A common issue that always comes up in discussions of international haiku is how to deal other languages and cultures with the fixed form, of 5-7-5 syllables, and kigo.
First of all, the 5-7-5 rhythm is unique to the Japanese language, and even if other languages were to use this rhythm, it is obvious that it would not guarantee the same effect. Teikei is not about syllable count or accent, but about the way poetic expression can be heightened through tension when the writer wants it. In the case of Japanese poetry, the best method to increase poetic tension has been the 5-7-5 syllable form.
In addition, the techniques and rhetoric that are used in this fixed form are also innately Japanese. There are many types of haiku. For example, there is haiku that expresses a reality that is instantly perceived, and haiku that uses kireji (words that are cut for a surrealistic effect) to construct another world as formative art. An example of the former is Takahama Kyoshi's
kirihitoha
hi atarinagara
ochinikeria paulownia leaf
in the sunlight
falling
higashiyama
shizukani hane no
ochini keria feather shuttlecock
gently falling -
Higashiyama hill
nagareyuku
daikon no ha no
hayasa kanaa daikon leaf
flowing away
how swiftYamaguchi Seishi's
natsukusa ya
kikansha no sharin
kite tomarusummer grass
the locomotive's wheels
come to a halt
pisutoru ga
puuru no kataki
mo ni hibikithe pistol shot
echoes over
the hard surface of the pooland examples of the latter are: Hashi Kanseki's
kaidan ga
nakute namako no
higure kanano stairs ...
a sea-slug
in the duskNagata Kooi's
shounen ya
rokujuunen go no
haru no gotoshia young boy...
like spring
sixty years from nowIt might be difficult for a non-Japanese to understand them because the kireji does not exist in other languages. Thus, forcing the fixed form of Japanese haiku and accompanying techniques on other languages is nonsense.
Next is the issue of kigo (season words). As mentioned earlier, Japanese haiku is a "gift from nature" and in Japan, seasons and nature are closely related. Hence, kigo is indivisibly linked to haiku. While it is extremely important to describe nature by perceiving the relationship between nature and human beings based on the haiku insight, it doesn't necessarily have to be in the form of kigo. In other words, when we discuss haiku from a global perspective, the contents of haiku will have closer relation with each country's local characteristics.
Therefore, when haiku spreads to the rest of the world, it is important to treat it as a short-formed poem and to take methods suitable to each language. For a poem to be recognized worldwide as haiku, it must be short-formed and have an essential spirit of haiku.
We believe in the possibility of the birth of new techniques such as fixed-form and the kireji that are characteristics of a particular language and that are appropriate for expressing the spirit of haiku. For example, the French sonnet began as a long poem, but when Tachihara Michizo introduced it to Japan, he shortened it and succeeded in producing a Japanese-style sonnet. Western poets can do the same thing with haiku. Today, it is common in the West to write haiku as a three-line poem. It creates a different space from the Japanese haiku that is written in one vertical line, which visually allows for instantaneous unconscious perception. But what is wrong with changing the number of lines if the writing style is appropriate to that particular language? In other words "teikei" means to find out "the inner order of the language" and for the poetry, that could be universal.
The fact that haiku is, in essence, symbolic poetry that has stopped being long-winded and talkative is recognized worldwide. Kigo is an accumulation of a long tradition of poetic sensibility that has continued to grow since the birth of waka. Globally speaking, it is a "keyword that possesses a symbolic meaning unique to that particular culture." Surely all cultures are certain to possess symbolic keywords that are unique to them, and which have been nurtured throughout their history. In this context, haiku can be described as being a universal poem whose essential part is expressed by "symbolism." We can also point out that the recent trend of modern Japanese haiku that attempts to refine itself as a symbolic poem, are in line with this global direction.
In the case of Japan, Renju, as already explained, had contributed much to the acceptability of "commonly shared words" such as kigo. This points toward the possibility of using non-kigo in the same way as kigo, if those non-kogo are words that are commonly shared by that community.Even when a non-Japanese poet writes a haiku in a non-Japanese language,and even when he does so as an individual poet in isolation, he will not be able to ignore the usefulness of the "commonly shared words" which, because of their symbiotic function, have much to convey.
