Japanese haiku quatrains about life. Haiku (Haiku) Poems
Japanese poems. How to write correctly in Japanese style.
So what is Japanese verse?
Haiku(haiku) - tercet, the first line has 5 syllables, the second 7, the third 5 (allowed, but undesirable when the 3rd has fewer syllables).
It is considered the skill of haiku to describe a moment in three lines. The salt of the moment, something like photography.
The first line answers the question "Where"? The second is to the question “What”? third "When"?.
But it’s not uncommon for haiku to go without an answer to these eternal questions, especially when they are about feelings, states...
But it’s still better to stick to the breakdown by syllables
Example:
Killed a spider
And it became so lonely
In the cold of the night
Tanka- a very ancient form of Japanese poetry, literally "short song".
As a song, it originated a long time ago; in the first recordings that have reached us, dating back to the 8th century, we can already identify very ancient and ancient songs where the sound of a choir can be heard. In the beginning, the tank is the common property of the people. Even when the poet spoke about his own things, he spoke for everyone.
The separation of the literary tank from the song element was accomplished very slowly. It is still chanted, following a certain melody. The tanka is closely connected with the moment of improvisation, poetic inspiration, as if it itself was born on the crest of emotion.
Tanka is a long-liver in the world of poetry; in comparison with it, the European sonnet is very young. Its structure has been proven over the centuries: the tanka says little, but just as much as is needed.
The metric system is simple. Japanese poetry is syllabic. Thangka consists of 5 verses. The first and third have 5 syllables, each of the others has seven: the odd number is characteristic of the tank.
And, as a consequence of this, that slight deviation from the crystal-balanced symmetry that is so beloved in Japanese art constantly arises.
Neither the poem itself as a whole nor any of its constituent poems can be cut into two equal halves.
The harmony of the tank rests on an unstable and very flexible balance. This is one of the main laws of its structure, and it did not arise by chance.
Ancient poetry contained a great variety of constant epithets and stable metaphors. Metaphor ties the mental state to a familiar object or phenomenon and thereby conveys visible, tangible concreteness and seems to stop in time.
Tears transform into pearls or crimson leaves (blood tears). Longing and separation are associated with a sleeve wet from tears. The sadness of passing youth is personified in the old cherry tree...
In a small poem, every word, every image counts; they acquire special weight and significance. Therefore, symbolism was very important - a language of feelings familiar to everyone.
Tanka is a small model of the world. The poem is open in time and space, poetic thought is endowed with extension. This is achieved in different ways: the reader must finish the sentence himself, think it through, and feel it.
Example:
I know myself.
That you are to blame for everything
I don't think so.
The face expresses reproach,
But the sleeve is wet from tears.
***
You regret it...
But no regrets
Our busy world.
Having rejected myself,
Maybe you can save yourself.
How to write poetryVJapanesestyle?
Can you write haiku? Or maybe it’s worth a try?!
What is haiku? The Literary Encyclopedic Dictionary tells us that:
“Haiku is a genre of Japanese poetry: a 17-syllable tercet (5+7+5). In the 17th century, Matsuo Basho developed the formal and aesthetic principles of the genre (“sabi” - elegant simplicity, “shiori” - associative creation of harmony of beauty, “hosomi” - depth of penetration). The improvement of form is associated with the work of Taniguchi Buson, the democratization of themes is associated with Kobayashi Issa. At the end of the 19th century, Masaoka Shiki gave a new impetus to development by applying the principle of “sketches from life” borrowed from painting.”
Haiku is a feeling-sensation transferred into a small verbal picture-image.
Interesting fact! Many Japanese now use their mobile phones to write poetry.
“Caution, the doors are closing,” and Tokyo subway passengers make themselves comfortable. And almost immediately, mobile phones are pulled out of pockets and bags.
In the classical forms of Japanese poetry [tanka, haiku, haiku], both the content and the number of syllables are clearly specified,
but today's young poets use the traditional form and fill it with modern content.
And this shape is great for mobile phone screens.” (BBCRussian.com).
Start writing haiku! Feel the joy of creativity, the joy of conscious presence here and now!
And to make it easier for you to do this, we offer you a kind of “master class” from famous haijin.
And the first lesson will be “taught” by James W. Hackett (b. 1929; student and friend of Blyth, the most influential Western haijin, championing “Zen haiku” and “haiku of the present moment.” According to Hackett, haiku is the intuitive feeling of “things as they are", and this, in turn, corresponds to the manner of Basho, who introduced the importance of the immediacy of the present moment into haiku. For Hackett, haiku is what he called "the path of living awareness" and "the value of every moment of life") .
Hackett's twenty (now famous) suggestions for writing haiku
(translation from English by Olga Hooper):
1. The source of haiku is life.
2. Ordinary, daily events.
3. Contemplate nature in close proximity.
Of course, not only nature. But haiku is first and foremost about nature, the natural world around us, and only then about us in this world. That’s why it’s said, “nature.” And human feelings will be visible and tangible precisely through showing the life of the natural world.
4. Identify yourself with what you are writing about.
5. Think alone.
6. Depict nature as it is.
7. Don’t always try to write in 5-7-5.
Even Basho broke the “17 syllables” rule. Secondly, the Japanese syllable and the Russian syllable are completely different in content and duration. Therefore, when writing (not in Japanese) or translating haiku, the 5-7-5 formula may be violated. The number of lines is also optional - 3. It can be 2 or 1. The main thing is not the number of syllables or stanzas, but the SPIRIT OF HAIKU - which is achieved by the correct construction of images.
8. Write in three lines.
9. Use ordinary language.
10. Assume. 
To assume means not to express it completely and completely, but to leave something for further construction (by the reader). Since haiku are so short, it is impossible to paint a picture in all the details, but rather the main details can be given, and the reader can guess the rest based on what is given. We can say that in haiku only the external features of objects are drawn, only the most important (at that moment) characteristics of the thing/phenomenon are indicated - and the rest is completed by readers in their imagination... Therefore, by the way, haiku needs a trained reader
11. Mention the time of year.
12. Haiku are intuitive.
13. Don't miss the humor.
14. Rhyme is distracting.
15. Life to the fullest.
16. Clarity.
17. Read your haiku out loud.
18. Simplify!
19. Let the haiku rest.
20. Remember Blyce’s admonition that “haiku is a finger pointing to the moon.”
According to the recollections of Basho’s students, he once made the following comparison: a haiku is a finger pointing to the moon. If a bunch of jewelry glitters on your finger, then the viewer's attention will be distracted by these jewelry. For the finger to show the Moon itself, it does not need any decorations, because without them, the audience's attention will be directed exactly to the point at which the finger points.
