kireji
Many haiku lovers are somewhat perplexed when certain terms pop up with regard to haiku form.
It must be said that the technical waters of this apparently simple magical art which uses stripped down poetics (just short of prose, often enough) to conjure a virtual reality (a 'vision') in the mind's eye, are quite deep - to say the least. The reason for this is that haiku is a mystic technology, by any other name. As such, haiku addresses, not only the seasons, but the universe, in fact haiku addresses ALL experience. Haiku does this by utilising the basic machinery of sensation and thought, located in the here and now. Small wonder, then, that haiku formal theory can (and does) drive some people nuts! (Yes, you know who you are.) So. What to do? Occam's razor is what to do! In the military a common expression is the acronym: K.I.S.S., which stands for: 'keep it simple, stupid'. As Franciscan friar, Father William of Ockham might well have said: "Enough is enough." To which we could add, in keeping with many other things: "Start doing haiku and learn on the fly." Thus we avoid the demon Procrastination and its heinous consort Baboozlement! However, there are some basics that do need sketched in . . .
Today's subject is ' k i r e j i ' - translated from the Japanese this roughs out as 'cutting word'. Now, in English (and most other languages) we simply do not have this device, these kireji. Instead we use gaps, line breaks and basic punctuation to do the 'cutting' work. Before we resort to a couple of crib lists [see below] we need to define this cutting business. What does it achieve? Firstly, it opens up, let's call it, a pause-space (a form of 'ma', for those who are interested in that important principle of Japanese aesthetics). This gap in the flow of the haiku words allows a reader to build a presented idea in a (right-brain) dream. This pause-space (between stimulus and response) can also allow a psychological change of gear, so to say. In music, silence is the canvas upon which sound presents its composed motifs, its unfolding sonic theater. In the same way, haiku builds a virtual reality in bits. The pause-spaces, provided by the kireji cutting words in Japan, by punctuation elsewhere, allow this haiku visualization process to move along neatly, in bite-sized chunks. Moreover, though, cutting also allows the creation of a division between two images, their juxtaposition is, conversely, also enabled. This comparing and contrasting of two ideas, resulting in a third, is a haiku fundamental (although some argue single image haiku can work as effectively - the pros and cons of which we may consider another time). One final point to make about these cutting words called kireji, would be their capability to key the emotional tone of a haiku, indicate an attitude to the haiku material presented by the writer, and also for general navigation purposes. An example of the latter would be providing an emphatic 'end-space' or even employing a 'return-space' leading back to the beginning [see example below] ...
outnumbered by waves
one by one the sand castles
their flags floating—
In the above example a kireji substitute punctuation mark [em-dash] is used to create a pause-space (ma) for contemplating the floating flags AND inviting a return to the starting line. This produces a relentless feeling which reflects the incoming tides power over empires built of sand, type thing. Conversely, an ellipse fixes the final image in an endless floating world :
outnumbered by waves -
one by one the sand castles
their flags floating...
For the sake of illustration only, an ordinary dash has been added to our haiku (along with the final ellipse) which separates the first line's image from the rest of the haiku (as well as creating a pause-space for the line to develop its image) - thus emphasising a contrast between the two image units of incoming tide and beach. However, the final haiku would be better with either the dash or the ellipse (surely NOT both) in order to avoid intrusive clutter. This is part of the final editorial process and can be quite a challenge to the haijin (haiku writer) - the ideal being (as mentioned above) to provide as fluent as possible a transition from word to vision. After all, it's the little movie we endeavor to conjure that counts.
NOTE
When using punctuation do try to notice the various effects produced by a selected punctuation symbol - especially the length or volume of pause-space evoked . Usually we find a simple hyphen does most of the work required of a kireji cutting word, but, beware of turning this into an insensitive convention. Try to be aware of what's happening to your haiku when different options are experimented with. One final example :
outnumbered by waves!
one by one the sand castles
their flags floating...
Here the kireji is an exclamation mark. How does this change the haiku's effect when read? Now the final ellipse seems to work without a sense of clutter? (Probably not.) ◠‿◠
BASIC JAPANESE KIRJI (Wikipedia)
ka: emphasis; when at end of a phrase, it indicates a question
kana: emphasis; usually can be found at a poem's end, indicates wonder
-keri: exclamatory verbal suffix, past perfect
-ramu or - ran: verbal suffix indicating probability
-shi: adjectival suffix; usually used to end a clause
-tsu: verbal suffix; present perfect
ya: emphasises the preceding word or words. Cutting a poem into two parts, it implies an equation, while inviting the reader to explore their interrelationship
ALTERNATIVE PUNCTUATION OPTIONS (Wikipedia)
apostrophe ( ’ ' ) brackets ( [ ], ( ), { }, ⟨ ⟩ ) colon ( : ) comma ( , ) dash ( ‒, –, —, ― ) ellipsis ( …, ..., . . . ) exclamation mark ( ! ) full stop/period ( . ) guillemets ( « » ) hyphen ( ‐ ) hyphen-minus ( - ) question mark ( ? ) quotation marks ( ‘ ’, “ ” ) semicolon ( ; ) slash/stroke ( / ) solidus ( ⁄ ) tilde ( ~ )
LINE BREAKS
Two grammatical terms to consider, with particular reference to three line haiku (unrhymed tercets), which can (literally) be used in place of kireji cutting words . . .
Caesura: a complete sentence line drop or cut (or gap in single line haiku)
Enjambment: a split sentence line drop or cut (or gap in single line haiku)
Notwithstanding the above, I tend to favour NO punctuation - unless it insists. The reason for this is that I believe most standard issue brains can figure out everything a haiku offers without further ado. (But, not at the expense of basic formal coherence! Judgement is needed here, with transparent minimalism as your haiku criteria, always.) This is also the reason to use uppercase ONLY for proper nouns (Elvis, Mississippi), out of liminal cultural respect, the absence of which interrupts any haiku's presentation of imagery (the 'little movie'). Thus do we avoid unnecessary distractions that may obfuscate our haiku SHOW.
— jp
Also see
For those interested in exploring the nature of MA . . .
TRANSFERRED 07-11-11