Writing Poetry for Rokugan
The Perfect English-style Haiku
by Shosuro Kiseki
What's something you've studied on a fairly deep level that most people don't know or constantly get wrong?
For me, it's Japanese poetry, specifically the haiku, especially that the 5-7-5 syllable structure is the worst single thing to know about haiku, and that every other thing that makes a haiku is more important than how many syllables are in a line.
Most people are taught in 7th grade that haiku are little poems that follow a 5-7-5 syllable structure, and then turn us loose to count out words on our fingers to turn in our clumsy "haiku", and if it passes the 5-7-5 test we get an A and move on. That's about as much as any of us were ever taught about this entire form of poetry.
It's true that Japanese haiku and its related forms are typically 17 syllables long. They were often written in a single long line, but when they were first translated to English that made them tough to digest, so the translators broke them into lines. They also noticed the syllable thing, so incorporated it into most translations to keep them faithful to what they were translating.
HOWEVER! There are several things much more important to haiku than syllables. They are:
An IMAGE (and usually two). Imagery is the point of haiku. They are snapshots of observations that are written by the author that capture a specific moment in time in words. This "moment" can be a real event or an imagined one as long as the author can project the same image they are seeing along to the reader.
A "CUT word" that separates the poem into two halves. In Japanese this is usually a particle syllable like -wa or -[w]o. These particles separate out parts of the sentence that makes up the haiku so that the next elements can shine. We don't have those in English, so it often falls to punctuation to serve that role. A dash, comma, or semicolon typically works for this in English language haiku.
Juxtaposition. In all haiku there needs to be some sort of juxtaposition of images or concepts. This can take many forms, and changes depending on how traditional or modern you are trying to be. Some examples include putting an image of one season next to an image from another. Placing images from nature in a city. Images of animals doing things people normally do, or vice versa.
A season word or KIGO. In traditional Japanese haiku it was important to let the reader know as precisely as possible exactly where and when the poem was taking place. Every region in Japan had specific things they were known for or famous for, and every event in nature was carefully mapped out compared to every other. Certain words were closely tied to either a regional specialty or to a specific time of year. With enough knowledge of when the poem was written and by whom, you might be able to pinpoint almost exactly the day the poem was meant to take place on.
Finally, there's the syllables. The point of haiku was to capture the image with as much brevity as possible. The syllables became codified over quite a long time (older Japanese poetry is much more like our free verse), and was popularized as part of a game played by the upper class called renga. It was basically the original party game. One person would compose a 17 syllable verse. The next would have to tie into or contrast it with their own 14 syllables. Then the next person had to play off of that. Over time the best players became minor celebrities, and put together a "greatest hits" sort of selection from the parties they attended (or that they wish they'd used at the parties they didn't attend).
A last point: Japanese and English are different languages with different sound systems and word lengths and syllable counting don't transfer between languages well at all. We even count syllables in very different ways. (the word "Japan" is nihon - which in Japanese is a three syllable word). It's worth noting that while the 17 syllable pattern is the "norm", there are plenty of Japanese poets who wrote excellent haiku who disregarded that aspect in part or in full.
Recommended Reading:
The Haiku Handbook by William Higginson
What's something you've studied on a fairly deep level that most people don't know or constantly get wrong?
For me, it's Japanese poetry, specifically the haiku, especially that the 5-7-5 syllable structure is the worst single thing to know about haiku, and that every other thing that makes a haiku is more important than how many syllables are in a line.
Most people are taught in 7th grade that haiku are little poems that follow a 5-7-5 syllable structure, and then turn us loose to count out words on our fingers to turn in our clumsy "haiku", and if it passes the 5-7-5 test we get an A and move on. That's about as much as any of us were ever taught about this entire form of poetry.
It's true that Japanese haiku and its related forms are typically 17 syllables long. They were often written in a single long line, but when they were first translated to English that made them tough to digest, so the translators broke them into lines. They also noticed the syllable thing, so incorporated it into most translations to keep them faithful to what they were translating.
HOWEVER! There are several things much more important to haiku than syllables. They are:
An IMAGE (and usually two). Imagery is the point of haiku. They are snapshots of observations that are written by the author that capture a specific moment in time in words. This "moment" can be a real event or an imagined one as long as the author can project the same image they are seeing along to the reader.
A "CUT word" that separates the poem into two halves. In Japanese this is usually a particle syllable like -wa or -[w]o. These particles separate out parts of the sentence that makes up the haiku so that the next elements can shine. We don't have those in English, so it often falls to punctuation to serve that role. A dash, comma, or semicolon typically works for this in English language haiku.
Juxtaposition. In all haiku there needs to be some sort of juxtaposition of images or concepts. This can take many forms, and changes depending on how traditional or modern you are trying to be. Some examples include putting an image of one season next to an image from another. Placing images from nature in a city. Images of animals doing things people normally do, or vice versa.
A season word or KIGO. In traditional Japanese haiku it was important to let the reader know as precisely as possible exactly where and when the poem was taking place. Every region in Japan had specific things they were known for or famous for, and every event in nature was carefully mapped out compared to every other. Certain words were closely tied to either a regional specialty or to a specific time of year. With enough knowledge of when the poem was written and by whom, you might be able to pinpoint almost exactly the day the poem was meant to take place on.
Finally, there's the syllables. The point of haiku was to capture the image with as much brevity as possible. The syllables became codified over quite a long time (older Japanese poetry is much more like our free verse), and was popularized as part of a game played by the upper class called renga. It was basically the original party game. One person would compose a 17 syllable verse. The next would have to tie into or contrast it with their own 14 syllables. Then the next person had to play off of that. Over time the best players became minor celebrities, and put together a "greatest hits" sort of selection from the parties they attended (or that they wish they'd used at the parties they didn't attend).
A last point: Japanese and English are different languages with different sound systems and word lengths and syllable counting don't transfer between languages well at all. We even count syllables in very different ways. (the word "Japan" is nihon - which in Japanese is a three syllable word). It's worth noting that while the 17 syllable pattern is the "norm", there are plenty of Japanese poets who wrote excellent haiku who disregarded that aspect in part or in full.
Recommended Reading:
The Haiku Handbook by William Higginson
