Yup, Andrew, 'kigo' is the season word in traditional haiku/hokku.
> That's how I teach it now: mainly aim at
> variations of 3/5/3 in English, but 17 syllables all up is a definite
> MAXIMUM.
I'm interested in these 17 syllables, in that the thought is crossing my
mind that an English language haiku unit is very roughly approximate to one
and half measures of pentameter. Not that I want to pursue the analogy too
far but I am minded of the parallelism between the characteristic
'incompleteness' of haiku (originating as they did in the starting verse, or
hokku, of a haikai-no-renga) with the sense of the unfinished, therefore not
subject to closure, that a pentameter couplet deprived of its rhyme and half
its second line would convey to the ear.
Just thinking aloud.
david bircumshaw
----- Original Message -----
From: "Andrew Burke" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, May 23, 2001 5:19 PM
Subject: Re: haiku
> Yes, David, even modern Japanese haiku is not always written 5/7/5 onji,
> but that is taken as a maximum. That's how I teach it now: mainly aim at
> variations of 3/5/3 in English, but 17 syllables all up is a definite
> MAXIMUM. And with or without a season word (kigo, I think it is) - They
> also have their poetry wars, traditionalists against contemporary writers.
>
> Andrew
>
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> Andrew Burke Copywriting
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