Reviews
reviews
Selected Haiku, with Essays and Commentary. Part I: 1937–1960, BY +ANEKO 4OHTA 4RANSLATED BY THE +ON .ICHI 4RANSLATION 'ROUP 7INCHESTER 6A 2ED -OON 0RESS PAGES ¼˝ x½˝. 'LOSSY WHITE CARD COVERS PERFECTBOUND )3". 0RICE FROM THE PUBLISHER AT WWWREDMOONPRESSCOM
Reviewed by Hiroaki Sato
aneko Tôta B WRITES THE KIND OF HAIKU THAT +some of those not in the know — those not familiar with “modern HAIKUv— may find to be clumsy, incompetent, or nothing more than snippets of prose left unfinished. Take the two pieces that the tanka POET )WATA 4ADASHI B exalts as “the masterpieces that FORM THE HIGH PEAKS IN THE HISTORY OF MODERN HAIKUv
wankyokushi kashôshi bakushinchi no marathon
kareina hakahara join arawani mura nemuri
4HE BOOK UNDER REVIEW GIVES THE NAME AS +ANEKO 4OHTA ON THE GROUND THAT IT IS THE POETS hESTABLISHED STYLE AND THE APPELLATION HE CHOOSES TO USE IN %NGLISH v Kaneko Tohta: Selected Haiku, Part I ) PUT THE TWO WORDS IN QUOTATION MARKS BECAUSE 2ICHARD 'ILBERT THE LEADER of the translation group that produced the book under review, seems to have an odd notion of gendai HAIKU ) EXPECT TO DEAL WITH THE MATTER IN A FUTURE ARTICLE FOR Modern Haiku. )IDA 2Yûta et al., eds., Gendai haiku zenshû )) 4OKYO 2IPPû 3HOBô Modern Haiku 44.1
The first one could easily be a puzzle. Read it simply, without, for ex ample, speculating from the Chinese characters employed what might be meant, and it seems to say, “Curved, burnt, (a or the) marathon at GROUND ZEROv "ECAUSE bakushinchi hGROUND ZERO v STILL MEANS ONLY ONE thing in Japan, the point where either of the two atomic bombs dropped ON (IROSHIMA AND .AGASAKI EXPLODED THIS PIECE MAY SUGGEST SOMETHING portentous, something macabre, as it must be talking about Hiroshima OR .AGASAKI BUT WHAT EXACTLY 7HAT IS IT THATS hCURVEDv !RE THE #HI nese characters applied to wankyoku hCURVED LIKE A BAY v MEANT TO SUG GEST SOMETHING GRAPHIC ! CURIOUS *APANESE READER MIGHT WONDER Also, if the same Japanese reader happens to come across this piece in a text that gives the reading kashôshi for , he may wonder: Why GIVE SUCH AN ANOMALOUS READING )TS STANDARD VERSION IS yakedoshi. A Japanese writer can facilitate the readings of difficult Chinese charac ters or suggest or impose a specific reading on a word by the use of the hRUBYv FONT PRINTED ON ITS RIGHT SIDE IF THE WRITING IS PRINTED VERTICALLY ABOVE IT IF ITS PRINTED HORIZONTALLY AND +ANEKO DOES THE LATTER HERE BUT FOR WHAT PURPOSE Then, when told that this piece is meant to be a haiku, the reader MAY WONDER FURTHER (OW COULD IT BE )TS HARD TO SCAN IT SYLLABICALLY !T BEST IT COMES OUT AS nn ;OR n=n WHICH GIVES LITTLE HINT OF the haiku form. There have of course been hypersyllabic haiku, most people know, as they learn in school that even the haiku saint Bashô WROTE THINGS LIKE THE FOLLOWINGWHICH +ANEKO HIMSELF CITES IN DISCUSSING hTHE HAIKU FORM AND RHYTHM v IN HIS INTRODUCTION TO HAIKU
ro no koe nami o utte harawata kôru yo ya namida
3CULLS VOICE SLAPPING THE WAVES MY INTESTINES FREEZE TONIGHT THE TEARS
Kashôshi IS THE READING +ANEKO GIVES IN his postwar haiku history, Waga sengo haiku-shi 4OKYO )WANAMI 3HOTEN AND IN Kaneko Tôta / Takayanagi Shigenobu shû 4OKYO !SAHI 3HINBUNSHA BUT NOT IN Gendai haiku zenshû )) +ANEKO 4ôta, Haiku nyûmon (HokuyôSHA n Reviews
This ONE COMES OUT AS nnn "UT IN THIS CASE THE STUDENT READING IT IS bound to be told that Bashô wrote such pieces only during a short period when he was trying to break out of the constraints of the by then firmly es TABLISHED HOKKU FORM SEEKING INSPIRATIONS IN #HINESE POETRY )N +ANEKOS case, the teacher may not give that kind of explication, even if he notes that +ANEKO WROTE THIS IN .AGASAKI 7OULDNT THE STUDENT BE CONFUSED The second piece — which seems to say something even more puzzling, “Resplendent cemetery field: vaginas exposed the village SLEEPSvMAY MAKE IT AS A HAIKU IF BARELY THIS ONE COMES OUT AS nn )N TRUTH OF THE lVE PIECES THE TANKA POET )WATA PICKS FROM THE hSERIES of great works Nagasaki v WHICH INCLUDES THE TWO CITED ABOVE ONLY ONE COMES CLOSE TO THE STANDARD nn BECAUSE IT FALLS INTO nn
nishi no umi ni buoy uku zugai yori nurete
But THEN THIS ONE RAISES A QUESTION ON ITS SYNTAXTHE QUESTION +ANEKO addresses at some length by making a distinction between onsetsu hSYLLABIC BREAK v AND bunsetsu hSYNTACTICAL BREAK v IN HIS DIS CUSSION OF hTHE HAIKU FORM AND RHYTHMv 3YLLABICALLY BROKEN THREE PARTS WILL READ hIN THE SEA OF THE WEST v hTHE SKULL WHERE A BUOY mOATS v hMORE WET THANv 3YNTACTICALLY THE lRST TEN SYLLABLES MAKE A SENTENCE MORE OR LESS AND SAY h)N THE WESTERN SEA mOATS A BUOY v WITH THE NEXT EIGHT FORMING AN ADJECTIVAL CLAUSE hWETTER THAN A SKULLv .OW *APANESE HAIKU WRITERS ARE GENERALLY DIVIDED INTO TRADITIONAL ISTS AND NON TRADITIONALISTS 4RADITIONALISTS INSIST ON INCLUDING SEASON al indicators, yûki AND STICKING TO THE hSET FORM v teikei . 9OU MIGHT SAY AN hOUTSIDER v THE NON HAIKU NON TANKA POET -IYOSHI Toyoichirô n DElNED THEIR POSITION CLEARLY when he said: “a haiku with no seasonal indicator and in no set form WILL BE NOTHING MORE THAN A MODERN SHORT POEMv .ON TRADITIONAL ists, in contrast, neither insist on seasonal indicators nor the set form,
