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Yes, Jesse, you are completely right. But ... there is a bastardised form of 'haiku' in English (mainly US) which is a vehicle for well-fashioned short poems after the earlier (and continuing) Japanese model. They call it 'haiku' still to attempt a link with a long tradition, little knowing the cultural depths which the composition knows in its native environment. I have also been involved in renga/renku (not always the same thing, but I'm talking shorthand here) in English which created interesting texts. Conversely, imagine a strict Italian sonnet in Mandarin characters (I don't know enough Japanese to comment): historically there is a form in their literature close but not a traditional sonnet. My meagre attempts at translating Li Bai and Du Fu has lead me to realise you cannot ever translate perfectly for form and content from Chinese characters to English: the best will always be an approximation, and, perhaps, an echo of content. Translations are welcome in our anthology, btw. We are looking at also publishing the poem in its original language, if space and legals permit. Andrew On 31/03/2008, [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]> wrote: > Sad to say but English language poetry written to emulate Japanese forms > tends to sound chopped, truncated, minced into what I call "Zenglish." > After studying the "stuff" in the original language I'm not happy to > read most of the the so-called equivalent writing in English. > > Of course it's possible to write short, short poetry in English. A few > of Herrick are about as close as English can come to what kana and Kanji > can do so effortlessly. Sanuel Menashe has also done it once or twice. > > Most of the other stuff is, well--"stuff." > > Sad that we have the feeling that languages as different as Japanese and > English work in the same way to produce equivalent effects. They > don't. That's why I believe that English language haiku is a > misnomer. Add to this the sense of ease and entitlement that allows us > to misunderstand haiku (so easy that kids can enjoy writing it!), the > cultural hang-over of post WWII Japan when the West was flooded with > cheaply made goods from the islands, etc. etc., instant ramen noodles > etc. etc., and we have a real > problem with coming to grips with what is indeed a dazzling mode of > expression in the original. Our cultural, Anglo-centric chauvanism > keeps getting in the way. > > Of course we could probably substitute French, German, Spanish, for > English in the above statement and still come pretty close to the truth. > > I was first introduced to the idea of "difficulty" and haiku writing > when I arrived in Japan and began to talk with the Japanese about > poetry. But wasn't haiku so simple that grade school teachers in > America could coax tons of it from their charges? Hadn't I written my > share of it when I was a child? Didn't every English "teacher" who > found his or her way to Japan suddently breaking out in the stuff like > rashes from too much msg in meals? You could see their Zenglish in the > haiku column of the Mainichi Simbun with someone saying which was good > and which was bad! > > When I started to study the language (and I must say even now I'm far > from mastering it)--and sat with significat haijin who wrote, published, > and won awards for their work in Japanese--only then did I understand > what the Japanese were telling me. Haiku is hard as hell to write. > Moreover, the use of Kanji makes the thought so compressed that finding > an equivalent in English in the melding of form and content to even > begin to give the feeling of the original is well-neigh impossible. The > sense of "ease" and "anything I say is haiku is haiku" that so many > seem to find in the act of writing this form is simply an illusion born > of a misunderstanding--linguistic and cultural. > > Stuff indeed. > > Jess > -- Andrew http://hispirits.blogspot.com/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/aburke/