Yesterday we looked at this verse by Hokushi:
Karakasa no ikutsu sugiyuku yuki no kure
Umbrella ‘s many pass-by snow ‘s evening
Many umbrellas
Passing by;
The snowy evening.
In contrast, Yaha wrote:
Karakasa no hitotsu sugiyuku yuki no kure
Umbrella ‘s one passes-by snow ‘s evening
A single umbrella
Passes by;
The snowy evening.
This illustrates an important principle of hokku, related to its aspect of poverty. The less we present in a hokku, the stronger the effect. By “effect” we mean that all-important feeling of significance. One umbrella passing on a snowy evening has more perceived significance than many umbrellas. It has to do with the focus of attention, which is dispersed among many similar things in one case, but focused on a single thing in the second. That is why in translating hokku, even though Japanese had no difference between singular and plural nouns, we nonetheless generally translate in the singular rather than the plural, except in the case of things that normally come in groups, such as clouds and raindrops.
To state the principle quite simply, one thing in hokku has a greater perceived significance than many things. One can easily see that this relates to another principle of hokku, which is the avoidance of simile and metaphor. Why? Because they divide the attention between the “real” thing and the object with which it is being likened. What underlies both of these — one thing instead of many, no metaphor or simile — is not dividing the attention of the reader. The less divided the attention, the stronger the effect, the perceived significance, which is exactly what we see when looking at these two verses of Hokushi and Yaha.
David
HOKKU 