Haiku nyûmon n -IYOSHI 4OYOICHIRô h9OGI TO SHITE NO HAIKU v geppô (monthly pamphlet) at tached to Gendai haiku zenshû )) Modern Haiku 44.1 although, mindful of the kind of danger Miyoshi warned against, most of them do not seem to go whole hog. +ANEKO IS AMONG SUCH NON WHOLE HOG NON TRADITIONALISTS IF YOU will. For one thing, his idea of including or not including seasonal in dicators, kigo or kidai , is far from radical. Many of the “tra DITIONALv kigo have lost their specificities, he says, and argues for add ING hNEW SUBJECTS v shin-daizai , defining their overall character AS hPHYSICALITY v nikukan , saying they consist of three categories:
hmESH v nikutai : human body, animal body, and such hTIME v jikan : things that show the passage of time, such as morning, noon, evening hSOILv OR hEARTH v tsuchi hSPACESv IN THE NATURAL WORLD SUCH AS wind, sky, earth, mountain, and sea +ANEKO ADMITS THAT THESE NEW SUBJECTS ARE hVERY CLOSE TO ;TRADITIONAL= kigov )NDEED THERE IS LITTLE NEW ABOUT HIS APPROACH FOR THE SIMPLE REA SON THAT THE YEAR HISTORY OF kigo is a history of expanding inclusive ness. .ATSUISHI "ANYA B THE SELF APPOINTED mAG BEARER OF AVANT GARDE HAIKU HAS ADVOCATED THE CREATION OF hKEYWORDSv FOR HAIKU WITH HIS BOOK Gendai haiku keyword jiten +ANEKO JOINED .ATSUISHI AND +URODA -OMOKO B IN AND COMPILED hA MODERN SEASONAL ACCOUNT v gendai saijiki. &OR THE OTHER +ANEKOS IDEA OF hSET FORMv IS NOT TOO RADICAL EITHER (E ARGUES THAT hFORMv OR hPATTERN v kata , is absolutely necessary, RECOGNIZING THAT THE hSET FORMv FOR HAIKU nn IS ONE GREAT CHARM of this poetic form, even as he argues that it is to make the matter “too NARROWv TO SAY THAT hTHE FORMAL CHARACTERISTIC OF HAIKU IS SYLLABLESv The definition of haiku he offers, then, is “the shortest poetic form IN @SET FORMv ). )N THE END HE USUALLY DOES NOT GO
+ANEKO Haiku nyûmon n Haiku nyûmon (IROAKI 3ATO One Hundred Frogs: From Renga to Haiku to English .EW 9ORK AND 4OKYO 7EATHERHILL (IROAKI 3ATO Japanese Women Poets (M.E. 3HARPE XVII +ANEKO Haiku nyûmon n Reviews
FAR BEYOND THE nn OR THE TOTAL OF SYLLABLES &OR THAT MATTER HE doesn’t seem to have written hiposyllabic haiku — pieces that fall well SHORT OF SYLLABLES This contrasts with the advocates of jiyûritsu hFREE RHYTHMv AND kôgo hCOLLOQUIAL LANGUAGEv HAIKU AS WELL AS THOSE IN THE 0ROLETARIAN ,ITERATURE -OVEMENT !MONG THEM ONE MAY NAME /GIWARA 3EISEN sui n /ZAKI (ôsai n AND +URIBAYASHI )SSEKIRO n /NE THING NOTABLE ABOUT +ANEKOS HAIKU IN THIS REGARD IS HIS REFUSAL to deviate from the monolinear format. He does discuss departures from what he calls “the usual practice of writing haiku in a single line WITHOUT ANY SPACE IN ITv BY CITING EXAMPLES OF THOSE WHO USE INTRALINEAR space, punctuation, and lineation. 7ITH THE BEST KNOWN PRACTITIONER OF THIS LAST 4AKAYANAGI 3HIGENOBU n +ANEKO even quotes in full his most extravagant example, one broken into three hSTANZASv WITH A TOTAL OF TWELVE hLINESv "UT +ANEKO LOOKS AT THEM AS PIECES AIMING AT SPECIAL hVISUALv EFFECTS and warns that, if you follow suit, you will end up, unless you are care FUL NOT JUST TURNING OUT PIECES THAT ARE hODIOUS IMITATIONS v BUT YOU will also risk “the danger of turning the haiku itself into something WISHY WASHYv (E MADE THESE POINTS WHEN HE WAS BUT HE HAD never stepped outside the monolinear form and used no intralinear space, no punctuation, before or since. Kaneko Tohta: Selected Haiku, Part I: 1937–1960 comes with a seem ingly formidable editorial apparatus yet with odd, at times tangential, IRRELEVANT DETAILS )T COMES WITH A SERIES INTRODUCTION BY 2ICHARD 'IL BERT THE LEADER OF THE +ON .ICHI 4RANSLATION 'ROUP THAT WORKED OUT
4HESE AND OTHER POETS AND THEIR WORKS ARE INCLUDED IN THE Shinchô spe cial, Tanka haiku senryû 101 nen: 1892–1992 4OKYO 3HINCHôSHA 4HIS valuable compilation presents one tanka, haiku, and senryû poet for each of the YEARS OF THE PERIOD COVERED &OR A DISCUSSION OF THESE THINGS IN %NGLISH SEE (IROAKI 3ATO Japanese Women Poets !RMONK .9 AND ,ONDON -% 3HARPE XXXIXnXXXL &OR A HAIKU POET WHO USES INTRALINEAR SPACING SEE )TAMI +IMIKO n +ANEKO Haiku nyûmon n Haiku nyûmon Modern Haiku 44.1
THIS BOOK AS WELL AS THE OTHERS IN THE SERIES A SELECTION OF +ANEKOS HAIKU UP TO SEPARATED INTO FOUR CHRONOLOGICAL SECTIONS WITH THE NOTES ON THEM IN FOUR CORRESPONDING SECTIONS hTRANSLATOR ESSAYSv BY 'ILBERT AND )Tô 9ûKI A CHRONOLOGY OF +ANEKOS LIFE HAIKU INDICES BY PAGE NUMBER AND hALPHABETICAL v BOTH ARRANGED BY %NGLISH TRANSLATIONS but not by the originals, and translator biographies. +ANEKOS HAIKU COME WITH *APANESE ORIGINALS ROMAN TRANSLITERATIONS AND %NGLISH TRANSLATIONSEACH SECTION WITH AN INTRODUCTION ) MIGHT note, despite Gilbert’s declaration that “haiku are presented separately FROM THE SUPPORTING COMMENTS TO PROVIDE A READER EXPERIENCE UN ADULTERATED BY PROSE IF WISHEDv Gilbert also says that his subject is “virtually unknown outside of *APAN DUE TO A LACK OF TRANSLATED WORKS v ADDING h/F THOSE TRANSLATED haiku to be found, few give an indication of the philosophic or critical BASES INFORMING HIS THOUGHTv $O THESE TRANSLATIONS WITH NOTES AND COMMENTARIES GO SOME WAY IN REMEDYING THE SITUATION The first thing you notice is that the translations come in a variety of formats, from one to four lines, with various indentations and in terlinear spacing, some printed aslant across the page. At least one is presented as a concrete poem. Gilbert justifies this variegated approach BY hA HISTORY OF SHORT FORM POETICS )MAGISM /BJECTIVISM ,ANGUAGE 0OETRY ETC vAN ODD POINT TO NOTE WHEN +ANEKO APPARENTLY HAS NOT followed any of them as far as the form is concerned. Let us look at some of the translations.
