Dear Mariko,

When you write:

"One might as well call her the kaleidoscopic haijin, for her haiku ranges
pretty wide range of spectrum."

Do you mean that Takako has a wider range of subject matter than other haiku
poets? Or do you mean that her poetic style is hard to pin down? I obviously
have no sense of a Japanese poet's style regarding how language is used. I can
only relate to style regarding choice of subject matter, the 'angle' at which
the poet looks at things, and attributes such as tenderness or toughness,
simplicity or complexity, tradition or innovation, etc.

And being able to see so little of most Japanese haiku poets in English
translation, it's hard for me to get a sense of individual styles.

For instance, what is Basho's style? His style evolved over his career, from the
early Danrin school influence, through Genroku 'keiki' style with its Chinese
influence, to his final 'karumi' style.

And as Blyth points out, Basho could write from a lot of different points of
view.

Blyth says (perhaps under the influence of Shiki):

Basho's verses are comparatively few in number, about two thousand in all, of
which about a hundred are really good, but one thing that strikes us about them
is their variety. We can see in his verses the tendencies which later poets
developed.

[all translations below are by Blyth]

Epic

Fukutobasu ishi wa asima no nowaki kana

The autumn blast
Blows along the stones
On Mount Asama.


Chinoiserie

Yogi wa omoshi goten ni yuki wo mieu aran

The bedclothes are so heavy;
The snow of the sky of the Kingdom of Wu
Will soon be seen.


Still life

Shio-dai no haguki mo samushi uo no tana

In the fish-shop
The gums of the salted sea-bream
Are cold.


Unconventionality

No wo yoko ni uma hikimuke yo hototogisu

Lead the horse
Across the moor
To where the hototogisu is singing!


Humour

Mugi-meshi ni yatsururu koi ka neko no tsuma

The lady cat,
With love and barley-rice
So thin!


Picturesqueness

Shigururu ya ta no arakabu no kuromu hodo

First winter rain,--
Enough to turn
The stubble black.


Delicacy

Chimaki musubu katate ni hasamu hitai gami

Wrapping rice-dumplings in bamboo leaves,
With one hand she fingers
The hair over her forehead.


[Although for several of the tendencies Blyth lists, I think I could find a
better example in Basho's work than Blyth did to illustrate the tendency.]

And David Landis Barnhill says, regarding Basho's style when it comes to use of
language:

Basho's hokku have been called a "poetry of nouns" because of its tendency to
rely primarily on image rather than statement. We can look back at the Sado
Island, crow on a withered branch, and old pond poems as examples. In each case
we have the same pattern of noun, noun-verb, noun. Much of the dynamism of these
poems is in the stark imagism that turning them into a statement would only
dilute.

[end of excerpt]

And here is how Ryu Yotsuya describes the styles of some 20th-century haijin:

Kyoshi:

Kyoshi's haikus are not limited to a fixed style. Among his haikus, several are
splendid and virile, whereas others are subtle and delicate; several give free
rein to his imagination, others describe simply daily facts. The world of Kyoshi
is a true chaos, varied like a field full of wild flowers and grasses.

[Is this how you see Takako's haiku style?]


Kijoo, Suiha, Fura, Dakotsu, Sekitai, and Hisajo:

These poets are generically called "poets of Taisho Hototogisu".

The characteristic of their poems is to describe the nature and to express the
worship to the eternal and mysterious existence, in a traditional style with a
lofty tone. And their themes are the great landscapes (mountain, valley, sea, or
sky) or the life of men in the great nature.

One of the characteristics of the Taisho Hototogisu poets is the technique to
create a pseudo-perspective by combining the distant view and the foreground.

--comments taken from "History of Haiku," by Ryu Yotsuya:

http://www.big.or.jp/~loupe/links/ehisto/ehisinx.shtml


With the very limited number of haiku in English translation of many of these
poets, I would have difficulty reaching the same conclusion about what
constitutes their style.

Of course, there is the distinct possiblity that even if I could read, in
Japanese, all the haiku they wrote, I still wouldn't be able to tell you what
their style is. LOL

Larry

P.S. But these days, more than ever before, international culture values things
having a commodifiable 'brand' or 'label'; people seem to want things, to borrow
a term from acting, to be 'typecast'. If an artist, or actor, or poet can't be
adequately 'branded' or 'labeled' or 'pidgeon-holed', or 'typecast', their value
as an easily-marketable commodity is going to be less than someone who can be
readily 'sold' as a recognizable 'brand'.


