HAIKU ~ GENERAL INTRODUCTION ~Narayanan Raghunathan

Generally we could surmise that All Poetry Was Religious Originally In The Primordial Sense ~ Invocations Incantations Divine Chants ~ The Vedas ~ The Psalms ~ The Folk Songs ~ A general self-evident animism [ meta-polytheism] was also the essential mythological perception of things in various traditions including the Taantrik and Puraanic Hinduism Buddhism Jainism and various other tribal traditions.

Later love songs and songs in praise of nobles and nobility and monarchy also must have taken form .

Bodhi Dharma [ Darumasan] brings The Zen version of Buddhism into Japan

Tanka[originally waka] as a genre of poetry appeared in Japan much before the written records in Japan [760 A.D}. The Themes were Religious and later on the ruling Royal Elite. Tanka were conceived in 5-7-5-7-7 onji counts ~ ["onji" is a more natural phonetic unit in Japanese than syllables in English and smaller in unit length and of uniform length. An English word in one syllable could be two onjis or three sometimes , English Syllable and Japanese onji are not the same.]. Tanka was generally written by two people one writing the first 5-7-5 and the other adding 7-7 lines. Later the Renga [linked Tanka ] came into vogue and Chains of 1000 and even 10000 were composed by enthusiastic poets adding Tanka after Tanka ~ Hokku [5-7-5] was the starting verse of the Renga and Haikai is any of the verses in the chain. A good Hokku became a great challenge . Closing the tale spanning many centuries Masaoka. Shiki the Great Haiku Master put an end to Renga and gave the unifying name" to Hokku and Haikai together and thus Haiku!

[See "Another Attempt to define Haiku" by Jane Reichhold (Shiki International Haiku Salon) for more details]

http://www.ahapoetry.com/haidefjr.htm

Easy Notes ~ Haiku ~

Haiku is a genre of short poetry.

 

Haiku originated in Japan more than four hundred years ago.

 

Haiku originated from Tanka another short poetry written .in five lines with 5-5-7-5-7 onji [ basic phonetic unit, roughly the English syllable]

 

Generally, Haiku is written in Japanese with 5-7-5 onji

 

Haiku is practised n Japan like a daily ritual by many people

 

Japanese and Haiku are closely related. It is as if the genre developed naturally from the intrinsic rhythm of language itself.

 

Japanese Haiku generally have a natural break [ pause ] called "kireji".

 

Haiku is a poetic genre deeply related to the changing seasons.

Japanese Haiku generally also has a season word called "kigo".

 

Extensive season dictionaries with examples of Haiku have been compiled in Japanese. These are called "saijiki".

 

Most Haiku poets were directly or indirectly influenced by Zen


Basho, Buson, Issa, Shiki, are generally considered the All the Time Greats of Haiku ~



Haiku was slowly adapted into English after world war 2.

 

Haiku is generally written in seventeen or less syllables in English.


Haiku is a poetry where one shows by indicating.


It is imagist and sentient together with subtle poetry .

 

Senryu are Haiku like short poetry with deeper direct human element brought to prominence


Just Go ahead start attempting to write Haiku like you will attempt a song.



Now Haiku or this style of short poetry is being written in over 100 languages.

 

Friend, member please write Haiku and post them in this forum.


 


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