Classic Haiku ~ A Master’s Selection
Selected and translated by
Yuzuru Miura ~
Tuttle Publishing
A selection of 100 haiku from the set of all Japanese Haiku surely involves a certain fathomless arbitrariness. Japanese Haiku with about four hundred years of history and millions of Haiku written and published is a vast terrain almost seamless.
Anthologizing is a necessary and seasonal literary/social ritual. But when the selection is very small from a large store house, there is always bound to be a strong subjective choice factor involved. Let me attempt to clarify this aesthetic situation with a tentative thought experiment, albeit a statistical one. Let us imagine we have made a multi-participatory judicious preliminary selection of about hundred or two hundred thousand Haiku from Japanese. Now let us choose hundred knowledgeable selectors [ from Japan or from around the world ] and ask them to make a choice of his/her favourite hundred Haiku. from our preliminary collection. I roughly estimate that 9500 different haiku would be selected. by the panel of hundred. It could even be a higher number! This is an amusing cosmic situation where the choice function runs riotously free in random abandon in dancing freedom.
I personally feel that a thousand Japanese Haiku selected would do much greater justice to the genre and the Haijin(s) concerned. But to make it even less arbitrary it must be a selection of 5000/10000 Haiku. These musings are not compatible with commercial feasibility and certainly smaller anthology will/must be published, But an anthology making its domain more focused to a special period of history/ author(s) will be better than a tiny selection from the whole of Japanese tradition of Haiku.
Here we have an anthology of Japanese Haiku titled “Classic Haiku~ A Master’s Selection ” selected and translated by the distinguished scholar/Haijin Yuzuru Miura.
It is a beautifully produced book with just a Haiku per page. The original Japanese and romaji versions are also included. This makes the book a special experience and a unique literary deconstructive meta-adventure for those who know Japanese and English. To somebody with scant knowledge of Japanese too, the romaji version reveals the intrinsic rhythm and feel of the original. Some pages, also have the calligraphed Haiku [ by Yoko Enshu ] and others have remarkable illustrations [ by Saito Goro ] on them. This makes the whole sentient experience of Haiku reading specially rewarding.
“The Japanese original appears in three lines without punctuations; the romaji is rendered in three lines, often of five, seven and five syllables; the English translation also uses three lines. Of course, literal translation of Japanese into English is difficult – too often unnatural and distorted – and lines in English translation cannot always correspond to lines written in romaji. Above all, my chief intent in presenting these translations has been to convey the poetic essence of the originals.
Haiku are inseparable from the changing seasons and the one hundred poems of the book fall into Haiku’s five traditional categories; spring, summer, autumn, winter, and New year’s. “ [ preface ~ page 8 ]
Yuzuru Miura seems to be coolly nonchalant to the many canons of Haiku construction rules that have got generally accepted by the English/American Haiku circles as technically correct. He must surely be justified and praised for the relative freedom he adopts in his translations, especially since he is Japanese. I may also observe that, almost none of the modern haiku magazines publishing Haiku in English, will consider many of these translations as suitable for their publication if they were originally written in English.
Here, many of his translations are poetic and not metaphor free and also have a resonant poetic rhyme and/or rhythm too.
Oni to nari Hotoke to natu ya Doyo-gumo
Gargantuan clouds during dog days Take the shape of a demon, Then change into the Buddha
[ KOBAYASHI ISSA ] Page 46
Kogane sabi Wakaba ni shinobu Mukashi kana
The tarnished gold And the fresh greenery Bring back memories of bygone days
[ MIURA CHORA ] Page 50
Tamashii no Shizuka ni utsuru Kikumi kana
As I view chrysanthemums My soul and heart Are gently enticed by the floral spirit
[ IIDA DAKOTSU ] Page 76
There are at least five Haiku in a collection of a mere hundred that use the direct simile !
Asagao no Hanada no awaki Inochi oshi
I love the rest of my life Though it is transitory Like a light azure morning glory
[ TOMIYASU FUSEI] Page 62
Kongo no Tsuyu hito-tsubu ya Ishi no ue
A drop of dew Sits on a rock Like a diamond
[ KAWABATA BOSHA ] Page 80
Chushu no Kumo no gotoku ni Soba no hana
Buckwheat flowers Spread out Like clouds in midautumn
[ YAMAGUCHI SEISEN ] Page 83
Aka-tombo Sara-sara nagaru Akane-zora
Red dragon flies Flowing like a ripple Toward the crimson sky
[ MIURA YUZURU ] Page 87
Fuyu umi ya Rakka no gotoku Kamome uku
On the winter sea Sea gulls float Like fallen leaves
[ NAKAMURA KUSATAO ] Page 103
Gerunds are used freely in these translations
Nete okite O akubi shite Neko no koi
Sleeping, waking, And then giving a great yawn The cat goes out for lovemaking
[ KOBAYASHI ISSA ] Page 29
Ichi-rin no Shimo no bara yori Toshi akuru
A new year begins With the blooming Of a single frosty rose
[ MIZUHARA SHUOSHI ] Page 118
There are some Haiku that use the first person reference: For eg.