This is what Hackett reminds us of: haiku does not need any decorations in the form of rhyme, metaphors, animation of natural things and phenomena, comparisons of them with something in human relations, comments or assessments of the author, and so on. to the moon". The finger must be “clean”, so to speak. Haiku is pure poetry.
Write haiku! And your life will become brighter!
Which is correct?
First of all, which is correct: “hoku” or “haiku”?
If you don’t go into details, you can do it this way and that way. Usually, when talking about haiku, they use the expression “an ancient Japanese poetic form.” So, haiku themselves are a little older than Russian iambic tetrameter, which first appeared in the 17th century and took hold in the 18th century.
I will not dwell on the fascinating history of haiku, describing how, as a result of the development of poetic competitions, traditional tanka demanded the emergence of renga, from which haiku itself developed. Those interested can find information about this in English on the Web (see list of links at the end of the preface).
Russian iambic tetrameter and other meters, which had become established in our country by the middle of the 18th century, supplanted from Russian poetry meters that were based not on the alternation of stressed and unstressed syllables within a separate poetic line, but on the quantitative commensurability of the syllabic volumes of the lines (length expressed in the number of syllables). This system of versification is called syllabic.
Here is an example of a syllabic verse, which is easy to obtain by transforming the syllabic-tonic verse familiar to us:
My uncle, the most honest rules,
When I got seriously ill,
He forced himself to respect
And I couldn't think of anything better.
At first glance, this quatrain is simply a destroyed Pushkin verse. In fact, since ALL the words of the “original” were preserved in this “translation”, the ordering of the verses by the number of syllables is also preserved - in each odd line there are 9, in each even line there are 8. Our hearing, accustomed to relying on stress, does not notice this ordering , but this does not mean that syllabic verse is organically alien to us. As Lieutenant Myshlaevsky said, “it is achieved through training.”
Haiku/haiku is just a type of syllabic poem. The rules by which haiku is written are simple -
1. Each poem consists of three lines
2. The first and third lines have 5 syllables each, the second - 7.
These rules are associated with verse form. They are the basis of the Garden of Divergent Hokku.
Japanese haiku, in addition, followed a number of rules related to the system of images, composition and vocabulary. They were built around kigo (words that directly or indirectly denote the seasons), were divided into two parts (2 first lines + 1 final) and connected a fleeting moment, captured in a psychologically specific experience, and cosmic time. (Read what the specialist says about this - V.P. Mazurik).
One can argue with this - after all, Russian words are not at all the same length as Japanese ones. Even for English haiku, it was proposed to lengthen the traditional lines, but the Russian language is less economical than English. The trouble is that longer lines (for example, according to the pattern 7+9+7), not supported by rhyme or internal placement of pauses or stress, will be difficult to recognize by ear. Usually, when translating haiku (or stylizing them), Russian authors ignore the syllabic principle, so they simply end up with three-line free verse.
Practice a little and you will begin to distinguish five- and seven-syllable lines by ear. (Hint: try to chant each line slowly, syllable by syllable and not paying attention to stress.) And the laconicism of these lines will begin to contribute to the economy of verbal means. And you will hear haiku music, completely different from the sound of Russian verse, just as Japanese classical music is not similar to Mozart or Chopin.
Well, if you can’t do without the usual forms, you can write haiku using regular sizes. After all, the 5+7+5 scheme also corresponds to the lines of “normal” iambics (My poor uncle!/ He fell seriously ill - / He’s no longer breathing), trochees (Under my window / You are covered with snow, / Sakura is in bloom!.. - however, here I’m not sure of the emphasis), dactyls (Range with bonfires, / Blue nights of spring! / May Day), amphibrachians (At twelve o’clock / I look - an informer rises / From the coffin) and - with some tension - anapests ("Swing, hand" -/The paralytic wailed, -/"Itchy shoulder!").
And more links on the topic:
.
http://iyokan.cc.matsuyama-u.ac.jp/~shiki/Start-Writing.html
.
http://www.faximum.com/aha.d/haidefjr.htm
.
http://www.mlckew.edu.au/departments/japanese/haiku.htm
.
http://www.art.unt.edu/ntieva/artcurr/japan/haiku.htm
.
http://www.ori.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~dhugal/davidson.html
.
http://www.ori.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~dhugal/haikuhome.html
.
http://www.zplace.com/poetry/foster/wazhaiku.html
How does haiku differ from haiku?
How does haiku differ from haiku?Many have heard these 2 names. On the HAIKU-DO.com forum in the topic THE ABC'S OF HAIKU or "What is this?" I found the following different opinions on this matter:
Version 1:
...Yes, also, there is no difference between haiku and haiku - haiku is more ancient, the outdated name is tercist, today the Japanese only say “haiku”. This was recently explained to me by the Japanese poet and translator Osada Kazuya. It was he who translated several of my haiku into Japanese and published them in the magazine Hoppoken 2003 winter vol.122, page 92, emphasizing both the dignity and observance of the 5-7-5 form and the principle of construction.
But from communication on websites, I realized that many people do not like the synonymy of “haiku and haiku,” and they passionately want to make some gradations in the definitions of well-established eastern forms of poetry. The Japanese themselves do not have this division, so why should we, imitators, invent our own criteria. Personally, these philosophies of modern Russian-speaking “haikuists” seem too far-fetched to me. Why look for a black cat in a dark room - it’s simply not there...
I am publishing the article by Yuri Runov in full, because... she is interesting and informative. Enjoy reading!
I have already written before that many people do not understand about haiku and haiku that these are not synonyms. Which is what I want to write about in more detail, and at the same time about where haiku came from. In principle, many people read something on this topic, but somewhere some significant points often slipped past the reader’s consciousness, which gave rise to disputes, struggles of self-conceit, etc.