wakaki waga ganzen jûgeki ni hikitsuru hei
before my youthful eyes a soldier twitches away gunfire +ANEKO WAS EMPLOYED BY THE "ANK OF *APAN THE COUNTRYS CENTRAL BANK UPON GRADUATION FROM THE %CONOMICS &ACULTY OF THE )MPERIAL 5NIVERSITY OF 4OKYO IN "UT HE SOON QUIT TO VOLUNTEER FOR THE .AVY *APAN WAS IN THE MIDST OF A WAR AND +ANEKO WAS A PATRIOT IN HIS Reviews
OWN WAY )N -ARCH HE WAS COMMISSIONED A SECOND LIEUTENANT ACCOUNTING AND SENT TO AN ISLAND IN THE 4RUK #HUUK ,AGOON )T WAS right after the Japanese naval facilities there, along with four cruisers AND FOUR DESTROYERS WERE SMASHED BY THE 53 FORCES WITH MORE THAN DEAD &OR THE REST OF THE WAR HE ALONG WITH THE OTHERS FACED STARVATION 5PON *APANS SURRENDER HE BECAME A 0/7 4HIS HAIKU IN nn SEEMS SIMPLY TO SAY h2IGHT IN FRONT OF MY YOUNG EYES A SOLDIER HAS SPASMS AT ;THE ENEMY= GUN ASSAULTSv "UT THE note says something mysterious: “At a point of composition, in this HAIKU THE AUTHOR SEEMS TO BE THE KILLERv 7HERE DOES THE AUTHOR KILLER IDEA COME FROM +ANEKO !NOTHER HAIKU DESCRIBING +ANEKOS EXPERIENCE IN THE 4R U K ,AGOON ALSO translated in two lines, seems to obscure unnecessarily what it’s about: spy no na no domin umigiwa de utaru as a spy a native struck down at the shore )S the haiku saying that the Chuuk person or people who had just ar RIVED BY BOAT WERE SUSPECTED TO BE 53 SPIES AND SHOT DEAD AT THE EDGE OF THE SEA /R THAT THEY WERE TAKEN TO THE SHORE TO BE EXECUTED FOR THE SAME REASON 4HE WORD umigiwa hSEA EDGE v IS HIGHLY SUGGESTIVE BUT utaru hBE STRUCK v hTO BE BEATEN v IS SUSPICIOUSLY EUPHEMISTIC $ID +ANEKO CLARIFY THE MATTER IN ONE OF HIS WRITINGS EXPLICATING HIS HAIKU OR DID HE ORALLY EXPLAIN IT TO THE TRANSLATION GROUP $ID HE EXPLAIN EXACTLY what he meant by utaru 7HY DID HE NOT USE A PLAINER WORD WHEN THE PIECE IN n IS ALREADY hMETRICALLYv irregular and adding a few syl LABLES TO MAKE CLEARER SENSE WOULD NOT HAVE NOTICEABLY DISlGURED IT
4HE TRANSLATORS CALL SYLLABIC COUNT hMETERv ) WAS STARTLED TO SEE THIS BECAUSE MY TEACHER OF POETRY THE 3HAKESPEAREAN SCHOLAR ,INDLEY 7ILLIAMS (UBBELL USED TO TELL US h%NGLISH IS A METRICAL LANGUAGE *APANESE A SYLLABIC LANGUAGEv (OWEVER both The New Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics and The Oxford Com- panion to the English Language say there are two kinds of meter (metre): quantita TIVE AND ACCENTUAL 3O 'ILBERT ET AL ARE CORRECT Modern Haiku 44.1
9ET THE NOTE THE TRANSLATORS PROVIDE FOR THIS PIECE IS SO IRRELEVANT AS TO MAKE A MOCKERY OF SUCH QUESTIONS )T SAYS h@domin ( ),’ native, is THESE DAYS POLITICALLY INCORRECT VIZ ;SIC= @SAVAGE v )N TRUTH THE WORD IN QUESTION MEANING hINDIGENOUS PERSON v MAY NOT HAVE BEEN DEROGA TORY BUT EVEN IF IT WAS TODAYS hPOLITICALv LINGUISTIC PRETENSIONS COULD not have been a matter of concern on an island of annihilative slaugh ter and touchy vengeance. +ILLINGS ON CORAL ISLANDS ARE MORE DIRECTLY MENTIONED IN THE FOLLOW ing haiku, but only to confuse.
satsurikusarezu izumi ni utsusu domin no jôji
away from slaughter the image reflects in a spring: native love affair 4HE lRST SEVEN SYLLABLES SAY hWITHOUT GETTING SLAUGHTERED v RATHER THAN hAWAY FROM SLAUGHTER v SO HERE THE TRANSLATION SEEMS TO STUMBLE But there’s trouble with the original as well, even as it appears to blend murderousness with idyll à la Melville’s Typee. Utsusu is a transitive verb, but who or what is casting the idyllic image of a lovemaking indigenous couple — assuming it is just one COUPLEIN A SPRING !LSO WHO ESCAPED SLAUGHTER )S IT THE LOVEMAK ing couple or, though unlikely, the one who is casting the image of the COUPLING IN THE SPRING )N nn THIS PIECE IS SO OFF THE REGULAR HAIKU hMETERv THAT THE READER MAY AT LEAST EXPECT A CLEAR DESCRIPTION BUT HE DOES NOT GET IT )N WRITING ABOUT HOKKU IN History of Japanese Literature more than a hundred years ago, W.G. Aston was compelled to quote Horace, brevis esse laborat, obscurus fit. Even so. 4HE TRANSLATORS TELL US THESE THREE ARE FROM AMONG +ANEKOS PIECES RECALLING HIS LIFE IN THE 4RUK ,AGOON YEARS LATER )N CONTRAST THE THREE )VE CITED AT THE OUTSET OF THIS REVIEW ARE SUPPOSED TO DESCRIBE DIRECTLY
7' !STON A History of Japanese Literature (Rutland, Vt., and Tokyo, 4HE BOOK WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN Reviews
MORE OR LESS ON THE SPOT WHAT +ANEKO SAW OR WHAT HE IMAGINED FROM what he saw. The translators have worked on two of them. wankyokushi kashôshi bakushinchi no marathon among the twisted and charred marathon at Ground Zero The short haiku form often, inevitably, prompts the writer uncer TAIN OF HIS CREATIONS TO EXPLAIN HIMSELF /THERWISE THE READER OR THE translator would have to resort to his own creativity for a reasonable COMPREHENSION OF THE PIECE AT HAND +ANEKO NOTED HE WROTE THIS PIECE WHILE HE WAS ASSIGNED TO .AGASAKI AS A "ANK OF *APAN BUREAUCRAT FROM *ANUARY TO *UNE 4HE TRANSLATORS OF THIS BOOK ACCORDINGLY decided that this piece described the warped, burnt debris of the build ings devastated by the atomic bomb blast. !S IT HAPPENS +ANEKO EXPLAINED WHAT THIS PIECE WAS ABOUT 7HEN HE ARRIVED IN .AGASAKI NEARLY THIRTEEN YEARS AFTER THE ATOMIC BOMBING OF the city, many sections were still in ruins, but they were also vigorously RECOVERING /NE DAY HE TOOK A WALK IN THE AREA NEAR GROUND ZERO AS HE often did, when he saw a group of marathoners “running with youth FUL RHYTHMv "UT WHILE HE WATCHED THEM HE SAW IN HIS IMAGINATION their bodies suddenly “become disfigured, get burns, and collapse — that image burnt into my head, reappearing repeatedly a number of TIMESv 3O UNLESS YOU REJECT hINTENTIONAL FALLACY v THATS WHAT THIS PIECE DESCRIBES NOT WHAT +ANEKO SAW hAMONG THE TWISTED AND CHARREDv )NCIDENTALLY THE TRANSLATORS NOTE ON THIS POEM WOULD HAVE BENElTED from a touch of editing.
“kashô” ( ) is usually pronounced “yakedov ;SIC= BURNED BURNT BUT HERE IT IS READ AS hlRE SCARv ;SIC= VIZ hSCARRED BY lRERADIATIONv hTWISTED AND CHARREDv MAY ALSO BE INTERPRETED AS hCROOKED AND lRE SCARREDSEAREDv
+ANEKO 4ôta, Waga sengo haiku shi )WANAMI 3HOTEN Modern Haiku 44.1
The translators’ understanding of the second piece is not far off the mark but it has problems.
kareina hakahara join arawani mura nemuri splendid field of gravestones labia uncovered the village sleeps
First off, join ( IS CERTAINLY NOT hLABIA v WHICH WOULD BE inshin ( ). Join TO BE TECHNICAL IS hFEMALE GENITALIAv OR hPUDENDA v OR PERHAPS IN GENERAL PARLANCE hVAGINA v THOUGH ABOUT THIS LAST MANY WOMEN MAY DISAGREE AMONG THEM .AOMI 7OLF WHOSE Vagina: A New Biography has recently elicited ferocious ire from weighty female crit ics. Anyway, here the translators seem to have allowed free rein to their pornographic or else clinical imaginations. That may be why they fol LOWED IT WITH hUNCOVEREDv FOR arawani. Then, they compound the matter by probing into the etymology of join in their note: “join [sic] ( ): woman ( ) + hidden ( ). ‘hoto’ ( ) (vagina) is used in the ancient Kojiki and Nihonshoki TEXTSv True, in a way, but the word is likely to derive from the Chinese CONCEPTION OF hFEMALE YINv !LSO IF YOU INVOKE THE ANCIENT *APANESE word for the female genitalia, the Chinese characters applied to the indigenous word hoto in Kojiki are . The note as regards genitalia, in any case, is totally irrelevant. The remainder of the note quotes from an earlier volume in this +ANEKO SERIES Ikimonofûei, and it seems to depend on the accounts +ANEKO HAS GIVEN /NE DAY HE CAME UPON A PENINSULAR DUNE WHICH turned out to be a cemetery. For some reason many of the gravestones WERE MARVELOUS WELL POLISHED AND AGLITTER )N CONTRAST THE SURROUND ing fishing village was dilapidated, dirty, and decadent, with women sloppily obscenely attired, and so forth.