Yudachi ya Hadaka do norishi Hadaka uma
A sudden shower I am riding naked On a naked horse
[ KOBAYASHI ISSA ] Page 44
Myodai ni Waka-mizu abiru Karasu kana
As my deputy A crow Is bathing in New Year’s water
[ KOBAYASHI ISSA ] Page 114
Philosophical/Metaphysical ideas are also present in some Haiku .
Utsutsu naki Tsumami-gokoro no Kocho kana
Butterfly in my hand – As if it were a spirit Unearthly, insubstantial
[ YOSA BUSON ] Page 15
Asagao no Hanada no awaki Inochi oshi
I love the rest of my life Though it is transitory Like a light azure morning glory
[ TOMIYASU FUSEI] Page 62
Meigetsu ya Umare-kawaraba Mine no matsu
Against the bright full moon A hill top pine tree Is the image of my rebirth
[ OSHIMA RYOTA ] Page 75
Fuyu-tomoshi Shi wa yogan Tokarazu
Under the winter night Death is not hesitating To destroy the peaceful countenance
[ IIDA DAKOTSU ] Page 98
Oku- Shirane Kano yo no yuki o Kagayakasu
The Oku- Shirane Range Brightness with the snow Of the world Beyond
[ MAEDA FURA ] Page 100
Note ~ Oku- Shirane is the general name for a group of three mountains in western Yamanashi prefecture
Ame-tsuchi no Iki aite hageshi Yuki furasu
Heaven and earth Convulsing in the same breath Let fall a tremendous snow
[ NOZAWA SETSUKO] Page 107
There are many Haiku that use more than seventeen syllables in English translation as one can verify even from the selection presented here. One of the translated haiku actually uses 24 English syllables if I counted right!
There are thirty-two Haijin(s) represented here. Most just get a single Haiku entered. Kobayashi Issa gets the most numerical representative selection. Masoaka Shiki gets poorly represented and there are more Yuzuru Miura’s Haiku in the book than Shiki’s.
Some very famous Haiku like these are present in the selection.
Shizukasa ya Iwa ni shimi-iru Semi no koe
Penetrates the rock Calm and serene The sound of a cicada
[MATSUO BASHO ] Page 40
Yudachi ya Hadaka do norishi Hadaka uma
A sudden shower I am riding naked On a naked horse
[ KOBAYASHI ISSA ] Page 44
So are some almost self-consciously missing/missed out. It is for the readers to determine which of their favourite Haiku are excluded in this selection!
Speaking generally, just two “dragonfly haiku” just one “butterfly haiku” and no “ant Haiku” looks somewhat inadequate a representation of Japanese Haiku . The distinguished female Haijin Chiyo-ni(1701-1775) is not represented . Three women Haijin(s) are present in the anthology represented by one Haiku each: Nakamura Teijo, Nozawa Setsuko, and Kato Koko . But this is understandable and inevitable since the translator/publisher insists on the magic number of 100 Haiku and eliminating many possible candidates for inclusion .
Now we will present some of Issa’s Haiku Translated in the book preceded by David Lanoue’s translation of the same Haiku.
[Selected from http://haikuguy.com/issa/ ]
~ This will perhaps show a glimpse into the unique style of trans-creation (translation) done by Yuzuru Miura for these selected Haiku.
1816
痩蛙まけるな一茶是に有り yasegaeru makeru na issa kore ni ari
scrawny frog, fight on! Issa to the rescue
In his diary, Issa explains, "I stooped to watch a frog scuffle on the 20th day of Fourth Month." Evidently, he did not remain an impartial observer, but plunged into the fray to help out a "scrawny frog." Literally, the last phrase reads: "Issa is here!" Since he likes to describe himself as impoverished and hungry, Issa feels a special kinship with the scrawny frog.
Shinji Ogawa notes, "Issa made many haiku on frogs. This is the most famous."
Lean frog Don’t be defeated Issa is here cheering you.
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1818
山焼の明りに下る夜舟哉 yama yaki no akari ni kudaru yobune kana
lit by mountain fires floating downriver... night boat
Shinji Ogawa notes that kudaru means "to go down the river."