BACKGROUND OF HAIKU
The ancestor of haiku, as is known, is tanka - and more specifically its first tercise. I was surprised to learn how early this division of the tank into three and two lines began. It turns out that the great tanka poet Saigyo already took part in stringing the stanzas - and this is the 19th century. One poet wrote the first three lines, another added two lines to form a thangka, but at the same time both the couplet and the tercet had to be read as separate verses. Then the first poet or the third would write the next tercet which, with the previous couplet, would form the “reverse” tanka - i.e. First, a new tercet was read and the previous two lines were added to it for a complete tank. Next is a new couplet, etc. And even then, individual themes were assigned to individual stanzas in the collective work of poets.
There is a well-known story when his poet acquaintances came to Saiga and complained that no one knew how to continue the chain of stanzas after this stanza dedicated to the war by the famous poetess of that time Hee no Tsubone:
The battlefield is illuminated -
The month is a bow drawn tightly.
Here Saige himself wrote a new stanza:
I killed my heart within myself.
The hand became friends with the “ice blade”,
Or is he the only light?
Why not haiku? Now read this stanza, adding the poetess’s couplet after it. Here's the tank...
Over the next few centuries, such stringing of stanzas became increasingly popular and around the 16th century it became a favorite pastime of the literate population of Japanese cities. But the more popular it became, the less poetry remained in it - writing renga became a pastime where humor, ridicule, and various verbal tricks were valued. Therefore, this type of poetry began to be called haikai - i.e. humorous mixture. At the beginning of the 17th century, the term haiku (comic poem) also appeared, but then, however, it was forgotten for several hundred years. At this time, individual tercets are already written - not as part of the renga. There are even competitions to see who can write the most haiku in a certain period of time - for example, in a day. The results were phenomenal, but no one really cared about the quality of such poems.
HAIKU
Then Basho appeared, exalting “comic rhymes” to the level of deep poetry. And here the differences between haiku and other types of tercets begin to appear. Haiku was the opening verse of renga and had fairly strict rules applied to it. It had to be connected with the season - because the ranks were divided according to the seasons. It had to be “objective”, i.e. based on the observation of nature and should not have been “personal” - for this was not the renga of Basho or Ransetsu - but the collective work of poets. Complicating elements - metaphors, allusions, comparisons, anthropomorphism were also not allowed here. Etc. Just everything that haiku experts in the West consider to be the unshakable rules of haiku. This is where the confusion with haiku and haiku begins.
With all this, haiku had to carry a powerful aesthetic charge - set the tone for the entire chain of strung stanzas. They were written in advance for all possible seasons. Good haiku were highly valued because they were difficult to write - they required real skill, and so many people wanted to write renga. Then the first collections of haiku appeared - specifically to satisfy the mass demand for the initial stanzas. Collections of internal renga tercets simply could not be written in advance - they were created only in response to the previous stanza in the real renga and therefore there have never been collections of these stanzas, except in the renga themselves.
HOKKU AND OTHER TERCEPTHS
But here you need to understand that all the great haiku masters took part in the creation of renga and wrote not only haiku but also internal renga poems - which incredibly expanded the possibilities of tercets - there were tercets that the poet was obliged to write in the first person, there were poems about human affairs and not about nature, both metaphors and anthropomorphization were allowed and used; kigo and kireji became optional in many stanzas. In addition, haiku were composed both as diary entries, and as a gift from a poet to an acquaintance or friend, and as responses to various events. Haiku-like verses and simple stanzas could also be used here. And all this was united by the common concept of haikai poetry - which, after a couple of centuries, Shiki would replace with the term haiku, which he revived. There’s no way you can write down in haiku this tercet written by Basho while visiting an exhibition of his friend’s drawings:
You're such a good artist
but this bindweed of yours -
He really looks like he’s alive!
THEY WEAR A STRAITJACKET ON A HAIKU
Since the first Western researchers dealt only with collections of haiku, they ignored all other types of tercets and thus established the rules of haiku as the rules of haiku. This is where the ridiculous restrictions imposed to this day on haiku by many authorities in the West came from. After all, some there still consider Issa to be an unbalanced rebel, whose deviations from the “haiku norms” only confirm that they are right, just as exceptions confirm the rules. But Issa was not a rebel at all, he simply at times went beyond the boundaries of haiku, but not haikai poetry - or haiku in the new terminology. By the way, in his famous “Snail on the Slope of Fuji” he, of course, does not look at a real snail on the slope of a real Fuji, but at a snail on a model of Fuji - a sacred mountain - installed in many Japanese temples - this again is not some kind of thoughtful surreal the poem is a sweet joke from a great haiku master. However, everyone is free to see whatever they want in a poem; these are the rules of the game of haiku.
DOWN WITH HOKKU :-)
In Russia we are in an incomparably more advantageous position than in the West - in all our collections of haiku by great masters, there are not only haiku, but also poems from diaries, poetic offerings, tercets from renga. That’s why we never created these sets of laws for haiku. The only thing that we confuse is haiku and haiku - you can still read “My Hokku” on the websites of our enthusiasts, where there may not be a single poem at all that would have the right to be called haiku (there are no seasonal words, there are no kireji, but there are metaphor, etc.) I would completely abandon the term haiku, as it confuses the brain, and would leave one term - haiku. Haiku is only useful for writing renga. And there everything should be according to the rules, unless we come up with new ones ourselves!
(c) Yuri Runov
Japanese haiku tercets for schoolchildren
Japanese haiku tercets
Japanese culture is quite often classified as a “closed” culture. Not immediately, not from the first acquaintance, the uniqueness of Japanese aesthetics, the unusual charm of Japanese
customs and beauty of Japanese art monuments. Lecturer-methodologist Svetlana Viktorovna Samykina, Samara, introduces us to one of the manifestations of the “mysterious Japanese soul” - haiku poetry.
I've barely gotten better
Exhausted, until the night...
And suddenly - wisteria flowers!
Basho
Just three lines. Few words. And the reader’s imagination has already painted a picture: a tired traveler who has been on the road for many days. He is hungry, exhausted, and finally, he has a place to sleep for the night! But our hero is in no hurry to enter, because suddenly, in an instant, he forgot about all the hardships in the world: he is admiring the wisteria flowers.