)IDA 2Yûta et al., eds., Gendai haiku zenshû ))n +ANEKO 4ôta, Waga sengo haiku shi n Reviews
Does Kaneko Tohta: Selected Haiku, Part I, HELP ILLUMINATE +ANEKO Tôta as one of “the most important literary and cultural innovators of POSTWAR *APANv AND hA PHILOSOPHER POET OF INTERNATIONAL STATURE WHOSE WORKS AND THOUGHT PLACE HIM IN RARIlED COMPANY v AS 2ICHARD 'ILBERT SAYS HE IS ) WONDER
The Art of Haiku: Its History through Poems and Paintings by Japanese Masters, BY 3TEPHEN !DDISS "OSTON ,ONDON 3HAMBHALA PAGES ¼˝ x ¼˝ 1UARTERBOUND WHITE AND BLACK PAPER FOUR COLOR WRAPPERS mYLEAVES 3MYTHE SEWN )3". 0RICE FROM BOOKSELLERS POEMS WITH ILLUSTRATIONS MANY in full color.
Reviewed by David G. Lanoue
haven’t felt this excited about opening a new book about Japanese )HAIKU SINCE WHEN ) PURCHASED 2OBERT (ASSS The Essential Haiku: Versions of Basho, Buson, and Issa. But perhaps because he came TO HAIKU NOT AS A SCHOLAR BUT AS A POETIN FACT AS THE 53 POET LAU reate — Hass’s tome was a disappointment for readers like me who HAD ALREADY DEVOURED THE STUDIES OF 9ASUDA "LYTH 9UASA 5EDA AND Higginson and wanted fresh insights or at least new information on classical Japanese haiku tradition. The Essential Haiku was a good effort at popularization but broke no new ground. However, cracking open my review copy of Addiss’s book, my experience was decidedly differ ent. Addiss is an expert in Japanese art, folklore, literature, and Bud dhism who understands Japanese, translating all of his examples himself (ASSS hVERSIONSv WERE ADMITTEDLY REARRANGEMENTS OF 2( "LYTHS TRANS LATIONS AND SADLY A FEW MISTRANSLATIONSA PRACTICE THAT ) LAMENTED IN THE PAGES OF THIS PUBLICATION ;SUMMER = !S AUTHOR OR COAUTHOR of more than thirty books about East Asian art and culture and as the 4U C K E R " O A T W R I G H T 0ROFESSOR OF THE (UMANITIES AND PROFESSOR OF ART AT THE 5NIVERSITY OF 2ICHMOND 3TEPHEN !DDISS KNOWS HIS STUFF 4O MY Modern Haiku 44.1 delight, he has written a book that taught me much and will serve as REQUIRED READING NEXT TIME ) TEACH THE HAIKU SEMINAR AT MY UNIVERSITY ) ONLY HAVE TWO CAVEATS TO REPORT ONE LARGE ONE SMALL -ANY OF MY STUDENTS TAKE *APANESE FOR THEIR FOREIGN LANGUAGE REQUIREMENT THESE YOUNG READERS WILL SHARE THE DISAPPOINTMENT THAT ) FELT SEEING ONLY Romanized transcriptions and not the original forms of the tanka and HAIKU EXAMPLES )N BYGONE DAYS ONE MIGHT HAVE ATTRIBUTED SUCH AN omission to a publisher’s lack of Japanese fonts, but such an excuse is no longer possible. Addiss embeds some Japanese words, in Japanese, in his commentary, so his publisher certainly could have duplicated the original texts that one would expect in a critical book. ! SECOND SMALLER CAVEAT THAT ) WILL REMEMBER TO PASS ON TO MY STUDENTS AND NOW ) PASS TO YOU IS !DDISSS REGRETTABLE INCLUSION OF A LOVELY BUT APOCRYPHAL HAIKU THAT HE ATTRIBUTES TO )SSA hTHANK FUL SNOW ON THE QUILT ALSO COMES FROM THE 0URE ,ANDv 4HE *AP ANESE EDITORS OF )SSAS COMPLETE WORKS DO NOT ASCRIBE THIS SO CALLED hDEATH POEMv TO )SSA )NCLUDING IT AS SUCH IN HIS BOOK SUGGESTS THAT !DDISS MIGHT HAVE DEPENDED A BIT TOO HEAVILY ON %NGLISH LANGUAGE sources, many of which repeat the legend that the poem was “found UNDER )SSAS PILLOWv $ESPITE THE LACK OF *APANESE TEXTS AND THE APOCRYPHAL VERSE ) HIGHLY recommend this book. Addiss’s introduction to haiku is the best in PRINT (E EXPLAINS THAT ONE BREATH POETRY IS NOT THE INSCRIBING OF A LIFE moment on the tabula rasa of consciousness — the poet’s or the read ERS )MAGINATION HE POINTS OUT hHAS ROOTS IN MEMORYv (E GOES ON TO situate haiku by means of myriad examples from figures both major and minor, male and female, and from Japanese literary and spiritual traditions. His treatment of haiku’s antecedents from tanka to Zen is superb, and superbly balanced. He doesn’t overstate, for example, the importance of Zen Buddhism to haiku (as Blyth did) but rather ad MITS PERCEPTIVELY THAT HAIKU AROSE IN hA :EN INmUENCED CONTEXTv THAT must not be ignored. A particular joy of this book is Addiss’s informed and nuanced dis cussion of haiga and the subtle interplay of image and text — reproduc ING THIRTY EIGHT PLATES FOR READERS TO PONDER AND ENJOY Reviews
The Art of Haiku IS TWO BOOKS IN ONE THE lRST IS A WELL WRITTEN INTRO duction to Japanese haiku in the context of Japanese culture, supported BY COPIOUS EXAMPLES 4HE SECOND BOOK IS AN ANTHOLOGY )VE EAGERLY begun reading this second book, skipping Addiss’s prose commentary and, this time, concentrating exclusively on his wonderfully translated EXAMPLES )LL CITE A FEW GEMS moonflowers — when the wound ) STICK MY DRUNKEN FACE ON HIS FACE WAS HEALED out the window he was beheaded Bashô anonymous senryu
the sound of rats after killing the spider walking on dishes — it gets lonely — the coldness cold evening Buson Shiki ) recommend that my students — and you — take the time to read and enjoy both books.
