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 American pine and learned from it. Intensely ...
He told me a lot in English, but could not speak Japanese of course.
When I was ready I wrote a poem about what I learned from him, 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 the thousand years old Japanese pine
in the temple grounds near my home
and she whispered to me:
"You know, we Japanese pines can only tell you
the wisdom of Japanese 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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If you observe only the pine and not your inner self,
you might end up with what is later called
. Sketching from Nature , SHASEI 写生 .
shajitsu 写実, byoosha 描写
「松の事は松に習え、竹の事は竹に習えと師の詞のありしも、
私意をはなれよということ也。」
（服部土芳著「赤冊子」）
「松の事は松に習え、竹の事は竹に習え」とおっしゃったのも、
「対象に対する先入観（我執）のすべてを捨てて、ひたすら物に従いなさい」
ということをいわれたのです。
「見るにつけ、聞くにつけ、作者の感じるままを句に作るところは、
すなわち俳諧の誠である」
（芭蕉の門人・服部土芳「三冊子」）
俳諧の誠というのは私意や虚偽を排し、対象をよく観察し、傾聴して、そのありさまを
十七文字で表現することに全力を傾けるという意味である。
more about shasei :
source : michi/node
- Japanese Reference -
悪党芭蕉
嵐山光三郎
. Matsuo Basho 松尾芭蕉 .
(1644 - 1694)
"Go to the pine if you want to learn about the pine"
Go to the banana
if you want to learn about Matsuo Banana.
If you really want to understand Matsuo Basho and his teachings about hokku, you have to study the Japanese language and read his original texts.
Anything else will leave you interpreting the many differing and sometimes misleading translations.
You can not taste the real banana pie by reading all the cookbooks in the world.
. Basho teaching "shasei 写生" .
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quote
In one of his most famous theoretical statements, Basho says,
“Learn about pines from the pine, and about bamboo from the bamboo.”
(Hass 233).
Each pine exhibits pineness but is not pineness itself: each pine alludes to, or is symbolic of, the essence of pine.
Contemporary writers may find Basho’s statement confusing. To use the Western terminology of essence we see in Reichhold and many modern Western haiku commentators, even the essence of pine is not the same as the essence of being. The essence of things is not located within the thing itself. The is-ness of a thing is not to be gained through attention to the thing alone. Indeed, is-ness is not the same as the “thingness” of a thing.
Barnhill says that in his travels Basho pursued “the wayfaring life in order to embody physically and metaphorically the fundamental character of the universe.” (6).
He visits places “loaded” with cultural and spiritual significance and his sense of “nature” is bound up with these traditions of place. This intertwining of place and significance, the local and the transcendental, is basic to Basho’s experience. The centrality of “place names” or utamakura is basic to Basho’s outlook. Barnhill says,
“Basho tended to write of places in nature handed down through literature, giving cultural depth to his experience of nature.”
source : BASHO’S JOURNEY - Jamie Edgecombe 2011
quote
The Master has said:
“Learn about pine from pines and learn about bamboo from bamboos.”
By these words he is teaching us to eradicate subjectivity. One will end up learning nothing with one’s subjective self even if one wants to learn. To learn means to enter the object, to find its subtle details and empathize with it, and let what is experienced become poetry. For instance, if one has portrayed the outer form of an object but failed to express the feelings that flow naturally out of it, the object and the author’s self become two, so the poem cannot achieve sincerity. It is merely a product of subjectivity.
- - - Peipei-Qiu
. Matsuo Basho and the concept of emptiness .
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quote
Su Dongpo’s poem on the bamboo painter says:
“When Yuke paints bamboos,
He sees only the bamboos, not himself.
Not only seeing no self,
Vacantly and far away, he loses the self:
The self transforms with the bamboos,
Endlessly creating pure novelty.
Since Zhuangzi is no longer in this world,
Who understands such spiritual concentration?”
“Vacantly and far away”
source : Basho-and-the-Dao - Peipei-Qiu
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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 ?
.................................................................................
- Watercolor, shared by Ron Moss -
Joys of Japan, 2012
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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 )
source : Aisaku Suzuki
another translated version
"Go to the pine if you want to learn about the pine, or to the bamboo if you want to learn about the bamboo. And in doing so, you must leave your subjective preoccupation with yourself. Otherwise you impose yourself on the object and do not learn. Your poetry issues of its own accord when you and the object have become one - when you have plunged deep enough into the object to see something like a hidden glimmering there. However well-phrased your poetry may be, if your feeling is not natural - if the object and yourself are separate - then your poetry is not true poetry but merely your subjective counterfeit."
"Go to the object. Leave your subjective preoccupation with yourself. Do not impose yourself on the object. Become one with the object. Plunge deep enough into the object to see something like a hidden glimmering there. Your feeling is not natural when the object and yourself are separate. You must become one with the object in order for your poetry to be true."
"No matter where your interest lies, you will not be able to accomplish anything unless you bring your deepest devotion to it."
source : www.yenra.com
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....................................... Gabi about
Tradition, wearing a haiku like a kimono ...
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December 26, 2008
learn from the pine ...
today I learn from
the snow
just one snowflake -
to grow
to dance
to touch the ground
to melt
snow over night
should I get the shovel or
the camera?
Gabi Greve
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. . . . . BACK TO
My Haiku Theory Archives
The one thousand years old pine at Temple Ryosanji
両山寺のニ上杉、大杉 "Futakami Sugi"
Basho, Bashoo, Bashou
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. Matsuo Basho - Archives of the WKD .
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