Haiku or haiku. How do you like. Homeland - Japan. Date of birth: Middle Ages. Once you open a collection of haiku, you will forever remain captive of Japanese poetry. What is the secret of this unusual genre?
From the heart of a peony
A bee slowly crawls out...
Oh, with what reluctance!
Basho
This is how the Japanese treat nature sensitively, reverently enjoy its beauty, and absorb it.
Perhaps the reason for this attitude should be sought in the ancient religion of the Japanese people - Shintoism? Shinto preaches: be grateful to nature. She can be ruthless and harsh, but more often she is generous and affectionate. It was the Shinto faith that instilled in the Japanese a sensitivity to nature and the ability to enjoy its endless changeability. Shinto was replaced by Buddhism, just as in Rus' Christianity replaced paganism. Shinto and Buddhism are a stark contrast. On the one hand, there is a sacred attitude towards nature, the veneration of ancestors, and on the other, complex Eastern philosophy. Paradoxically, these two religions coexist peacefully in the Land of the Rising Sun. A modern Japanese will admire blooming sakura, cherry trees, and autumn maples blazing with fire.
From human voices
Shudderingly in the evening
Cherry beauties.
Issa
Japan loves flowers very much, and they prefer simple, wild flowers with their timid and discreet beauty. A tiny vegetable garden or flower bed is often planted near Japanese houses. An expert on this country, V. Ovchinnikov, writes that you need to see the Japanese islands to understand why their inhabitants consider nature to be a measure of beauty.
Japan is a country of green mountains and sea bays, mosaic rice fields, gloomy volcanic lakes, picturesque pine trees on the rocks. Here you can see something unusual: bamboo bent under the weight of snow - this is a symbol of the fact that in Japan north and south are adjacent.
The Japanese subordinate the rhythm of their lives to events in nature. Family celebrations are timed to coincide with the cherry blossoms and the autumn full moon. Spring on the islands is not quite similar to ours in Europe, with melting snow, ice drifts, and floods. It begins with a violent outbreak of flowering. Pink sakura inflorescences delight the Japanese not only with their abundance, but also with their fragility. The petals are held so loosely in the inflorescences that at the slightest breath of wind a pink waterfall flows onto the ground. On days like these, everyone rushes out of town to the parks. Listen to how the lyrical hero punishes himself for breaking the branch of a flowering tree:
Throw a stone at me.
Plum blossom branch
I'm broke now.
Kikaku
The first snow is also a holiday.
It does not appear often in Japan. But when he walks, the houses become very cold, since the Japanese houses are light gazebos. And yet the first snow is a holiday. The windows open and, sitting by the small braziers, the Japanese drink sake and admire the snow flakes that fall on the paws of the pine trees and on the bushes in the garden.
First snow.
I'd put it on a tray
I would just watch and watch.
Kikaku
The maples are blazing with autumn foliage - in Japan it is a holiday to admire the crimson foliage of maples.
Oh, maple leaves.
You burn your wings
Flying birds.
Siko
All haiku is appeal. To whom?
To the leaves. Why does the poet turn to maple leaves? He loves their bright colors: yellow, red - even the wings of birds burn. Let us imagine for a moment that the poetic appeal was addressed to the leaves of an oak tree. Then a completely different image would be born - an image of perseverance, endurance, because the leaves of oak trees remain firmly on the branches until winter frosts.
The classic tercet should reflect some time of year. Here is Issa talking about autumn:
Peasant in the field.
And showed me the way
Picked radish.
Issa will say about the transience of a sad winter day:
Opening his beak,
The wren did not have time to sing.
The day is over.
And here you will, without a doubt, remember the sultry summer:
Flocked together
Mosquitoes to the sleeping person.
Dinner time.
Issa
Think about who's waiting for lunch. Of course, mosquitoes. The author is ironic.
Let's see what the structure of haiku is. What are the rules of this genre? Its formula is simple: 5 7 5. What do these numbers mean? We can have children explore this problem and they will certainly find that the numbers above indicate the number of syllables in each line. If we look carefully at the haiku collection, we will notice that not all tercets have such a clear structure (5 7 5). Why? Children will answer this question themselves. The fact is that we read Japanese haiku in translation. The translator must convey the author's idea and at the same time maintain a strict form. This is not always possible, and in this case he sacrifices form.
This genre chooses means of artistic expression extremely sparingly: few epithets and metaphors. There is no rhyme, no strict rhythm is observed. How does the author manage to create an image in a few words, with meager means? It turns out that the poet works a miracle: he awakens the imagination of the reader himself. The art of haiku is the ability to say a lot in a few lines. In a sense, every tercet ends with an ellipsis. After reading a poem, you imagine a picture, an image, experience it, rethink it, think it through, create it. That is why for the first time in the second grade we are working with the concept of “artistic image” using the material of Japanese tercets.
Willow is bent over and sleeping.
And it seems to me that a nightingale is on a branch -
This is her soul.
Basho
Let's discuss the poem.
Remember how we usually see willow?
This is a tree with silver-green leaves, bent near the water, near the road. All the willow branches are sadly lowered down. It is not for nothing that in poetry the willow is a symbol of sadness, melancholy, and melancholy. Remember the poem by L. Druskin “There is a willow ...” (see the textbook by V. Sviridova “Literary Reading” 1st grade) or Basho:
All the excitement, all the sadness
Of your troubled heart
Give it to the flexible willow.
Sadness and melancholy are not your path, the poet tells us, give this load to the willow tree, because all of it is the personification of sadness.
What can you say about the nightingale?
This bird is inconspicuous and gray, but how it sings!
Why is the nightingale the soul of the sad willow?
Apparently, we learned about the thoughts, dreams, and hopes of the tree from the song of the nightingale. He told us about her soul, mysterious and beautiful.
In your opinion, does the nightingale sing or is silent?
There may be several correct answers to this question (as often happens in a literature lesson), because everyone has their own image. Some will say that the nightingale, of course, sings, otherwise how would we know about the soul of the willow? Others will think that the nightingale is silent, because it is night and everything in the world is sleeping. Each reader will see his own picture and create his own image.