--- In translatinghaiku@yahoogroups.com, maki ars <lc4224jp@...> wrote:
>
>
>
>
> Dear Larry,
>
> Thank you so much for introducing your favourite haiku poems by Takako!
>
> One might as well call her the kaleidoscopic haijin, for her haiku ranges
> pretty wide range of spectrum.
>
> By the way, Ezo referred to by the huge dandelions is present-day Hokkaido,
> where Ainu or our Aborigine live.
>
> Mariko
>
> --- On Wed, 2011/6/29, lbolenyc <lbolenyc@...> wrote:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Of Takako's haiku that I'm aware of in English translation, these are my
current favorites:
>
> shira momo ni ireshi hasaki no tane wo waru
>
> Splitting open
> The stone of a white peach
> With the edge of the blade.
>
> Tr. Blyth
>
> Inserted in a white peach,
> the edge of the knife divided the seed.
>
> Slipped into
> a white peach, the knife's edge
> splits the pip.
>
> Tr. Debi Bender, both versions
>
> suzuri arau sumi ao ao to nagare keri
>
> Washing the ink-stone,
> The Indian ink flows away
> Blue, blue.
>
> Tr. Blyth
>
> washing an inkstone
> sumi flows out
> black, blue, blue
>
> Tr. Yachimoto
>
> utsumuku toki ono ga iki no ka yukino nite
>
> looking downwards
> the smell of my own breath
> in the snowy field
>
> Tr. Ueda
>
> tokage kui neko nengoro ni mi wo nameru
>
> having eaten a lizard
> how carefully the cat
> licks its own body!
>
> Tr. Ueda
>
> tanpopo no hana ooisa yo ezo no natsu
>
> Such great big dandelion flowers
> crowding Ezo in the summer!
>
> dandelion
> flowers -- so many huge!
> Summer at Ezo.
>
> Tr. Bender, both versions
>
> Yachimoto's comment:
>
> 'hana ooisa yo' is rather a strange phrasing. If Takako wanted simply to
indicate 'many' she could have written 'hana ichimen no' or 'hana no oosa yo'.
'Ooisa' may be the equivalent of the modern usage: 'ookisa', a noun contrived
from adjective, 'ookii'. 'Ooshi' means both plentiful and large.
>
> ...Some scholars believe 'Ezo' to be an old name for the 'Ainu'.
>
> hotaru kago kurakereba yuri moetatasu
>
> Firefly cage: when they flicker,
> I shake 'em up to set 'em ablaze.
>
> Shaking the firefly cage
> I set them ablaze
> because they've gone dark.
>
> Tr. Bender, both versions
>
> keshi hiraku kami no saki made sabishiki toki
>
> Poppies spread wide-open,
> loneliness reaches each tip of my hair.
>
> Poppies open,
> loneliness stretches to the tips
> of my hair
>
> Tr. Bender, both versions
>
> ryuto ni kotoba takushite tsuki hanatsu
>
> Burning lanterns set afloat,
> I push them away with my words,
> released...
>
> Floating lanterns
> pushed adrift, my words
> set free...
>
> Tr. Bender, both versions
>
> shiso shibori shiborite haha no koishikari
>
> crushing shiso leaves
> the more red juice
> the more deeply I miss my mom
>
> Tr. Yachimoto
>
> Yachimoto's comment:
>
> The repetition of shi makes this the most musical of Takako's haiku. Shiso
juice is used to pickle plums, the essential food called umeboshi which all
Japanese mothers make. [Personal note: I once bought a plastic container with
about six umeboshi, thinking this is going to be a treat! Putting the first one
into my mouth, it was so salty I had to spit it out! So much for my umeboshi
experiment!]
>
> happoue yukitashi aota no naka ni tatsu
>
> this desire to go...all directions
> ..........standing...in green paddies
>
> Tr. Yachimoto
>
> I find a lot of Takako's haiku interesting, but these currently speak the most
to me. What does this say about me? LOL
>
> Larry
>