Critique and Report, Issue 2

A Critique and Report on the Speeches Delivered and Papers Presented in the 9^th World Haiku Festival

by Aju Mukhopadhyay, Pondicherry

Following speakers were invited to present papers on the inaugural day on 23^rd February, 2008, of which I was the Moderator.

Shri N.K. Singh- Cross Cultural Dimensions of Haiku

Shrimati Puja Maluste- Marathi Haiku in India today

Shri Rajendra Sasmal- The influence of classical Indian Poetry on the perception of

the Imported form of Japanese Haiku

Shrimati Parimala Rao- The Haiku Scenario in Karnataka

Shri Narayanan Raghunathan- The Haiku Way- Ruminations and Aphorisms

Dr. Jagdish Vyom- Hindi Haiku in Today’s India

Thiru A. Thiagarajan- Tamizh Haiku Now

Dr. Angelee Deodhar- Women Poets in the Ogura Hyakunin Isshu

There were four papers on the general theme of Haiku as seen from different angles, four were on regional positions.

Almost all the speakers tried to define what haiku is, sometimes quoting others sometimes justifying from their own experiences and stand points. Quoting Blyth, N. K. Singh writes that haiku represents ‘Return to nature, our Buddhist nature’. He further writes, ‘It is also misconceived that Ki (of Kigo) gives the impression of Haiku being only concerned with nature, whereas it is an expression of genuine emotion about life and nature. I think way out is to follow the pattern of International collection of William J Higginson (Haiku World- An International Poetry Almanac), who has provided four sections to Kigo Haiku and finally fifth for all year.’

WORDS OF SHIKI

Singh quotes Shiki, ‘Do not bother about rules. . . write to please yourself. . . if your writing does not please yourself how can you expect them to please anybody else?’ Then Singh gives his own opinion, ‘Haiku is creative and direct genuine feeling. Even if a haiku is technically perfect if it does not have the creativity it is not poetry.’

Jagdish Vyom says that haiku is ‘The world’s smallest poem.’ He feels that haiku is a bridge to unite various societies and countries. In a similar vein G. R. Parimala Rao wirtes, ’Though this is probably one of the shortest literary formats, it can hold the whole universe and be the home of endless individualistic styles and variations.’

Let us now see what Puja Maluste, an exponent of Marathi haiku has to say, ‘Although a kind of poetry, Haiku is not a poem. A poem expresses the feelings and emotions of a poet. Poem is written on many subjects like human life, beauty of nature, politics, social life, etc. The distinctive features of haiku are (a) showing simply and not telling, (b) the absence of the poet’s own interpretation or description or reasoning, (c) tight expression in three lines and (d) the sudden revelation or what is popularly called the aha moment. With these features, haiku too is a kind of poetry.’

As we come to Narayanan Raghunathan, the Rudra Brahman, we see that his main business is to define haiku through the titled paper General Aesthetic Observations, though the announcement of the title of his paper was different. ‘I have written on a few brief personal observations on Haiku in an intertwined aphoristic form- My aim is to clarify by pointing- It is neither to define Haiku (definitions carry the burden of the Limitations of the Euclidean Structures. . .) The opening paragraph ends there without going into a nor, etc. Some of his definitions are enigmatic, some are illusive. We quote verbatim some of them for the pleasure of knowing haiku through the unknown way, wondering at what we create!

ANANDA

‘Ananda (Supreme Delight) is the secret of Haiku- just A simple smile of wonder, if I may say so and a simple friend to share it- ‘

‘haiku Is The Delicate Ritual Pointing Indicating to a friend the joyous inexplicable nature of a Fused Moment of Eternity- Perhaps It Is Not strictly poetry in the conventional canons of poetry yet it is another silent form of poetry-‘

‘Verily every Moment Is A Perfect Haiku Moment- Wordlessly They Vanish Into Eternity-‘

‘Poetry is narrative poetry generally- Haiku has no time to narrate- It simply hints at a delicate spot of simple delight of perception or drops the seed for a narration- but the reader has to make the tree(s) and garden(s) out of the seed.’

Haiku is poetry and yet not poetry, it is repeated by speakers. Narayanan, it seems, has stated what he felt in a philosophic mood, going into and coming out of it, sometimes making a meaning, sometimes not.

