learn from the pine -
the twisted meaning
of words of wisdom
|
learn from the pine,
said my clever American haiku friends.
So I sat down by the pine and learned from it. Intensely ... When I was ready I wrote a poem about it, but when I showed it to my Japanese friends, they said
"Nice poem, but what makes you think this is a haiku ?
It is beautiful, but it is just free verse!"
So I asked a Japanese pine and she told me:
"You know, we pines can only tell you the wisdom of pines !
We are not learned enought to teach you the wisdom of writing poetry, especially not the secrets of writing haiku.
Maybe Kawazu The Frog, down by the old pond, can tell you more!"
So I went down to the Old Pond.
There was another young man sitting there already, trying to learn from the frog.
Plash, splash, splonk ... more than a hundred versions of frog wisdom ...
The young man introduced himself. His voice sounded rather squaaaked.
"My name is Bananas, I am trying to understand the secret of Japanese haiku. First I learned from the pine, but it only told me pine wisdom. Now I try by learning a bit more from the frog, who is moving around and should know better. Yet all I come up is frog lore and frog wisdom .....
What am I missing ?
Seems you are in the same trouble with your pine wisdom.
Know what, let us go to the old book editor in Edo, Kigin sensei (季吟 "Poetry about the Seasons"), he might help us understand why we do not understand."
So we went to Edo to meet Kigin Sensei.
Finally we got some answers.
"If you want to write Japanese haiku, ask someone who knows, ask a sensei, like myself (he grinned). I can teach you the basics of the secret of writing Japanese haiku.
If you want to write haiku about the pine,
learn the essence of the pine from the pine.
And then apply what you learned about the secrets of writing haiku (to be quite honest, he said HOKKU) and write about the pine wisdom accordingly.
And now, I will teach you the basics of hokku ... "
That is when my dream ended, sorry!
Gabi Greve with a big grin ...
I realized that another problem involved here is the language. The pine teaches you in PINE language, but you have to translate this to a human language to be understood by your fellow humans.
As a professional translator, I know well how difficult and challenging this can be! !!
And how many varieties are there to translate one word of PINE into one haiku word of HUMAN ?
But you can still
meet Kitamura Kigin.
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It is very important that you feel free to write a haiku your way.
But there are certain basic conditions which you as a haiku poet are supposed to observe.
Read more of the teachings of this Japanese Haiku Sensei:
Inahata Teiko
Sensei, a Japanese Haiku Teacher . and how about it outside Japan.
Understanding Japanese Haiku
What am I missing ?
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My Dream Friend Bananas later became quite famous and is supposed to have said this, after teaching his students the basics and secrets of writing proper hokku ...
What pertains to the pine tree, learn from the pine tree;
what pertains to the bamboo, learn from the bamboo.
To do that you must leave behind you all subjective prejudice. Otherwise you will force your own self onto the object and can learn nothing from it. Your poem will well-up of its own accord when you and the object become one, when you dive deep enough into the object, to discover something of its hidden glimmer.
However well you may have made your poem, if your feeling isn't natural, if you and the object are divided, your poem will not be true, it will be instead a subjective forgery."
(Matsuo Basho, Sanzooshi 三冊子（さんぞうし）俳諧 )
© Quoted from Aisaku Suzuki
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....................................... Gabi about
Tradition, wearing a haiku like a kimono ...
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. . . . . BACK TO
My Haiku Theory Archives
Basho, Bashoo
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