>>>
>> Angelika Kolompar Bygott wrote:
>> In the dusty room --
>> a small brown spider hanging
>> by a single string
> Gabi answered:
as for your poem, it would look more like a Japanese haiku to me if you
changed line one just a bit .. that way the CUT works better and it does not read
like just one sentence forcefully streched into three lines
>> dusty room --
>> a small brown spider hanging
>> by a single string
>
Dear Gabi,
if i may... i do not follow you. I am speaking in general terms without c
onsidering the specific haiku by Angelika.
Writing in English is different than writing in Japanese. So it is strange
that a possible "measurement" of haiku may be based on the formal identity in
the grammatical structures. So i think your approach may not go to the right
path.
Thank you for your attention and look forward to listening your opinions...
Dario
Dear Dario,
as you know, haiku originated in Japan quite a while ago with a set of
prescriptions (yakusokugoto) to define the genre.
Writing haiku in English or any other language is different, I do agree.
But some of the formal specifics of a Japanese haiku can be kept in any
language, for example the CUT ... which I do not consider a grammatical structure,
but a formal one specific to Japanese haiku. Otherwise, you will write short
poetry, which is not a bad thing, but a different thing.
I might be off the American path, but I still like to remind people once
in a while of the Japanese ancestors of haiku ... hahaha ... Please study the
classics of Japanese haiku to improve the understanding and writing of your
non-Japanese-language ones ... that would be my plea.
It is an old and rather fruitless discussion, I am well aware of this ...
still, living in Japan and being fond of the soul within the season words
(kigo) and all the good things in Japanese haiku, I ramble on like this once in a
while.
Take a look at the growing collection of the World Kigo Database to find
some kigo for your area to use in haiku. Or try to find words that carry enough
cultural background to be a new kigo for your area! Do not just drop kigo
entirely, that is my advise on the kigo issue, for example.
Greetings from Japan
Gabi
http://worldkigodatabase.blogspot.com/
<<<
061028
I should like to support what Gabi wrote: "Please study the classics of
Japanese haiku to improve the understanding and writing of your
non-Japanese-language ones," and I would like to add, study the classics of any culture,
especially of course those of your own. I also think that writing "short poetry [...]
is not a bad thing, but a different thing." It is therefore good to become
more and more aware of ones own position ãà” and be it an ever so little position
ãà” in a great tradition. Thus as to "[the] approach may not go to the right
path": Increase your word-power through familiarity with the classics ãà” not
only the haiku classics! ãà” so that you "find words that carry enough cultural
background" with more ease ... to write texts that are worth reading. And if
they turn out to be good haiku, that's even better for our little circle here.
Horst
________________________________________________
In necessariis unitas, in dubiis libertas, in omnibus caritas.