TAGORE

Let us now see what Rabindranath Tagore felt after tasting the haiku first-

‘This tendency to economise one’s expression may be found in their poems also. No where else in the world is found this three line verse. Three lines are enough for their poet and reader. And for this I have not found here anyone singing on the road. Their hearts do not make a sound like waterfall but are silent like water in a tank. However much of their poems I have seen so far, all are picturesque, not lyrics. Emotional burning of the heart tends to vital lavishness. They do not so spend. Their expression is limited to the feeling of beauty. This feeling is selfless. We do not cry for flower, bird or moon. The only relation we have with them is the relishing of beauty. They do not beat us, rob us or deprive us of anything. For this only three lines satisfy them and it does not break the peace of their imagination.

‘Two classic examples of their poems will clear my point. (Those two famous poems discussed many times!)

Old pond,

Frog’s leap,

Sound of water

Enough. Nothing is required. Enough for the mind’s eye of the Japanese reader. . . .

‘Another poem:

rotten branch,

a crow,

autumn.’

‘. . . . Autumn carries the impression of death. A crow sitting on a rotten branch evokes the idea of decaying poverty of autumn. . . . the power of imaging of the Japanese is very strong.’

So here are the explanations by the world’s poet of largest lyrics. He knew Kabir’s Doha in two lines, knew the Veda, Bible and Koran having short couplets, knew the tercets too. What he meant probably by ‘Nowhere is found this three line verse’ is the unique completeness of such verse, the unique satisfaction in it as the Japanese enjoy.

In this connection I feel it apt to quote a few more lines about an incident in the field when Tagore visited Japan. When the poet was taken to a grassy meadow and was told a tale of olden times; of two chieftains of rival clans who fought from morning till sunset until both lay dead smeared with blood, the poet was asked to write a short poem on it. C.F. Andrews, who accompanied Tagore to Japan, wrote (quoted from Krishna Kripalani’s Rabindranath Tagore: A biography. P.256)- ‘I could see, at that moment, the strained anguish of the Poet’s face as he quickly grasped the incident just as it had occurred and shrank back from it in his own mind in horror. In a moment of quick gesture he wrote these words: “They hated and fought and killed each other! And God in shame covered their blood with His own grass.”

After his Japan tour Tagore wrote his travelogue, Japan Yatri in 1916 itself where he translated and praised the haiku. In that sense it may be rightly said that he introduced haiku in India for the first time, as it is in some papers presented, in 1916, not in 1919 as one wrote. That he could easily write haiku if he wished, is doubtless, as we can see from the illustration of his instant work in the Japanese field. In the preface to Lekhan the poet wrote- ‘The lines in the following pages had their origin in China and Japan where the author was asked for his writings on fans or pieces of silk.’ It is true what Krishna Kripalani, his biographer, in Rabindranath Tagore wrote that the poet was immensely influenced by Japanese Haiku of which he was an admirer. He published one haiku like book in 1899 and many more such books after the visit to Japan. But he never wrote haiku in any Indian language or in English. He could but he did not. Haiku is not based on metres so it is not that he did not acquire its metrical subtleties, as the editor of his English Writings wrote (Volume-1, Sahitya Akademi). Bangla poetry like most Indian poetry is based on syllables. Tagore knew too well the subtleties of them. The thing is he could but did not wish to do that. He created in his own innovative way as we find later, one Dwarakanath Kabadi did write Flickers but not the haiku.

About the definition poetry it may be said that they allude any fixed definition however much may have so far been attempted. Haiku if considered poetry will be included in it, as a special genre, not quite different and above it or beyond it. Haiku is poem so a haijin is a haiku poet. Does anybody refute this?

HAIKU IN INDIA

After the definition of haiku we come to its history in India, its expansion in different regions. We have papers representing only four regions of this vast land. So on this we may not arrive at any definite conclusions but surely we may discuss them and come to a position to review where we stand now. It is hoped that further research will yield better results, knowledge of other areas. I found some Bangla haiku in some magazines and in one book but not many to do justice to it in presenting a paper. I have begun a blog-spot where I intend to post some haiku in Bangla, may be in Roman alphabets, with some write up and to invite others to post their contributions in order to have some records and to work for advancement of haiku in Bangla.

