LOCALIZING POETRY: THE WESTRON WYNDE
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Tagged Chaucer, poetry, poetry analysis, spring, Tudor poetry, western wind, Westron wynde, writing, Zephyrus
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A CAMELLIA FLOWER
A spring hokku by Bashō: In falling, It spilled its water – The camellia flower. Camellias are flowers of the cold and wet beginning of spring. As they age, they fall with a “plop.” This one, in falling, has spilled … Continue reading
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Tagged Bashô, camellia, hokku, nature, poetry, spring, transience, writing
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IMBOLC: THE FIRST HINTS OF SPRING
This year Imbolc came appropriately where I am, with a day of cold air but brilliant sunlight. Imbolc in the old calendar is the beginning of spring, and so it is associated with the growing Yang energies, expressed symbolically in … Continue reading
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Tagged Calendar, Candlemas, hokku, Imbolc, J. M. Synge, nature, poetry, Prelude, spring
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WORKING WITH PATTERNS
In studying contemplative hokku, a very good way to begin learning is by using patterns. Patterns are hokku “frameworks” that we can use for writing countless new hokku. By using them we learn the feel of the hokku form, and … Continue reading
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Tagged autumn, fish, haikai, hokku, larks, Onitsura, patterns, scarecrows, Shiki, smoke, spring
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IT’S STILL THE SAME OLD STORY
Yesterday I discussed three “Western” calendar systems relevant to hokku — the traditional calendar, the meteorological calendar, and the “natural” calendar. The first is astronomical, and depends on the relationship between the sun and the earth; the second shows us … Continue reading
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Tagged autumn, Autumn Equinox, Bealtaine, Candlemas, China calendar, fall, Great Yule, haikai, Halloween, Harvest Home, hokku, hokku calendar, hokku seasons, Imbolc, japan calendar, Lammas, Lughnasadh, May Day, Midsummer, Misummer's Day, Samhain, spring, Spring Equinox, summer, Summer Solstice, winter, Winter Solstice
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A HOKKU FOR VESĀKHA
I was remiss in not posting a hokku for Vesākha, the remembrance of the Birth, the Enlightenment Nibbana (Nirvana) and the Passing Away (Parinibbana) of the Buddha. Vesākha takes place at the time of the full moon in May. In … Continue reading
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Tagged Buddha, Chora, Full moon of May, haikai, hokku, Nibbana, spring, temple, Vesākha
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CLOUDS APPEAR
We just looked at a verse for the time when spring is nearing its end: Warm rain From a cloudburst; Departing spring. Today, by contrast, we shall look at a verse on the other side of the seasonal divide: Clouds … Continue reading
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Tagged cloudburst, clouds, drought, haikai, haiku, heat, hokku, rain, spring, summer, windmill
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DEPARTING SPRING
Warm rain From a cloudburst; Departing spring. Beginning with the premise that a hokku is a sensory experience of Nature and the place of humans within Nature, set in the context of the season, we can see that every hokku … Continue reading
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Tagged cloudburst, departing spring, haikai, haiku, hokku, rain, spring
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THE PILGRIM’S CHILD
Shiki (the “founder” of haiku as different from hokku) wrote a verse that is really a hokku in structure and effect: A butterfly; The pilgrim’s child Lags behind. Like old hokku, this demands an intuitive leap by the reader. One … Continue reading
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Tagged butterflies, haikai, haiku, hokku, pilgrims, Shiki, spring
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A DOLL IS NOT ALWAYS A DOLL
When a writer of hokku writes about himself or herself, he does so as one would if writing about something else — as one would write about a tree, or a hawk circling in the sky. Baishitsu wrote: te ni … Continue reading
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Tagged Baishitsu, dolls, girls' festival, haikai, haiku, Hana-matsuri, hokku, spring
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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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WORKING WITH MODELS
The very old practice of using models to learn hokku is, as I have mentioned earlier, also a very good one. One should not think of it as simplistic or elementary, because if offers the opportunity to fix these models … Continue reading
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Tagged haikai, haiku, hokku, hokku models, Onitsura, pines, spring, standard hokku, wind
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TAKING OFF THE WORLD
I have mentioned previously the simple, elegant — one might even say “clean” feeling one gets from the hokku of Onitsura. It is unfortunate that he had no reliable students to carry on his kind of verse. Because of that, … Continue reading
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Tagged change of clothes, Henry David Thoreau, Onitsura, spring, summer, Walden
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CRAB SUSPICIONS
Now back to spring…. Rofu wrote an interesting verse set in the spring: Ashiato wo kani no ayashimu shiohi kana Foot-step wo crab ‘s suspicion ebb-tide kana If one wants a good, brief look at how … Continue reading
