HAIKU vs haiku

by EKUNI Shigeru

....HAIKUと俳句はあくまで別ものだというのが、 私の基本的な考え方である。 それはもしかすると国際俳句交流協会の方針や活動の足を引っぱる考え方なのかも

しれないが、 本心を偽るわけにはいかない。 だからといって、 HAIKU、 すなわち 日本語以外の言語で書かれた作品否定したり排斥したりする気は、 毛頭ない。 短誌型の文芸としてHAIKUが各国で盛んになるのは、 大歓迎である。


 　　HAIKU作者と俳句作者は、 同じ短詩型の詩人として、 話を合わせることも できるし、 つき合いもできる。 ただし、 濃い身内というわけにはいかない。 遠い親戚というところで、 つかず離れずのつき合い方をするのが、 両者にとって いちばんかしこい態度だと考える。

「かしこい」というのは「無理がない」というほどの意味である。

 ...My honest opinion is that HAIKU (in English) and Haiku (in Japanese) are separate and distinct. This may frustrate the aims and activities of the Haiku International Association, but I cannot lie to myself. This does not mean that I think that HAIKU written in other languages should be rejected or ignored. As a form of short poem, I welcome the rising popularity of HAIKU in other countries.

 The writers of HAIKU and Haiku, as writers of short poems, can of course, talk to and associate with each other. However, they are not members of the same immediate family. They are more like distant relatives and I feel that maybe the most sensible course to take is to stay neither to close nor too remote from each other.

 "Sensible" is used here in the sense of "not strained".

I also agree that AT THE MOMENT, generally speaking, HAIKU and haiku are separate and distinct BUT I do not believe, as some Japanese Haijin do, that Westerners can not understand or grasp the core of Haiku. Several Western poets make haiku very close to the spirit of the Japanese haiku way. I think it is a problem of having different concepts on what a haiku is. Most dictionary definitions states that "haiku" is:

and makes no reference to the thought processes. A haiku is often not ABOUT nature, it only INCLUDES a reference to nature as a way of indirectly stating what the poet is trying to get across. The poet often doesn't consciously know what it is exactly that they are conveying behind their poem but for resonance to occur through the image there invariably is a "message".

CONTENT is important, next comes the season and last comes the form. And at that, rhythm comes before syllable count and number of lines. This doesn't mean that form is not important. Just that content and a seasonal reference is more important.

 The Japanese use a form based on length to keep the amount that is said in a single haiku fairly constant. The main emphasis is to keep the haiku short although it also works to keep the haiku long. The form in effect ensures that the "haikuness" of leaving things unstated is maintained and also that relationships are not simplified too much by the use of extreme minimalism.

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