Japanese art speaks eloquently in the language of omissions. Understatement, or yugen, is one of his principles. Beauty is in the depths of things. Be able to notice it, and this requires subtle taste. The Japanese don't like symmetry. If the vase is in the middle on the table, it will automatically be moved to the edge of the table. Why? Symmetry as completeness, as completeness, as repetition is uninteresting. So, for example, the dishes on a Japanese table (service) will necessarily have different patterns and different colors.
An ellipsis often appears at the end of haiku. This is not an accident, but a tradition, a principle of Japanese art. For a resident of the Land of the Rising Sun, the thought is important and close: the world is always changing, therefore in art there cannot be completeness, there cannot be a peak - a point of balance and peace. The Japanese even have a catchphrase: “The empty spaces on a scroll are filled with more meaning than what the brush has written on it.”
The highest manifestation of the concept of “yugen” is the philosophical garden. This is a poem made of stone and sand. American tourists see it as a “tennis court” - a rectangle covered with white gravel, where stones are scattered in disarray. What does a Japanese think about while peering at these stones? V. Ovchinnikov writes that words cannot convey the philosophical meaning of a rock garden; for the Japanese it is an expression of the world in its endless variability.
But let's return to literature. The great Japanese poet Matsuo Basho raised the genre to unsurpassed heights. Every Japanese knows his poems by heart.
Basho was born into a poor samurai family in the province of Iga, which is called the cradle of old Japanese culture. These are incredibly beautiful places. The poet's relatives were educated people, and Basho himself began writing poetry as a child. His life path is unusual. He took monastic vows, but did not become a real monk. Basho settled in a small house near the city of Edo. This hut is sung in his poems.
IN A REED COVERED HUT
How a banana moans in the wind,
How the drops fall into the tub,
I hear it all night long.
In 1682, a misfortune happened - Basho's hut burned down. And he began a many-year wandering around Japan. His fame grew, and many students appeared throughout Japan. Basho was a wise teacher, he did not just pass on the secrets of his skill, he encouraged those who were looking for their own path. The true style of haiku was born in controversy. These were disputes between people truly dedicated to their cause. Bonte, Kerai, Ransetsu, Shiko are students of the famous master. Each of them had his own handwriting, sometimes very different from the handwriting of the teacher.
Basho walked the roads of Japan, bringing poetry to people. His poems include peasants, fishermen, tea pickers, the entire life of Japan with its bazaars, taverns on the roads...
Left for a moment
Farmer threshing rice
Looks at the moon.
During one of his travels, Basho died. Before his death, he created the “Death Song”:
I got sick on the way,
And everything runs and circles my dream
Through scorched meadows.
Another famous name is Kobayashi Issa. His voice is often sad:
Our life is a dewdrop.
Let just a drop of dew
Our life - and yet...
This poem was written on the death of his little daughter. Buddhism teaches not to worry about the departure of loved ones, because life is a dewdrop... But listen to the poet’s voice, how much inescapable grief is in this “and yet...”
Issa wrote not only on high philosophical topics. His own life and fate were reflected in the poet’s work. Issa was born in 1763 into a peasant family. The father dreamed of his son becoming a successful merchant. To do this, he sends him to study in the city. But Issa became a poet and, like his fellow poets, he walked around the villages and made his living by writing haiku. At the age of 50, Issa got married. Beloved wife, 5 children. Happiness was fleeting. Issa loses everyone close to her.
Maybe that’s why he is sad even in the sunny season of flowering:
Sad world!
Even when the cherry blossoms...
Even then…
That's right, in a previous life
You were my sister
Sad cuckoo...
He would marry two more times, and the only child who would continue his family would be born after the poet’s death in 1827.
Issa found his way in poetry. If Basho explored the world by penetrating into its hidden depths, looking for connections between individual phenomena, then Issa in his poems sought to accurately and completely capture the reality surrounding him and his own feelings.
It's spring again.
A new stupidity is coming
The old one is replaced.
Cool wind
Bent down to the ground, he contrived
Get me too.
Shh... Just for a moment
Shut up, meadow crickets.
It's starting to rain.
Issa makes the subject of poetry everything that his predecessors studiously avoided mentioning in poetry. He connects the low and the high, arguing that every little thing, every creature in this world should be valued on an equal basis with man.
A bright pearl
The New Year has shone for this one too
A little louse.
Roofer.
His ass is wrapped around him
Spring wind.
There is still great interest in Issa's work in Japan today. The haiku genre itself is alive and dearly loved. To this day, a traditional poetry competition is held in mid-January. Tens of thousands of poems on a given topic are submitted to this competition. This championship has been held annually since the fourteenth century.
Our compatriots create their own Russian haiku on Internet sites. Sometimes these are absolutely amazing images, for example, of autumn:
New autumn
Opened its season
Toccata of rain.
And gray rains
Long fingers will weave
Long autumn...
And “Russian” haiku force the reader to speculate, build an image, and listen to the ellipses. Sometimes these are mischievous, ironic lines. When the Russian national team lost at the football championship, the following haiku appeared on the Internet:
Even in football
You need to be able to do something.
It's a pity we didn't know...
There are also “ladies’” haiku:
There's nowhere else to go
Shorten the skirt:
Running out of legs.
I forgot who I am.
We haven't fought for so long.
Remind me, honey.
But here are more serious ones:
I'll hide it safely
Your pain and grievances.
I'll flash a smile.
Do not say anything.
Just stay with me.
Just love.
Sometimes “Russian” haiku echo well-known plots and motifs:
The barn is not on fire.
The horse sleeps quietly in the stable.
What should a woman do?
Of course, you caught the roll call with Nekrasov.
Tanya-chan lost her face,
Crying about the ball rolling into the pond.
Pull yourself together, daughter of a samurai.
Eneke and Beneke enjoyed sushi.
Whatever the child amuses himself with, as long as
Didn't drink sake.
And haiku lines are always the path to the reader’s own creativity, that is, to your personal inner solution to the topic proposed to you. The poem ends, and here the poetic comprehension of the topic begins.
——————————————
This article is part of a group of manuals from the series “Thematic planning for textbooks by V.Yu. Sviridova and N.A. Churakova “Literary reading” grades 1-4.”
Japanese haiku (three lines)
Journey to the land of the rising sun.
The purpose of the lesson : introduce the haiku genre,
with poets - representatives of this genre,
be able to determine the theme and idea of a tercet,
cultivate love and respect for culture
different peoples.