The Temple Bell Stops: Contemporary Poems of Grief, Loss and Change, edited by Robert Epstein (Baltimore: Modern English Tanka Press, PAGES X 'LOSSY FULL COLOR CARD COVERS PERFECTBOUND )3". 0RICE FROM WWWLULUCOM Checkout Time is Noon: Death Awareness Haiku, by Robert Epstein 3HELBYVILLE +Y 7ASTELAND 0RESS PAGES X 'LOSSY FULL COLOR CARD COVERS PERFECTBOUND )3". 0RICE PPD FROM THE AUTHOR AT TAYLOREPSTEIN EARTHLINKNET or from online booksellers. A Walk Around Spring Lake, BY 2OBERT %PSTEIN 3HELBYVILLE +Y 7ASTELAND 0RESS PAGES X 'LOSSY FULL COLOR CARD COV ERS PERFECTBOUND )3". 0RICE PPD FROM THE AUTHOR AT EPSTEIN EARTHLINKNET OR FROM ONLINE BOOKSELLERS Modern Haiku 44.1
Reviewed by Paul Miller
fter completing his recent anthology Dreams Wander On: Con- Atemporary Poems of Death Awareness %PSTEIN WAS LEFT WITH a number of poems that for whatever reason were not included. He discovered as he further sifted through them that many were not so much related to death awareness, but to the many forms of loss instead. Those poems became the material for his latest anthology, The Temple Bell Stops. )N HIS INSIGHTFUL INTRODUCTION %PSTEIN QUOTES 2AINER -ARIA 2ILKE h/UR INSTINCT SHOULD NOT BE TO DESIRE CONSOLATION OVER A LOSS BUT RATHER TO DEVELOP A DEEP AND PAINFUL CURIOSITY TO EXPLORE THIS LOSS COMPLETELYxv Exploration as a form of engagement is exactly how Epstein sees both the death awareness of his previous anthology and these poems on loss. There are far too many kinds of loss (“the death of a parent, spouse, sibling, friend … divorce or relationship breakup … a falling out … foreclosure … a layoff or job termination … a miscarriage … changes ASSOCIATED WITH AGING x v ETC TO GO INTO HERE BUT THE READER WILL lND THEM ALL IN THIS COLLECTION 3INCE THESE ARE EXPLORATIONS RATHER THAN LA MENTS THEY DONT FEEL MORBID IN FACT THEIR TONE IS OFTEN ONE OF DISCOV ery and liveliness, as if by investigating the loss the poet has rekindled A SPARK %PSTEIN HAS A :EN TINT TO HIM AND ) DONT THINK HE WOULD dispute the notion that loss and recovery are in many ways the same coin. This isn’t to say that the various poets come off as aloof or emo tionless. For example, a poem by Raquel D. Bailey is heartbreakingly FULL OF EMOTION YET AT THE SAME TIME ALL THE KISSES OF THE PAST SEEM EVER present. There is a glow about this poem. open casket: the kiss that used to wake you ) WAS INTERESTED TO DISCOVER THAT MANY OF MY FAVORITE POEMS FROM any number of writers related to loss. This shouldn’t have been surpris ing since haiku so perfectly capture immediacy and sense impression. Epstein nicely adds: “Thus, even in the midst of death, loss or change, Reviews our intuition is miraculously able to apprehend the inextricable con NECTION WE HAVE WITH OURSELVES WITH OTHERS WITH THE WORLD AROUND US only later does the everyday mind or ego catch up in terms of compre HENDING THISv 4WO MORE HAIKU EACH OF A DIFFERENT KIND OF LOSS cycling with my son — Veteran’s Day this is the autumn we only want ) FALL BEHIND TO MAKE LOVE Curtis Dunlap Lenard D. Moore !T OVER POEMS THERE IS A LOT MORE TO DISCOVER IN THIS ANTHOLOGY AND ) AM GRATEFUL TO %PSTEIN FOR COMPILING IT (E HAS A GOOD SENSE FOR strong poems. heckout Time is Noon COLLECTS SIXTY EIGHT OF %PSTEINS OWN HAIKU ON Cdeath awareness. Like the poems in his anthologies, he is not wal LOWING IN DESPAIR BUT RATHER hLEAN;S= INTO THE WELL OF IMPERMANENCEv A wonderful phrase, and one which aptly applies to his own explora tions, solidly grounded as they are in the American haiku main. when it’s time open THE WINDOW )LL FOLLOW the songbird home This is a wonderful poem. The space between lines one and two makes US LINGER ON THE PHRASE AND ) lND hITS TIMEv LEAPS OUT 4HE SECOND LINE is a nice misdirection as if he is speaking to the reader, following the READER INTO WHAT AWAITS US ALL YET THAT SLIGHTEST OF EXTRA SPACES INDICATES a human hesitation. The song in the last line redeems him. tonight it won’t last ) BECOME A BUTTON HOLE ) WONT LAST the wind passes through blue moon This is a strong collection. Epstein, if he ever needed it, has synthe SIZED THE LESSONS OF HIS ANTHOLOGIES WELL )N FACT THE LONG INTRODUCTION OF EITHER ANTHOLOGY COULD HAVE HEADED THIS COLLECTION 9ET THERE IS A NICE voice that is Epstein’s own that comes through. Modern Haiku 44.1
Walk Around Spring Lake COLLECTS POEMS ABOUT %PSTEINS FA AVORITE BODY OF WATER A LAKE IN 3ANTA 2OSA #ALIF THAT HE FREQUENTS .OT SURPRISINGLY SOME OF THE POEMS DEAL IN THE SAME KINDS OF IMPER MANENCE AS THE ABOVE BOOKS (OWEVER MOST SEEM TO REmECT A CHILD LIKE joy in the lake. 3PRING ,AKE ON THE LAKE ) WOULD NEVER THINK OF THERE ARE NO skipping stones emergency exits At times, perhaps because of the pull the lake has on him, you can feel Epstein trying to understand the lake — rather than just be of it: over there / among the reeds / my answer. 3UCH POEMS SUFFER A BIT OF INTEL lectualization. And a few seem a bit trite: hey! that biker / just made off with / my blues. Although perhaps this gives a wider range to the col lection as a whole, to illustrate the variety of feelings the lake provides HIM /N THE WHOLE IT IS AN ENJOYABLE COLLECTION
Lakes & Now Wolves, BY 3COTT -ETZ ,INCOLN )LL -ODERN (AIKU 0RESS PAGES ½˝ x &OUR COLOR SEMIGLOSS CARD COVERS PERFECTBOUND )3". 0RICE FROM THE publisher at www.modernhaiku.org.
