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Write haiku / tanka with a master! |
So what are the rules of this thing we call Haiku? I’m glad you asked! First off, haiku is about nature and the natural world. It is an observation of a small piece of one’s own environment. Haiku is controlled by a season, and everything in nature is associated with a particular season. (In the case of the poem above, winter) The seasonal words, or kigo, act as subject and predicate within the poem.Here, they are a hawk and the rain, or the leaves and the wind. The poem is about their interaction. The first is called the primary; the second is called the lower. When a couplet is added to form a tanka, this addition must have a complementary (from the same season) primary and lower as well. The primary reacts to or acts upon the lower. The hawk has his feathers smoothed by the rain. The wind ruffles the leaves. At the end of one of the lines there is a cutting word, or kireji. This word serves to both separate the two sections, and to provide a bridge. It can come at the end of either the first or second line. (sun, in our case) The tanka couplet must have a cutting word as well, at the end of the first (fourth) line. (Basho used the word wind, technically the kigo for the line) We always say 5-7-5, 7-7, but do not feel the need to use all 5 or 7 syllables. If you can paint the picture more effectively with one less syllable, go ahead! Just try not to cut more than one or two. There are others, but these are the main rules, and the ones that are most important to consider as you write your haiku. Even the Hawk’s Feathers have been smoothed by a passing shower of early winter rain. Kyorai Even the Hawk’s Feathers have been smoothed by a passing shower of early winter rain. Ruffled by a gust of wind dead leaves come to rest again. Basho Seasonal words can be found at "The Five Hundred" [E] From Wikipedia - Matsuo Bashō (松尾 芭蕉?, 1644 – November 28, 1694), born Matsuo Kinsaku (松尾 金作?), then Matsuo Chūemon Munefusa (松尾 忠右衛門 宗房?),[1][2] was the most famous poet of the Edo period in Japan. During his lifetime, Bashō was recognized for his works in the collaborative haikai no renga form; today, after centuries of commentary, he is recognized as a master of brief and clear haiku. His poetry is internationally renowned, and in Japan many of his poems are reproduced on monuments and traditional sites. Although Bashō is justifiably famous in the west for his hokku, he himself believed his best work lay in leading and participating in renku. He is quoted as saying, “Many of my followers can write hokku as well as I can. Where I show who I really am is in linking haikai verses.” |
Turtle ~ KanyáthƐko:wa:h says "Hunting in the waist deep snow / wild ducks fly over head." Total Displayed: 1 |