Name of Japan. (Nihon - ni-sun, hon-root, base). “The path of the mountains” is one of the interpretations of the ancient name of this country - Yamato. Indeed, Japan is, first of all, a country of mountains. But the land of fire-breathing mountains is better known asLand of the rising sun.
The residents themselves write the name of their homeland in two hieroglyphs. This is where a new day is born. It is from here that the luminary begins its daily journey.
The whole world has long recognized: the Japanese have a cult of beauty. Once upon a time, the ancestors of modern Japanese believed that any element of nature had a soul and was a deity. That is why many holidays and symbols of Japan are associated with nature.
Symbol of the Japanese Imperial House are bigOgiku chrysanthemums . The autumn Chrysanthemum Festival is dedicated to them.
This flower is depicted on the country's coat of arms, on coins and on the Order of the Chrysanthemum, Japan's highest award.
The symbol of the Japanese isbamboo . Bamboo bent under the weight of snow symbolizes the hardy and flexible Japanese who resists adversity and adapts to the most unexpected difficulties.
Since the end of March, the Japanese have been eagerly waiting for the Japanese cherry tree - sakura - to bloom. The Japanese have been admiring sakura for many centuries, gathering in its lush white and pink gardens. This tradition is called hanami.Cherry blossoms in Japan are considered a symbol of renewal
, because the petals do not fade: they fall to the ground fresh. 
In autumn, Japan also hosts the Moon Viewing Festival and the Maple Leaf Viewing Festival.
Every educated person in Japan should be able to write beautifully, calligraphically, and master the art of versification.One of the most widespread genres of Japanese poetry is haiku (hoku), which appeared in the 17th - 18th centuries.
Haiku (or haiku) is a lyric poem, a form of Japanese poetry.
Haiku consists of three verses: the first and last verse of the haiku are five-syllable, and the second verse of the haiku is seven-syllable. There are 17 syllables in haiku.
Contents of haiku.
This is a lyrical poem, characterized by extreme brevity and unique poetics. It depicts the life of nature and human life against the backdrop of the cycle of seasons. Many haiku are based on a technique calledco-addition : There are two objects, and haiku represents the dynamics of their relationship.
Example No. 1.
Old pond.
The frog is jumping.
Splash of water.
Subject- philosophical view of nature;
Two objects - a pond and a frog.
In Japanese there is an expression "pine needle civilization ". It means the ability to enjoy the beauty of one needle. Just as the sun is reflected in a drop of dew, so is nature reflected in one flower, in one branch.
The masters of Japanese poetry werelaconic . They called:peer into the familiar - you will see the unexpected, peer into the ugly - you will see the beautiful, peer into the simple - you will see the complex, peer into the particles - you will see the whole, peer into the small - you will see the great!
The authors of haiku set themselves the tasknot to describe, but to convey your mood, experience at a given moment in time.
In hockey there isunderstatement , hint, reticence. The authors hope that readers will understand and appreciate both the depiction of the real world, which does not require any other interpretation, and the subtext.
Main features of haiku:
1. Conciseness (3 lines);
2. Attention to detail;
3. Understatement, subtext.
Basho - philosopher, poet, in love with nature. He lived at the end of the 17th century. His life path is unusual.
The son of a minor samurai, a calligraphy teacher, Matsuo Basho was a playmate of the prince's son from childhood. After the early death of his young master, Matsuo went to the city and took monastic vows, thereby freeing himself from serving his feudal lord. However, he did not become a monk; he lived in a modest house in the poor suburb of Fukagawa, near the city of Edo. This hut with its modest landscape is described by the poet. He studies the work of Chinese poets. Soon, numerous students begin to flock to him, to whom Basho passes on his teaching about poetry. After his hut burned down, he begins many years of wandering, during which he dies.
His poetry, according to the testimony of researchers of his work, was not fun or a game for the poet, but a high calling of his life. He read that it ennobles and elevates a person.
Example No. 2.
I look -fallen leaf Againtook off on the branch: Thatbutterfly was. The genre of this poem ishaiku (three lines);
Subject -
Images -leaf - butterfly ;
State -fallen - took off (death - life);
Understatement (subtext):Perhaps, looking at a butterfly, the poet dreams of eternal life and the possibility of rebirth.
Example No. 3.
Night silence.
Only behind the picture on the wall
Rings -ringscricket.
The genre of this poem ishaiku (three lines);
Subject -philosophical perception of nature;
Images:night - cricket;
State:silence - ringing
Understatement (subtext):The poet does not sleep at night, something is bothering him. I wonder: are the experiences pleasant or not so pleasant?
Another famous Japanese poet -Issa Kobayashi (1763 - 1827)
The son of a peasant, Issa lost his mother early. My father's new marriage did not bring happiness to anyone. Against the backdrop of an unfavorable family situation, at the age of 13, Issa left for Edo (present-day Tokyo) to earn money. At the age of 25 he began to study poetry.
The poet's life was tragic. All his life he struggled with poverty. His beloved child died. The poet spoke about his fate in verses full of aching pain.
His poetry speaks of love for people, and not only for people, but also for all small creatures, helpless and offended.
Issa was the last major poet of feudal Japan. He left behind about 20,000 haiku.
Example No. 3.
Ourlife is a dewdrop.
Let just a drop of dew
Our life - andyet ...
Genre -haiku (three lines);
Subject -philosophical (meaning of life);
Images -life is a dewdrop;
The state is expressed through particles -let, nevertheless;
Idea -Every person's life is short compared to eternity, but it is worth living with dignity. It should be added that the poem was written in grief for the deceased child.
Example No. 4.
Quiet,crawl quietly
Snail down the slopeFuji,
Up , to the very heights!
Genre -haiku (three lines);
Subject -philosophical (through observation of nature);
Images -snail - sacred Mount Fuji;
State:quietly creeps up;
Idea:The meaning of life is in a slow and difficult approach to the truth.
What have you learned about the Japanese and Japan?
How did you understand what haiku is?
How many syllables does it have?
What are its main features?
Which Japanese poets did you recognize?
Try to compose haiku yourself. Don't be afraid, don't doubt yourself. Look around and create.