Reviewed by Eve Luckring
o SIMPLY CATEGORIZE 3COTT -ETZ INTO A CAMP OF WRITERS HIGHLY INmU Tenced by gendai haiku is to miss the larger mission of his exhilarat ing and sensitive work, which lakes & now wolves, Metz’s first collection, makes clear. Perhaps more than any other young contemporary poet writing haiku, Metz emulates Bashô’s restless efforts to study the past AND RE IMAGINE WHAT HAIKAI CAN BE FOR HIS OWN ERA TO CONNECT IT TO THE culture of his day, and to free it from pedantic and formulaic strictures. Metz is one of Bashô’s best students with regard to the principle of fueki Reviews ryûkô ( hTHE UNCHANGING AND THE EVER CHANGINGv )N HIS OWN career Bashô exemplified fueki ryûkô through his study of Chinese phi losophy and literature, as well as his knowledge of earlier Japanese poets PARTICULARLY 3AIGYô AND 3ôgi), while constantly exploring how to rein VENT HAIKAI EVIDENCED IN HIS EVER SHIFTING STYLISTIC MODES another god built of words moon tugging 3INCE "ASHô never recorded his ideas about fueki ryûkô directly, after his death his students debated exactly what he meant by this concept IN REGARD TO THE ROLE OF TRADITION AND hTHE ANCIENTSv kojin: ), the notable poets of the past. His students debated what kinds of changes truly advanced haikai and furthered the pursuit of what Bashô called THE hTRUTH OF POETIC ART v fuga no makoto ( ). These debates continue today, with Metz, like Bashô, seeking to gain haikai entry into the larger poetic and cultural traditions of his era. roots coming back to roost Metz is a relentless experimenter, never settling into predictable for mulas, always willing to forego the supposed transparency of words and plain speech for play with syntactical shape, punctuation, visualization of a poem on the page, and poetic devices typically antithetical to the tradi TIONS OF %NGLISH LANGUAGE HAIKU 4HOUGH HE BREAKS WITH MANY OF THE AES THETIC PREFERENCES AND THE NARROWER DElNITIONS OF THE HAIKU hMOMENTv DOMINATING TH CENTURY %NGLISH LANGUAGE HAIKU HIS WORK IS INDEBTED to the intrepid explorers of the period who traversed similar territories. 2ELATIVELY RECENT SCHOLARSHIP PUBLISHED IN %NGLISH ABOUT PRE MODERN haiku, and the increasing number of translations of postwar and con temporary Japanese haiku, have clearly demonstrated that the preva LENT AESTHETICS OF !MERICAN HAIKU DURING THE LAST lFTY SOME YEARS IS NOT necessarily the essence of haiku, but a manifestation of it. -OREOVER THE LEGACY OF )MAGISM AND ITS USE OF COMMON SPEECH ALONG with the Beat Generation’s experimentation with haiku (inspired by the translations most in circulation at that time) influenced how haiku laid Modern Haiku 44.1
ROOTS IN !MERICA )N CONTEXT OF ITS HISTORICAL PERIOD THE POETICS OF EARLY American haiku had a rawness, immediacy, and concreteness. How EVER AS THE TH CENTURY PROGRESSED THE DYNAMIC BETWEEN WORD AND image changed. With image becoming the predominant language of a MEDIA SATURATED SOCIETY SIGNIlCANT NEW DEVELOPMENTS AROSE IN POETRY Consider that the transparency of language has been skillfully probed AND THE CURRENCY OF THE IMAGE RE IMAGINED BY !MERICAN POETS AS EARLY AS 'ERTRUDE 3TEIN AND AS DIVERSE AS /PPEN 3PICER !SHBERY 'RENIER Hejinian, Bernstein, and Armantrout, all of whom have much to offer writers of haiku. Most importantly, many more translations of modern Japanese haiku have greatly expanded and destabilized earlier notions of what haiku has been and can be. (To name a few: Fay Aoyagi’s blog, Blue Willow Haiku World, the bilingual collection Haiku Universe for the 21st Century PUBLISHED BY 'ENDAI (AIKU +Yôkai, and Richard Gil BERTS WORK WITH VARIOUS COLLABORATORS )T IS THIS BROADER HISTORY THAT contextualizes Metz’s work, while any careful reader will find that he is well versed in classical Japanese haiku. 0ERHAPS FOR -ETZ LANGUAGE AS /PPEN MAINTAINED IS MORE SOLID THAN transparent. bridge (one last time its eyes close on us). 7HAT MIGHT BE CALLED -ETZS MORE hOPAQUEv POEMS SEEM TO ME TO BE ABOUT RETURNING LANGUAGE FOR BOTH READER AND WRITER TO WHAT 3TEIN CALLED ITS hEXCITINGNESS OF PURE BEINGv IN REFERENCE TO HER FAMOUS LINE h2OSE IS A ROSE IS A ROSE IS A ROSEv
.OW you all have seen hundreds of poems about roses and you know IN YOUR BONES THAT THE ROSE IS NOT THEREx ) KNOW THAT IN DAILY LIFE WE DONT GO AROUND SAYING hx IS A IS A IS Axv 9ES )M NO FOOL BUT ) THINK that in that line the rose is red for the first time in English poetry for a hundred years. As Philip Rowland aptly points out in his insightful introduction to lakes & now wolves, what some readers may find most challenging about Metz’s use of language and syntax is actually his attempt to more fully CAPTURE A NON DUALISTIC EXPERIENCE BETWEEN OBSERVER AND OBSERVED Reviews between the particular and the universal — principles much heralded in BOTH PRE MODERN *APANESE AND TH CENTURY %NGLISH LANGUAGE HAIKU )F THE POETIC DEVICES -ETZ EMPLOYS SEEM HERETICAL TO TRADITIONAL HAIKU ) WOULD ENCOURAGE READERS TO RECONSIDER HIS APPROACH AS AN INVITATION to more fully participate in the poem, even if it is to do so in an unfa MILIAR OR UNCOMFORTABLE WAY ) AM REMINDED OF WHAT 2( "LYTH WROTE ABOUT HAIKU THAT IT IS hAN OPEN DOOR WHICH LOOKS SHUTv -ETZS WORK stretches in new ways exactly that quality of haiku — how actively the READERS IMAGINATION IS ENGAGED TO CO CREATE THE POEMSO OFTEN USED to describe haiku. i exit a birdsong a feather Though Metz disagrees with the idea that haiku needs kigo (and ad vocates instead for muki-kigo and an expansive definition of nature, rather than seasonality) this collection demonstrates that his relation SHIP TO THE hNATURALv WORLD IS AS DEEP AS HIS LOVE FOR LITERATURE AND HIS CONCERN FOR THE STATE OF SOCIETY IN THE ST CENTURY the blood rushing through my blowhole winter stars )T also makes clear one of his greatest strengths, his commitment to deep ening the connection between contemporary haiku and its cultural con text, not only through skillful allusion to Japanese haiku and Western literature, but in his address of the contemporary political landscape.
like sho ot ing fish Gaza At his best, Metz exhibits a deep empathy for the world around him. However, for him the world is not confined to what we can name, DElNE OR REDUCE TO THE lVE SENSES HIS POEMS OFTEN TRAVERSE CHIMERA the enigmatic, and the ambiguous, making it fully palpable, returning us to the mystical power of words. Modern Haiku 44.1
a whale and then a word part of the burning Metz’s poetry, as well as his tireless work as a critic and editor, has been instrumental in stirring healthy and robust discussions among poets, BRINGING A ROSY mUSH TO THE GENRE )T IS A DEEP LOVE AND CAREFUL STUDY OF haiku that drives Metz to rekindle its flames with his provocative and playful touch. lakes & now wolves should be on the bookshelf of every committed writer of haiku. There is much to learn from these poems. Much to learn. without permission part of me begins to bloom
Sketches of Mexico, BY -ARIAN /LSON .ORTHlELD -ASS ,ILY 0OOL 0RESS PAGES ½˝ x ½ 3EMIGLOSS WHITE COVER WITH FOUR COLOR PHOTO PERFECTBOUND )3". 0RICE FROM THE AUTHOR AT "OTULPH 2D 3ANTA &E .-
Reviewed by George Swede
ew -EXICO POET -ARIAN /LSON BEGAN PUBLISHING HAIKU IN .and since then has built a reputation for excellence in all of hai KUS RELATED FORMS 3IX PRIOR HAIKU COLLECTIONS INCLUDE Desert Hours, WHICH WON THE (AIKU 3OCIETY OF !MERICA -ERIT "OOK !WARD FOR /LSONS INTRODUCTION TO Sketches of Mexico DESCRIBES A LIFE LONG FASCINA tion with the people and culture south of the border and the eventual PURCHASE OF A TIME SHARE CONDO IN -AZATLÕN A CITY ON THE 0ACIlC 4HE COLLECTIONS HAIKU ARE WHAT SHE CALLS hTIME CAPSULESv OF HER EXPERI ENCES IN THAT COUNTRY !LTHOUGH /LSON HAS VISITED THE POPULOUS CITIES OF the interior (Guadalajara, Mexico City), none of her haiku evoke them OR THEIR EXHILARATING MOUNTAIN SETTINGS )NSTEAD /LSON IS CONTENT TO focus on experiences in seaside towns more familiar to tourists who visit Mexico for a week or two. Reviews
gusts blow up incoming tide the privacy curtain mariachis move closer beach baño to the seawall
poolside margaritas hawkers here too ready for cruise ships birds squabble Acapulco
blessing us mole spooned on the cliff diver grilled snapper takes our tip rendezvous at eight 4HE TERM h3KETCHESv IN THE TITLE APTLY DESCRIBES THE PRECEDING PIECES 4HEY SEEM TO BE LATE DRAFTS MORE THAN FULLY REALIZED HAIKU .EVERTHELESS THEY MANAGE TO BE EVOCATIVE JUST LIKE THE SKETCHES OF master artists. /F COURSE MANY OF /LSONS HAIKU GO BEYOND PRELIMINARY DRAWINGS They are the final product, brimming with insight and mystery.
