After I shared a haiku in a recent blog post, I checked out The Essential Haiku from the library. It includes bios and selected poems from the three most famous Japanese haiku poets: Basho (17th century), Buson (18th century), and Issa (19th century).
The introduction explains some key aspects of haiku. A seasonal reference (kigo) is essential and usually appears in the first or third line; these references are conventional phrases. The Buddhist perspective on the world is also central to this form of poetry. The editor Robert Hass writes, “At the core of Buddhist metaphysics are three ideas about natural things: that they are transient; that they are contingent; and that they suffer.” After reading the introduction and skimming through the book, I see that I am only scratching the surface in my understanding of haiku. I found the following paragraph a helpful summary.
“I thought that a book like this, that gathers together the work of these three poets, together with some of their prose and notes on the poems, would give a fuller sense of them to readers in English than has yet been available, and would also give some sense of the variety and intensity of experience this small form can sustain. What is in these poems can’t be had elsewhere. About the things of the world, and the mind looking at the things of the world, and the moments and the language in which we try to express them, they have unusual wakefulness and clarity. Perhaps the best way to get to it, after one has familiarized oneself with the symbolism of the seasons and the Japanese habit of mind, is to read them as plainly and literally as possible.” pp. xv-xvi
The poems I decided to share from these three poets are not representative in any way, but the ones that struck me, because I must admit that many of them I did not find compelling. I hope you enjoy this selection as much as I did!
Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) is considered a late medieval poet because at the time Japanese society was ruled by a military shogunate and was in transition toward modernity. Basho studied Chinese poetry and Zen and in the latter half of his life he reinvented the haiku form. (I once reviewed a picture book in which a fox challenges Basho to write one good haiku.)
Even in Kyoto —
hearing the cuckoo’s cry —
I long for Kyoto.
A bee
staggers out
of the peony.
How admirable!
to see lightning and not think
life is fleeting.
The clouds
are giving these moon-watchers
a little break.
You could turn this way,
I’m also lonely
this autumn evening.
A group of them
gazing at the moon,
not one face beautiful.
The morning glory also
turns out
not to be my friend.
Yosa Buson (1716-1783) was a distinguished painter as well as a poet and poetry teacher. He once said that the secret to writing haiku was to “use the commonplace to escape the commonplace” and recommended reading Chinese poetry.
They end their flight
one by one —
crows at dusk.
Blown from the west
fallen leaves gather
in the east.
Autumn evening —
there’s joy also
in loneliness.
By moonlight
the blossoming plum
is a tree in winter.
Lighting the lantern —
the yellow chrysanthemums
lose their color.
Morning breeze
riffling
the caterpillar’s hair.
May rains —
even a nameless stream
is a frightening thing.
Plum blossoms here and there —
it’s good to go north,
good to go south.
Before the white chrysanthemum
the scissors hesitate
a moment.
My arm for a pillow,
I really like myself
under the hazy moon.
Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827), like Basho and Buson, was born in a rural village, studied in Edo (Tokyo), traveled, and became a teacher of poetry. He has been called the humanist in contrast with Basho as the ascestic and Buson as the artist. In The Essential Haiku Robert Hass compares him to Whitman, Neruda, Bruns, and Dickens.
The snow is melting
and the village
is flooded with children.
Climb Mount Fuji,
O snail,
but slowly, slowly.
Children imitating cormorants
are even more wonderful
than cormorants.
January —
in other provinces,
plums blooming.
Even with insects —
some can sing,
some can’t.
One human being,
one fly,
in a large room.
To conclude, here’s an interesting article about the form of haiku in Japanese and English.