Maybe some advice will help youIlya Ehrenburg:
“Almost every educated Japanese has composed several haiku in his life. Of course, it does not follow from this that there are millions of poets in Japan... often this is just a tribute to custom; but even mechanical gestures leave their mark on a person. You can get drunk out of boredom, you can read a detective novel, you can write haiku... the author, if he did not exalt himself by writing it, then, in any case, did not diminish his human image.”
Homework
Read and analyze haiku (2-3 optional)
Matsuo Basho, Kobayashi Issa
Haiku (haiku) is a type of Japanese poetry. The original Japanese tercet consists of 17 syllables, which are written in one column. The most famous author of haiku is Matsuo Basho. However, he already has deviations from the norm of syllabic composition. With special dividing words - kireji (Japanese kireji - “cutting word”) - the haiku text is divided in a ratio of 2: 1 - either on the fifth syllable or on the twelfth.
The origins of haiku
The word “haiku” originally meant the initial stanza of another Japanese poetic form - renga (Japanese renga - “stringing of stanzas”). From the beginning of the Edo period (17th century), haiku began to be considered as independent works. The term "haiku" was coined by the poet and critic Masaoka Shiki in the late 19th century to distinguish these forms. Genetically, it goes back to the first half-strophe of tanka (literally haiku - the initial verses), from which it differs in the simplicity of the poetic language and the rejection of the previous canonical rules.
Haiku went through several stages in its development. The poets Arakida Moritake (1465-1549) and Yamazaki Sokan (1465-1553) imagined haiku as a miniature of a purely comic genre (such miniatures were later called senryu. The merit of turning haiku into a leading lyrical genre belongs to Matsuo Basho (1644-1694); the main content haiku became landscape lyric poetry. The name of Yosa Buson (1716-1783) is associated with the expansion of haiku themes. In parallel, in the 18th century, comic miniatures developed, which became an independent satirical and humorous genre of senryu (Japanese senryu - “river willow”). At the end of the 18th century - At the beginning of the 19th century, Kobayashi Issa introduced civic motifs into haiku and democratized the themes of the genre.
At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, Masaoka Shiki applied the shasei method (Japanese shasei? - “sketches from life”), borrowed from painting, to haiku, which contributed to the development of realism in the haiku genre.
How to understand haiku
When translating haiku into Western languages, traditionally - since the very beginning of the 20th century - the place where a kireji may appear is the line break, so that the haiku is a tercet of the 5-7-5 syllable structure.
In the 1970s, the American haiku translator Hiroaki Sato proposed writing haiku translations as monostic poems as a more adequate solution; Following him, the Canadian poet and theorist Clarence Matsuo-Allard declared that original haiku created in Western languages should be one-line.
There are also two-line texts among translated and original haiku, which tend to have a syllabic proportion of 2:1. As for the syllabic composition of haiku, to date, both among haiku translators and among the authors of original haiku in different languages, supporters of maintaining 17-complexity (and/or the 5-7-5 scheme) have remained in the minority.
According to the general opinion of most theorists, a single syllabic measure for haiku in different languages is impossible, because languages differ significantly from each other in the average length of words and, therefore, in the information capacity of the same number of syllables. Thus, in English, 17 syllables of a Japanese text on average correspond in information capacity to 12-13 syllables, and in Russian, on the contrary, about 20. Since the genre is a formal and content unity, the semantic characteristics that distinguish it are important for haiku. Classic haiku are necessarily built on the correlation of a person (his inner world, biography, etc.) with nature; in this case, nature must be defined in relation to the time of year - for this purpose kigo is used as a mandatory element of the text (Japanese kigo - “seasonal word”).
Most often, the narration is conducted in the present tense: the author presents his experiences. In haiku collections, each poem is often printed on a separate page. This is done so that the reader can thoughtfully, without rushing, penetrate the atmosphere of the poem.
To correctly understand haiku, you need to read every word, imagining it. For the Japanese, every natural phenomenon has a hidden meaning at the level of associations. For example, authors often mention sakura. This is a cherry blossom tree. A plant completely covered with white flowers appears to be something young, fresh and pristine. Such images give hockey an atmosphere of mystery and understatement.
It is not for nothing that Europeans believe that haiku awakens envy: how many Western readers have dreamed of walking through life like this with a notebook in hand, noting here and there certain “impressions”, the brevity of which would be a guarantee of perfection, and simplicity the criterion of depth (and all thanks to the myth consisting of two parts, one of which - classical - makes laconicism a dimension of art, the other - romantic - sees truthfulness in improvisation). While haiku is absolutely intelligible, it does not communicate anything, and it is precisely because of this double condition that it seems to present itself to the meaning with the helpfulness of a well-mannered host who invites you to feel at home with him, accepting you with all your attachments, values and symbols; this “absence” of haiku (in the sense that is meant when they talk about abstract consciousness, and not about the departed owner) is fraught with temptation and fall - in a word, a strong desire for meaning.
On a bare branch
Raven sits alone.
Autumn evening.
poplar leaves
Before a thunderstorm of unearthly color.
Submissive to the elements.
Where are you, Universe?
Busy during the day. At night, dim stars.
The indifference of the metropolis.
Japan is a country with a very unique culture. Its formation was greatly facilitated by the peculiarities of the geographical location and geological factors. The Japanese were able to settle in the valleys and coasts, but they constantly suffer from typhoons, earthquakes, and tsunamis. Therefore, it is not surprising that their national consciousness deifies natural forces, and poetic thought strives to penetrate into the very essence of things. This desire is embodied in laconic forms of art.
Features of Japanese poetry
Before considering examples of haiku, it is necessary to pay attention to the features of the art of the Land of the Rising Sun. This brevity is expressed in different ways. It is also characteristic of the Japanese garden with its empty space, and origami, and works of painting and poetry. The main principles in the art of the Land of the Rising Sun are naturalness, understatement, and minimalism.
In Japanese, words don't rhyme. Therefore, the poetry familiar to the average person in our country could not emerge in this language. However, the Land of the Rising Sun gave the world no less beautiful works called haiku. They contain the wisdom of the eastern people, their unsurpassed ability to understand through natural phenomena the meaning of existence and the essence of man himself.