Tijuana club city outskirts a flash of gold a man and his cart whenever he laughs the color of dust
the motorcycle assignation swings into traffic the cabby outside dadmomtwokids with his smoke rings
agave its sharp edges tequila
)RONICALLY MUCH OF THE BEST WORK IN Sketches of Mexico does not illustrate life specific to that country. ocean thunder palapa shade FRY mASH SILVER ) OPEN MY BOOK AND STUDY in the cresting wave the sea Modern Haiku 44.1
SKELETON KITES ) TRY A RAW OYSTER sway in the wind to please you girls in bikinis then ask for another
FULL MOON FAMILY HELD BLANKET shadows of lovers a girl steps out round sea caves in a bikini These fine haiku show that seaside life is indistinguishable from one BALMY CLIME TO ANOTHER )F THERE WERE DIFFERENCES /LSONS ACUTE OBSER vational and poetic skills would have revealed them.
The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry & Poetics, by Roland Greene, EDITOR IN CHIEF AND 3TEPHEN #USHMAN GENERAL EDITOR 0RINCETON .* 0RINCETON 5NIVERSITY 0RESS TH ED PAGES
˝ x 3EMIGLOSS WHITE CARD COVERS 3MYTHE SEWN )3". 0RICE FROM BOOKSELLERS
Reviewed by Charles Trumbull
he Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry & Poetics has been a basic refer Tence work for literary scholars and poets since it first appeared in 4HE RD EDITION WAS PUBLISHED IN 4HE CURRENT VOLUME IS THE TH ) CONFESS THAT ) HAVE NOT ACQUAINTED MYSELF WITH ALL PAG ES AND MORE THAN ENTRIES RATHER ) CONCENTRATED ON THE ARTICLES IN OUR ORBIT IE *APANESE SHORT FORM POETRY AND ITS 7ESTERN VARIANTS AND COMPARED THE NEW EDITION WITH THE RD EDITION WHICH DOG EARED HAS been in my library for almost two decades. The good news is that the new edition contains more articles in our field, possibly signaling a growing interest in haiku etc., both in terms OF DEPTH AND BREADTH ) FOUND THE FOLLOWING h0OETRY OF *APANv BY ( -ACK (ORTON h-ODERN 0OETRY OF *APANv BY ,EITH -ORTON h*APANESE Reviews
0OETICSv BY %SPERANZA 2AMIREZ #HRISTIANSEN h*APANESE 0OETIC $IARIESv BY %DITH 3ARRA h(AIBUNv BY 7ILLIAM 7ENTHE h(AIKAIv BY #HERYL ! #ROWLEY h7ESTERN (AIKUv BY *EFFREY *OHNSON AND h!SIAN !MERICAN 0OETRYv BY 4IMOTHY 9U 4HE RD EDITION FEATURED THESE ANCHOR PIECES h*APANESE 0OETRY v WITH SECTIONS ON h#LASSICALv AND h-ODERN v BY %ARL -INER ONE OF THE ASSO CIATE EDITORS OF THE VOLUME AND -AKOTO 5EDA RESPECTIVELY h*APANESE 0OETICSv ALSO BY 5EDA h(AIKUv BY (IROAKI 3ATO AND h2ENGAv ALSO BY %ARL -INER )T WOULD BE HARD IN THE MID S TO HAVE FOUND A MORE stellar lineup than these scholars — like the current roster, all university professors — and their contributions are uniformly excellent. (ORTONS h0OETRY OF *APANv INCLUDES A PARAGRAPH ABOUT HAIKAIHOKKU haiku, just enough to put the short verse form into the larger context. #ROWLEYS PAGE AND A HALF LONG ESSAY h(AIKAIv IS DIVIDED INTO h)NTRO DUCTION v h&ORMAL #HARACTERISTICS v AND h(ISTORYv )T IS AN EXCELLENT summary of the evolution of haiku from renga up to the changeover FROM HAIKAI TO HAIKU ABOUT 4HE AUTHOR MENTIONS hSEASONAL WORDSv BUT DOES NOT DISCUSS kigo or kidai. 3HE ALSO MENTIONS hKIREJI LITERALLY CUTTING CHARACTERS v AND GIVES AN EXAMPLE FROM "USON OF A haiku that uses both. We could have wanted a fuller discussion of these topics which lie at the core of haiku poetics. -ORTONS h-ODERN 0OETRY OF *APANv IS A VERY lNE REVIEW OF DEVELOP MENTS SINCE THE LATE TH CENTURY IN THREE SECTIONS h4ANKA v h(AIKU v AND h&REE 6ERSEv 4HE HAIKU SECTION DETAILS THE TIME OF 3HIKI TO THE present, although, given all the fuss in the West recently over gendai haiku, the lack of any mention here poses a few questions. 2AMIREZ #HRISTIANSENS h*APANESE 0OETICSv IS MORE ACCESSIBLE THAN Ueda’s earlier coverage of the topic. Both focus on the evolution of poetics in waka and devote very little space to haikai and none to haiku AESTHETICS 7ENTHES SHORT ARTICLE ON h(AIBUNv IS AN ADEQUATE INTRO duction to the origins of the form, but his brief treatment of contem PORARY 7ESTERN PRACTICE DOES NOT PEER BEYOND BIG NAME POETS *AMES -ERRILL 2OBERT (ASS AND 2ACHEL "LAU $U0LESSIS 4HAT 3ARRAS PIECE h*APANESE 0OETIC $IARIES v A GENRE LITTLE PRACTICED TODAY IS FOUR TIMES longer than that on haibun seems disproportionate, but his essay is Modern Haiku 44.1
SOLID 9US h!SIAN !MERICAN 0OETRYv CONCENTRATES ON #HINESE !MERI can poetry with only passing mention of work by Japanese Americans, EXCEPT FOR ,AWSON &USAO )NADA WHO IS DUBBED THE MOST IMPORTANT Japanese American poet. &OR US THE KEY ESSAY IS *OHNSONS h7ESTERN (AIKUv )T IS CLEARLY DE rived from the author’s recent academic work (Haiku Poetics in Twen- tieth-Century Avant-Garde Poetry ;= REVIEWED BY %DWARD :UK IN MH 4HE PIECE IS DIVIDED INTO THREE SECTIONS h"EFORE v h4HROUGH THE 4WO 7ORLD 7ARS v AND h2ESURGENCE IN THE Sv %ACH UNFORTUNATELY IS FULL OF MISAPPREHENSIONS AND HALF BAKED CON clusions. The first section begins with the outrageous statement, “The 7ESTERN ADAPTATION OF HAIKU POETRY BEGAN IN WHEN 0AUL ,OUIS #OUCHOUD n WHO WAS ALSO AMONG THE lRST TRANSLATORS OF HAIKU COMPOSED POEMS IN ;&RENCH= IN THE FASHION OF HAIKUvTHIS despite the early likely efforts of Dutch traders, Portuguese missionar IES AND 2OMANIAN POLYMATHS THE TRANSLATIONS AND LIKELY HAIKU COM POSITIONS BY %NGLISHMAN 7' !STON AND INVESTIGATIONS BY "ASIL (ALL #HAMBERLAIN AND ,AFACADIO (EARN BEFORE THE TURN OF THE TH CENTURY AND THE EXPERIMENTS IN HAIKU BY THE -EXICAN POET *OS£ *UAN 4ABLADA AS EARLY AS n WHICH CURIOUSLY *OHNSON DISCUSSES A FEW LINES LATER Johnson’s second section mentions Amy Lowell, Ezra Pound, and *OHN 'OULD &LETCHER BRIEmY BEFORE TURNING BACK TO &RENCH AND 3PANISH POETS IN THE INTERWAR PERIOD /NE MIGHT HAVE EXPECTED AT LEAST A MEN tion of poets in America in the same period such as E.E. Cummings, 7# 7ILLIAMS AND 7ALLACE 3TEVENS WHO LIKE THE )MAGISTS WERE INmU enced by haiku. For his third section, however, Johnson jumps to what HE PERCEIVES AS A hRESURGENCE v IE THE "EATS 'ARY 3NYDERS ENGAGEMENT with East Asian poetry, Johnson says, is “perhaps the greatest among ALL 7ESTERN POETSv *OHNSON THEN TURNS TO TWO "RAZILIAN CONCRETE POETS AND *ORGE ,UIS "ORGES AND /CTAVIO 0AZ (E DEVOTES ABOUT A PARAGRAPH TO 0AZS HAIKU SEQUENCE h"ASHô !Nv 3ATOS h(AIKUv ARTICLE IN THE RD EDITION DEVOTED TWO THIRDS OF ITS ALLOT ted space to haiku outside Japan, averring that French were the first to take up the form and mentioning Latin American poets in passing, before ze ROING IN ON %NGLISH LANGUAGE HAIKU ESPECIALLY DEVELOPMENTS IN !MERICA Reviews