After Tagore’s introduction of haiku through translation and essay on it in 1916, not 1919, as written in one of the papers presented, poet and revolutionary Subramanya Bharati wrote an article about Japanese haiku in his Swadeshmitran in its 16th October issue of 1916, as mentioned by A. Thiagarajan in his paper. In this connection I may further add that Sri Aurobindo, the revolutionary, poet and yogi took refuge in Pondicherry in 1910 where had fled the poet Bharati also in 1908. He remained there up to 1918, the period which was marked as the rich literary period of Tamil literature, the Bharati Age, by Dr. K.R.S. Iyenger. Bharati and Sri Aurobindo were in regular contact, engaged in literary exchanges. Bharati was immensely influenced by Sri Aurobindo, wrote Iyenger. Madam Mirra Richard and her husband Paul Richard arrived from France in 1914 and they launched with Sri Aurobindo the famous literary review Arya, where Bharati too wrote. For political compulsions the Richards had to leave Pondicherry due to their contacts with Sri Aurobindo. Mirra Richard, after her stay in Japan for four years from 1916, returned to India and throughout her life remained with Sri Aurobindo as his spiritual collaborator. When in Japan, Mirra, later known as the Mother of Sri Aurobindo Ashram throughout the world, met Tagore and they had exchanges. So by all means the then affairs of Japan were known to the circle close to Sri Aurobindo. Bharati must have known about Tagore’s visit and essay on Japanese haiku.

That the significant move towards haiku development after 1916 was the production of a collection of short poems similar to haiku by one Agyeya, as claimed by Jagdish Vyom, is not tenable as we find that haiku like short poems did abound before and after haiku in pan Indian literature and in world literature, some such examples we will get in the papers submitted under review.

The next significant move was made by a Hindi language teacher, Professor Satya Bhusan Verma, in 1977, when he published translation of 10 Tanka and 40 haiku in Hindi. His next work was to establish the Indian Haiku Club the next year and then he started publishing haiku in inland letter format under the title Indian haiku in Hindi. Kamalesh Bhatt Kamal edited two anthologies; Haiku 1989 and Haiku 1999 containing works of some 30 and 40 poets respectively. Haiku Bharati was begun by one Dr. Bhagawatsharan Aggarwal and Haiku Darpan, a haiku magazine in Hindi, began its journey in 2000. Stating all this, Jagdish Vyom, its editor declared during his speech that it would henceforth be published as a bilingual journal and Angelee Deodhar would be the editor of its English part. He invited haiku in Hindi and English from the audience.

So in Hindi, haiku began its journey from 1977. Some other regions too had been awake by that time. In Tamil it began its journey in 1970 when Abdul Rahman started writing haiku which were published in 1974, titled Sindhar. We know from the paper of Puja Maluste that in Marathi its journey began in 1975 when Shirish Pai started writing them. In Kannada, it seems from the paper of G. R. Parimala Rao, that haiku actually saw the light of the day when her haiku collections, three in English and six in Kannada began to appear from 2000.

After discussions on the definition and history of haiku in India, as much as possible, mainly on the basis of the papers submitted, I proceed to serve some titbits about the papers and speeches delivered by individual speakers.

HAIKU IS FREE

But before I do so it would be amiss not to bring in Rajendra Samal here. He did not bring any paper at all but spoke extempore. Not only did he differ from the assigned task of speaking on the influence of classical Indian poetry on haiku but he gave a virtual goodbye to that subject. He spoke mainly on what haiku is, how a haiku or rather a poetry should be written. His speech was so humorous and so embellished with wit, story and legitimacy in his own way, that not to quote some relevant portion out of it would be snatching out the opportunity from the reader to read some nice prose piece.

‘Japanese are very patriotic for different reasons. They believe that whatever produced in Japan is bound to be the best in the world. This is very true so far as Haiku poetry is concerned. Japan as a country is geographically small in size. Japanese people are short but they are tall in stature. Their bonsai trees are short but their productivity is more. Their MOU is short but their understanding is more. Their poetry is small but its meaning is very vast. Today Haiku is spreading very fast all over the world. It is very contagious.