Haiku - the poetic art of the Land of the Rising Sun
The careful attitude of the Japanese towards their past, towards the heritage of antiquity, as well as strict adherence to the rules and norms of versification, turned haiku into a genuine art form. In Japan, haiku is a separate type of skill - for example, like the art of calligraphy. It acquired its true capacity at the end of the 17th century. The famous Japanese poet Matsuo Basho managed to raise it to an unsurpassed height.
The person portrayed in the poem is always against the backdrop of nature. Haiku is intended to convey and show phenomena, but not to name them directly. These short poems are sometimes called "pictures of nature" in the art of poetry. It is no coincidence that artistic canvases were also created for haiku.
Size
Many readers wonder how to write haiku. Examples of these poems show: haiku is a short work that consists of only three lines. In this case, the first line should contain five syllables, the second - seven, the third - also five. For centuries, haiku has been the primary poetic form. Brevity, semantic capacity and mandatory appeal to nature are the main characteristics of this genre. In reality, there are many more rules for adding haiku. It’s hard to believe, but in Japan the art of composing such miniatures has been taught for decades. And painting lessons were also added to these activities.
The Japanese also understand haiku as a work consisting of three phrases of 5, 7, 5 syllables. The difference in the perception of these poems by different peoples is that in other languages they are usually written in three lines. In Japanese they are written on one line. And before they could be seen written from top to bottom.
Haiku poems: examples for children
Often schoolchildren receive homework assignments to learn or compose haiku. These short poems are easy to read and quick to remember. This is demonstrated by the following example of haiku (2nd grade is too early to take Japanese poetry, but students can refer to this tercet if necessary):
The sun is setting
And cobwebs too
Melting in the darkness...
The author of this laconic poem is Basho. Despite the capacity of the tercet, the reader must use his imagination and partially participate in the creative work of the Japanese poet. The following haiku is also written by Basho. In it, the poet depicts the carefree life of a little bird:
In free meadows
The lark bursts into song
Without work and worries...
Kigo
Many readers are wondering how to write haiku in Russian. Examples of these tercets show that one of the main features of this genre of poetry is the correlation of a person’s internal state with the time of year. This rule can also be used when composing your own haiku. The rules of classical versification required the use of a special “seasonal” word - kigo. It is a word or phrase that indicates the season described in the poem.
For example, the word "snow" would indicate winter. The phrase “Hazy moon” may indicate the onset of spring. Mention of sakura (Japanese cherry tree) will also indicate spring. The word kinge - “goldfish” - will indicate that the poet depicts summer in his poem. This custom of using kigo came into the haiku genre from other forms. However, these words also help the poet choose laconic words and give the meaning of the work even greater depth.
The following haiku example will tell about summer:
The sun is shining.
The birds became quiet at noon.
Summer has come.
And after reading the following Japanese tercet, you can understand that the season being described is spring:
Cherry blossoms.
Dali was shrouded in fog.
Dawn has arrived.
Two parts in a tercet
Another characteristic feature of haiku is the use of the “cutting word,” or kireji. To do this, Japanese poets used various words - for example, ya, kana, keri. However, they are not translated into Russian because they have a very vague meaning. In essence, they represent a kind of semantic mark that divides the tercet into two parts. When translating into other languages, a dash or an exclamation point is usually placed instead of the kireji.
Deviation from the generally accepted norm
There are always artists or poets who strive to break generally accepted, classical rules. The same goes for writing haiku. If the standard for writing these tercets presupposes a 5-7-5 structure, the use of “cutting” and “seasonal” words, then at all times there have been innovators who in their creativity sought to ignore these instructions. There is an opinion that haiku, which do not have a seasonal word, should be classified as senryu - humorous tercets. However, such a categorization does not take into account the existence of flour - haiku, in which there is no indication of the season, and which simply does not need it to reveal its meaning.
Haiku without a seasonal word
Let's look at an example of haiku that can be classified in this group:
The cat is walking
Along the city street
The windows are open.
Here, the indication of what time of year the animal left home is not important - the reader can observe the picture of the cat leaving home, completing the complete picture in his imagination. Perhaps something happened at home that the owners did not pay attention to the open window, and the cat slipped through it and went for a long walk. Maybe the owner of the house is anxiously waiting for her four-legged pet to return. In this haiku example, it is not necessary to indicate the season to describe feelings.
Is there always a hidden meaning in Japanese tercets?
Looking at various examples of haiku, one can see the simplicity of these tercets. Many of them lack hidden meaning. They describe ordinary natural phenomena perceived by the poet. The following example of haiku in Russian, authored by the famous Japanese poet Matsuo Basho, describes a picture of nature:
On a dead branch
The raven turns black.
Autumn evening.
This is how haiku differs from the Western poetic tradition. Many of them have no hidden meaning, but reflect the true principles of Zen Buddhism. In the West, it is customary to fill every thing with hidden symbolism. This meaning is not found in the following example of nature haiku, also written by Basho:
I'm walking along the path up the mountain.
ABOUT! How wonderful!
Violet!
General and specific in haiku
It is known that the Japanese people have a cult of nature. In the Land of the Rising Sun, the surrounding world is treated in a completely special way - for its inhabitants, nature is a separate spiritual world. In haiku, the motive of the universal connection of things is manifested. Specific things that are described in tercets are always connected with the general cycle; they become part of a series of endless changes. Even the four seasons of the year are divided by Japanese poets into shorter subseasons.
First drop
It fell from the sky onto my hand.
Autumn is approaching.
James Hackett, who was one of the most influential Western writers of haiku, believed that these tercets convey sensations “as they are.” And this is precisely what is characteristic of Basho’s poetry, which shows the immediacy of the current moment. Hackett gives the following tips to help you write your own haiku:
- The source of the poem must be life itself. They can and should describe daily events that at first glance seem ordinary.
- When composing haiku, one should contemplate nature in the immediate vicinity.
- It is necessary to identify yourself with what is described in the tercet.
- It is always better to think alone.
- It's better to use simple language.
- It is advisable to mention the time of year.
- Haiku should be simple and clear.
Hackett also said that anyone who wants to create beautiful haiku should remember the words of Basho: “Haiku is a finger that points to the moon.” If this finger is decorated with rings, then the attention of the audience will be focused on these jewelry, and not on the heavenly body. The finger does not need any decoration. In other words, various rhymes, metaphors, similes and other literary devices are unnecessary in haiku.