Two meaty paragraphs deal with publications and organizational mat TERS AND TRENDS IN HAIKU POETICS IN .ORTH !MERICA .OT A WORD ABOUT these things in Johnson’s article. From the latter piece, one would get the IDEA THAT APART FROM BRIEF mIRTATIONS BY )MAGISTS AND "EATS &RENCH AND 3PANISH LANGUAGE HAIKU REPRESENT THE APOTHEOSIS OF HAIKU OUTSIDE *APAN and that Western haiku apparently has long since atrophied. 4HERE ARE NO ENTRIES OR EVEN CROSS REFERENCES IN THE NEW The Princ- eton Encyclopedia of Poetry & Poetics for “senryû v hHAIGA v OR ASPECTS of Japanese aesthetics such as sabi, wabi, mono no aware, or karumi, WHICH ARE ESSENTIAL TO HAIKU THOUGH 2AMIREZ #HRISTIANSEN MENTIONS in passing yûgen, omokage, yojô, and a few attributes of renga linkages). .O MENTION OF hRENKUv IS TO BE FOUND AT ALL EVEN IN #ROWLEYS DISCUS SION OF RENGA .EITHER VOLUME CONTAINS INDIVIDUAL ARTICLES ABOUT HAIKAI haiku poets. And while we’re niggling, we might also mention a couple OF EDITORIAL LAPSES ONE lNDS BOTH PLURALS hMORAEv AND hMORAS v WHILE 7ENTHE IS ALLOWED TO USE THE PLURAL hHAIKUSv .OT ALL CIRCUMmEXES OVER vowels in rômaji words have been converted to macrons. Without gainsaying that this volume overall is a monumental achievement, from the narrow standpoint of the Western haiku poet or someone who has a professional or avocational interest in haiku world wide, the new edition of The Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry & Poetics is a case of two steps forward and one giant step back.
The Fragrance of Dust: Haiku Stories Poems, BY *AMES .ORTON 5X BRIDGE 5+ !LBA 0UBLISHING PAGES ¾˝ x¼ 3EMI GLOSS WHITE CARD COVERS PERFECTBOUND )3". 0RICE 53 FROM THE PUBLISHER AT INFO ALBAPUBLISHINGCOM Bamboo Dreams: An Anthology of Haiku Poetry from Ireland, ed ITED BY !NATOLY +UDRYAVITSKY 4RALEE )RELAND $OGHOUSE "OOKS PAGES x ½ 'LOSSY WHITE AND FOUR COLOR CARD COVERS PERFECTBOUND )3". 0RICE $ FROM THE publisher at www.doghousebooks.ie. Modern Haiku 44.1
Reviewed by Charles Trumbull
he ARRIVAL ON OUR DESK OF TWO BOOKS OF )RISH HAIKU UNDERLINES A FACT Tthat has been apparent for some years: haiku is alive and thriving ON THE %MERALD )SLE *AMES .ORTON IS A HAIKU PIONEER IN HIS HOMELAND )N HIS INTRODUCTION to the The Fragrance of Dust we learn that after seeing his first haiku in THE S HE REDISCOVERED THE SHORT VERSE IN AND THAT EVENT CAUSED HIM TO TAKE UP WRITING AGAIN AFTER A TWENTY YEAR HIATUS (E FOUNDED THE journal Haiku Spirit IN AND SERVED AS ITS EDITOR OR COEDITOR UNTIL .OT A GREAT MANY OF .ORTONS HAIKU HAVE APPEARED PREVIOUSLY IN print, however, though this is his second collection of haiku. ! PRACTICING "UDDHIST .ORTON USES POETRY TO lND DEPTH AND RESO NANCE IN THE LANDSCAPES HE TRAVERSES (E REPORTS IN HIS )NTRODUCTION that over the years he had developed his own approach to haiku in that HE HAS CHOSEN h;TO ESCHEW= CONFORMITY TO NOTIONS OF A RIGID nn SYLLABLE LINE FORMULA CONlNED TO @OBJECTIVE SKETCHING IN THE MANNER OF A PHOTOGRAPHIC IMAGE OR MERE NATURE NOTEv 4HAT IS TO SAY .ORTONS creative path has led him pretty much to the place where the rest of the BETTER %NGLISH LANGUAGE HAIKU POETS lND THEMSELVES TODAY (E ALSO SAYS HE HAS BEEN INSPIRED BY HOME GROWN POETRY EARLY )RISH NATURE LYRICS The subtitle of The Fragrance of Dust is somewhat misleading. The BOOK ACTUALLY COMPRISES MOSTLY HAIBUN OF THE LONG TRAVEL NOTE KIND EMBRACED BY 7ELSHMAN +EN *ONES AND %NGLISHMAN $AVID #OBB AND longer poems and sequences that are only sometimes haiku. The haiku tend toward the poetic, lyrical, and metaphoric, for example these, selected at random from various places in the book: ,EAF DRIP 2ARE lSH mAKE AN INVISIBLE ROOFER TAP TAPS ALL THE WAY FROM *APAN nails into fog for a stray cat
coughing Dinner alfresco and the stranger upstairs serenaded from the rooftop coughs too by a cricket Reviews
natoly +UDYAVITSKY THE PROTEAN EX PAT 2USSIAN FOUNDER OF THE A)RISH (AIKU 3OCIETY IN AND ITS ONLINE JOURNAL Shamrock in *ANUARY HAS COMPILED THE lRST SPECIlCALLY )RISH HAIKU ANTHOLOGY SHOWCASING UP TO A DOZEN HAIKU BY EACH OF SEVENTY SEVEN POETS BORN OR LIVING ON THE ISLAND OF )RELAND -OST WRITE IN %NGLISH BUT A FEW HAIKU IN THIS COLLECTION ARE IN )RISH 4HIS BOOK IS INTRODUCED BY A SHORT ESSAY ON THE HISTORY OF HAIKU IN )RELAND AND ENDS WITH SHORT BIOSKETCHES OF the contributors. All but a score of the poets are so far relatively un known internationally, and judging from their listed publication cred ITS THEY MOSTLY REVOLVE IN +UDRYAVITSKYS ORBITIE Shamrock and the )(3BUT NO MATTER THERE IS MUCH OF INTEREST TO BE FOUND HERE (ERE is a sampling of the contents: honeycomb — blackbird honey and darkness stored holding the winter sun for the long winter in its beak Noel Duffy Ciarán Parkes
a pause there must be light in the discussion where they come from — soft summer rain chestnut blossoms Maeve O’Sullivan Gabriel Rosenstock Bamboo Dreams is a worthy addition to your bookshelf alongside other ANTHOLOGIES FROM THE "RITISH )SLES SUCH AS The Iron Book of British Haiku ED $AVID #OBB AND -ARTIN ,UCAS AND Another Country: Haiku Poetry from Wales ED .IGEL *ENKINS +EN *ONES AND ,YNN 2EES