‘The modern man has divided time into past, present and future. He is always either in future or in the past. He is never present in the present. But a haiku poet has always to be present in the present. Because a haiku poem is a verb full of activity, full of life, full of here and now. Therefore I am sorry to say to our German friend Mrs. Gabi Greve that Haiku is so much compacted with the present that it cannot be impacted either by the Indian Classical poetry or otherwise. If you carry too much reading in your mind, you cannot write poetry especially haiku poetry. Haiku is born out of the intelligence of the heart and not of the mind. What is impacted is not haiku. That which is haiku cannot be impacted.’

‘About the form and the structure of Haiku let me say that Five Seven Five should be in the back of our mind but not in the front of our eyes. Otherwise the poet has to sacrifice the essence of the salvation moments at the altar of Five Seven Five. In Greek mythology there is a beautiful story. The story is about a man whose name was Procrastes. He was very rich, generous but very logical at the same time. He had a bed made of gold with precious stones studded over it. There existed no other bed in the world more valuable. And that was the bed that was used for his honourable guests. If the guest was little shorter than the bed, he had four very strong men to stretch the guest from both ends so that he became consistent in size with the bed. Of course the guest would die. If the guest was longer than the bed, then he would cut off the head or feet of the guest because the guest has to fit with the bed. No guest ever returned from his place. Therefore if haiku comes in a bigger or smaller form, no matter it should come the way it is because what matters is the content: whether gold is carried in the mud cart or mud is carried in gold cart. Cart is redundant after the content is delivered. Lightning does not follow Five Seven Five. A river does not follow Five Seven Five. Why should haiku always follow this pattern?

‘Let the poetry be left to the poets and readers. Let them read, write, enjoy and dance with poetry. As a poet has said, rivers, birds and the wind have no boundaries. I would like to add that poetry too has no boundaries. Religion divides but poetry unites. Let there be poetry everywhere.’

CROSS CULTURAL DIMENSION OF HAIKU

Cross Cultural Dimension of Haiku, presented by N.K.Singh, is a very valuable paper as it has aspects of culture and civilization based on religious and spiritual thoughts across the nations. He has discussed how the birth of haiku is from a Chinese-Japanese-Vedic-Buddhist mix. He said that 17^th to 19^th centuries were replete with poetry, not only in Japan but also in Hindusthan and England. Floating in the waves of urdu poetry, Singh has mentioned Kabir, Basho, Ghalib, Moman and others. He has compared between Basho and Faiz, Bulla Sha and Shiki, among Kabir, Sufis and Mahiya, between the attitude of the East and West on Nature, between the language structure, syntax and styles of writing poetry among some peoples of the globe. He has amply quoted some immortal poems, a few of which I am tempted to present here-

The evening was smoldering in smoke and her beauty was very sad

Many stories came to my faint memory reluctantly. (Firaq)

You are very much with me

As if no one else exists. (Moman)

All his life he had the feeling of the rain

Who knows in which season he got drenched. (Mehrgira)

I remember with regret that for shortage of time he gave up reading his paper and began to speak almost extempore, though based on it. He could not recite the poems as leisurely and with such glib, dramatic fashion as did Tomas Alter and Juhi Babbar in another session though they presented Ghalib only. Such poems though not haikus, were of different taste, to be relished at leisure.

Of Narayanan and his paper we have already discussed. Totally dedicated to the cause with a running website and books, he goes by mood. His aphorisms are to be read and relished, compared and discussed, even to be criticized if one feels like it.

Angelee Deodhar, a practicing haiku poet, translator and editor of haiku collections, spoke of her problems in providing space and materials for expansion of haiku in Hindi. She read some five waka or tanka poems (Tanka, meaning ‘short song’, is the modern name for waka, ‘Japanese song’, the traditional form of lyric poetry which has been composed in Japan for over 1300 years. -Amelia Fielden) by woman poets telling about the then waning position of women in society. One of the poems is given below as example-

59

Lady Akazome Emon

Better to have slept

Care-free, than to keep vain watch

Through the passing night,

Till I saw the lonely moon

Traverse her descending path.

