Brief summary of "Haiku translation project"
【PURPOSE】
Who was the first translator of Japanese
haiku ? There is no evidence
but we, the shiki team, think it may be
Masaoka Shiki. He translated Basho’s 18 haiku into English in 1892, when he was
a student of the
The old mere !
A frog jumping in,
The sound of water. Basho (TR: Masaoka Shiki “ Baseo as a Poet” )
After that Lafcadio Hearn (Koizumi Yakumo) discovered the charms of haiku at the end of the nineteenth century and Paul Louis Kuche published “Haiku” in the early twentieth century. After World War 2、R.H.Blyth’s “HAIKU”,H.G.Henderson’s “ Haiku in English”, W.J.Higginson’s “The Haiku Handbook”,Makoto Ueda’s”Modern Japanese Haiku”,Donald Keene’s “Dawn to the West” and other guidebooks about haiku were published. We think that one problem is the fact that modern and contemporary Japanese haiku has not yet been thoroughly introduced abroad. Japanese haiku from the classical period until at least Shiki or Santoka are rather translated also in the above-mentioned books. We think it’s important to translate not only classical haiku by masters, like Basho, Buson,Shiki, but also contemporary haiku by active haikuists.
On the other hand most of the Japanese people don’t know non-Japanese haiku and haiku poets. It’s also important to translate contemporary haiku written in non-Japanese languages. Japanese haiku and non-Japanese haiku have the same origin in a sense, but do they face the same direction ?
Haiku, whether written in Japanese or in non-Japanese, contains different layers of meanings and so they are inherently difficult to translate. We think the important thing for us to do now is to approach haiku not only from a historical angle but from a synchronic angle. The Shiki team hope this project will provide readers of the same age with a bridge between their own culture and that of other countries.
【ORGANIZER】
The Shiki team
Sumioka Manabu Professor of
Dabid Bogdan Professor of
Sato Eisaku Professor of
Wada Takeshi Associate Professor of
Dan Yuya Associate Professor of
*means a member of the Shiki team
Kim Komurasaki, Inoue Hiromi (Maya Hiromi) are members of the Shiki team.
*This project is conducted as a interdisciplinary collaborative research by Ehime University and Matsuyama University.
【ANNOUNCEMENT】
“Matsuyama International Haiku Site”(provisional title)
URL: http://haikusphere.net/ (planned site)
【CONTENTS】
Japanese --- English
classic works by Basho, Buson, Shiki, Kyoshi,Santoka, N.Vergilio etc.
contemporary works announced by haiku groups or haikuists
critical essays, researches, haibun, etc
*We plan to have a proper discussion with active haikuists at closed SNS or ML in order to maintain the high quality of translations.
【SCHEDULE】
1/ 2013 Set up the site
Information update once a month basically
The Shiki team will enrich the quality and quantity of translations gradually and carefully.