A night boat Sails away Illuminated by a wildfire
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1817
春雨や薮に吹るる捨手紙 harusame ya yabu ni fukaruru sute tegami
spring rain-- in the thicket a discarded letter blows
Shinji Ogawa suggests that I change the third line of my translation to "a discarded letter is blown." He explains, "The discarded letter, especially in the thicket, might be blown like a flag [but] not blown like fallen leaves. In Issa's time, a Japanese letter was written on a single long sheet of paper." Changing line three to "is blown," however, is ambiguous: the letter might be riffled by the wind (Issa's meaning, according to Shinji) or tumbling from place to place (which, Shinji believes, is not happening). Though Issa uses passive voice in his original text, I try to avoid this when I can, since English haiku tradition generally favors the succinctness and immediacy of simple, active verbs. Moreover, English speakers are more likely to picture a small sheet of stationery, not a long banner-like letter of Old Japan--a misperception more easily corrected in a footnote such as this one than in the translation itself. Therefore, for the time being at least, Issa's letter will keep on blowing.
Spring rain A thrown away letter Windblown in the grove
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year unknown
見かぎりし古郷の桜咲にけり mikagirishi furusato no sakura saki ni keri
the native village I abandoned... cherry trees in bloom
This haiku has the prescript, "Third Month, 20th day, entering Kashiwabara." Kashiwabara was Issa's native village. In his translation, Yuzuru Miura renders the first line, "In my deserted home village," implying that the town is devoid of people; Classic Haiku: A Master's Selection (Boston/Tokyo: Tuttle, 1991) 25. Here is an instance where knowledge of Issa's biography helps to uncover his meaning. From his early teens up to his fifties Issa is the one who "deserted" Kashiwabara; it never became, even to this day, a ghost town.
In my deserted home village The old cherry tree Now in bloom
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1817
寝て起て大欠して猫の恋 nete okite ôakubi shite neko no koi
he sleeps, he wakes has a big yawn... the cat goes courting
Sleeping, waking, And then giving a great yawn The cat goes out for lovemaking
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1825
夕立や裸で乗しはだか馬 yûdachi ya hadaka de norishi hadaka uma
cloudburst-- a naked rider on a naked horse
A sudden shower I am riding naked On a naked horse
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1814
鬼と成り仏となるや土用雲 oni to nari hotoke to naru ya doyôgumo
becoming demons becoming Buddhas... the midsummer clouds
Gargantuan clouds during dog days Take the shape of a demon, Then change into the Buddha
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1821
やれ打な蝿が手をすり足をする yare utsuna hae ga te wo suri ashi wo suru
don't swat the fly! wringing hands wringing feet
In this famous haiku Issa sees the natural "hand-rubbing" behavior of the fly as hands praying, pleading to be spared. Adding a comic twist, he notes that the fly is praying even with its feet!
The fly Wringing its hands and rubbing its feet- Don’t swat it!
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1814
大仏の鼻から出たりけさの霧 daibutsu no hana kara detari kesa no kiri
from the great bronze Buddha's nostrils... morning mist
About this haiku, Kai Falkman writes, "It seems improbable that the fog should come out from the nostrils--the fog probably surrounds the whole Buddha"; see Understanding Haiku: A Pyramid of Meaning (Winchester, VA: Red Moon Press, 2002) 49. There are two huge bronze statues of the Buddha in Japan: at Kamakura and at Nara. The one at Nara, in Tôdaiji Temple, is 53 1/2 feet high and made of 400+ tons of bronze. The Kamakura Great Buddha is 37 feet high, 90+ tons. Many critics assume that Issa is referring to the Nara daibutsu, but perhaps he means the Kamakura statue, which sits outside, exposed to the elements (the temple that originally housed it having burned down).
From within the nostrils Of the colossal Buddha Comes out this morning’s fog
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1813
茶の花に隠んぼする雀哉 cha no hana ni kakurenbo suru suzume kana
playing hide-and-seek in tea blossoms... sparrows
Sparrows Playing hide-and-seek Among the tea blossoms
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1819
名代のわか水浴びる烏哉 myôdai ni wakamizu abiru karasu kana
bathing in the New Year's water... my proxy the crow
As my deputy A crow Is bathing in New Year’s water
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This book is surely a good introduction to Haiku as a genre to somebody unaware of the genre. But it is perhaps more a useful anthology to the more seasoned reader who has read thousands of Haiku. We may hope that the distinguished translator Yuzuru Miura will create more anthologies with more specific Haijin(s) or Haiku of a more specific period in the evolving history of the genre- the tiny genre that is now slowly becoming more universal and well established beyond the Japanese boundaries and language.
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