Jagdish Vyom spoke entirely in Hindi which Indians might have grasped to some extent but it fell flat on representatives from other countries. Though Hindi covers the largest number of provinces of India and the speaker spoke on the position of Hindi haiku in India, it would be better perhaps to speak on the same international language in such a conference, as others did, for better understanding. Here too the title of the paper presented, The Haiku Poem in India, was different from the declared one to which he actually adhered- the position of Hindi Haiku in India. There are some 100 haiku poets writing in Hindi, the speaker informed us.

Puja Malushte speaking about Marathi haiku said a few words about the Marathi language; originating from Sanskrit, it has an antiquity of some 1300 years and that the precursor to haiku there were some four line poems called charoli, Kanika and Vatraitika.

She said that in Marathi, the language being different from Japanese in various ways, haikus are not written in 5+7+5 syllabic length as in Hindi. Beginning in 1975 some 18 poets up till now have published their haiku books. She has quoted from haiku of large number of poets. We may give two examples-

hot dry Sun

yet the tiny-snail

goes very slowly

a breeze

brings mild fragrance

from the rice field

She stated that there are magazines where haiku in Marathi are published just as there are special magazines exclusively devoted to haiku, that haiku as a kind of poetry has been registered in Marathi bibliography.

G. R. Parimala Rao presented the Kannada haiku position before the audience. Haiku-like poems, like Vachans, tripadis, dvipadis and chaupadis were there in Kannada from the 12^th century. She has also mentioned a genre of poems called Chutuka meaning short verse with pun and humour. In Bangla also such poems exist, called Chutki. They too were precursors to haiku in the sense that haiku seems sometimes like light puzzles or quiz. Though she was inspired by the works of Dr. Dwarakanath Kabadi, he is not a haiku poet, she says. His own brand of such poems is called Flickers. She has made efforts to make haiku popular among children and others in Karnataka, she said. She herself is the proponent of Kannada haiku, writing in both English and kannada, she said, adding that her daughter, Malini and grand daughter Anika too have taken to haiku. Malini has books of haiku. She has named Dr. Mohammed Fakhruddin and Mrs. Vimala Shesadri as exponents of haiku in traditional lines in English and kannada respectively. There are some more haiku poets who have published their books. To conclude, we quote two small nice haikus by her seven year old grand daughter, Anika, living in England-

Peak winter/ snow fall/ twilight in day

Autumn leaves falling/ colorful and crunchy/ nice wafers

In the course of presenting his paper, The Haiku Scene in Tamil, A. Thiagarajan made a long discourse on the Tamil literature, language and culture. But in his case too the title of the paper presented differed from the declared one. True that Tamil is one of the oldest living languages in the world but it cannot for many reasons be compared to Sanskrit. Today’s Tamil vocabulary contains large number of Sanskrit words as most other South Indian languages; all other major languages of India were born out of Sanskrit which is the mother of Indian culture too. But the antiquity of Tamil is a thing of wonder, more than 2000 years old, as Thiagarajan informed us. Its literature was richest during the Sangam period, between100 B.C. to 300 A.D.

The speaker referred some people who introduced and propagated haiku in Tamil at the initial stage, like C. Mani, Chandrasekhara, Murugesan besides Abdul Rahaman, as stated earlier. At present there are some 100 haiku poets writing in Tamil and 220 haiku collections. There are number of internet sites and other innovative ways to popularize haiku, the speaker informed. It does not follow 5+7+5 rule strictly but in the large number of poems cited by the speaker, the usual use of capital words at the beginning of lines continue in most of the poems. Strange it is that in no poem any punctuation has been used. As it is, it seems that there is no dictum in the matter of composing haiku, the freedom has become unlimited but there are certain rules of grammar and syntax in any language. However, I quote three Tamil haiku flowers for the pleasure of reading:

This boy

Pissing in a puddle

Shakes the sky Sujatha

a friend of my youth

meeting on the way

it is not him Vijay

Locked house

In the keyhole

A spider web Mu Murugesh

These papers were presented just a month ago, on the 23^rd of March 2008. The furore of presenting the papers, eagerness of hearing them and joy of the haiku festival as a whole, all over, I can see them better now from a distance and create a new piece on them.

© Aju Mukhopadhyay, 2008