The poetry of every nation is unique. But Japanese has always stood apart in world literature. It was in this country that a unique style of writing poems was created. Such short haiku verses were called, this name has remained for centuries.
In the article and talk about this type of poetic creativity.
Brief Moments of Joy and Love
Japanese poetry itself is permeated with ideas of the joy of being, admiring beauty, nature, thoughts about the meaning of human life.
This type of poetic creativity has gained fame in the Land of the Rising Sun since the XIV century. However, these verses gained popularity only two centuries later. Their greatest distribution is due to the fact that Japan opened itself to foreigners, having told about its unusual poetry. It happened only in the XIX century.
Then the Japanese poet and literary critic Masaoka Shiki proposed the term "haiku" in order to highlight this type of poetry. The term has taken root and has become widespread.
If today we ask ourselves whether haiku is poetry or not, any literary critic will give us a positive answer to this question. Yes, this is poetry, but original, executed in a unique oriental spirit, permeated by the Japanese mentality and a special worldview.
Nevertheless, today this poetic genre has become the hallmark of a mysterious and beautiful country where sakura blossoms.
Verse structure
Japanese haiku traditionally should consist of 17 syllables (which makes up one column of hieroglyphs). Actually, they are beautiful both externally and internally, representing a model of harmony of the universe.
The fifth syllable in each poem should be the strongest in meaning.
As soon as they began to be translated into Western languages, stasis translators faced a number of difficulties. The main one was that it was very difficult to translate the poem, keeping it in exactly 17 syllables, so the translators had to move away from this feature. Also, verses in Japan are recorded in one column, and when translated into Western European languages, haiku were recorded as trisheets and even as quatrains.
By the way, rhyme is not used in this verse either. Sometimes translators of these poems resort to rhyme, although this is wrong from the point of view of classical Japanese art.
Central haiku image
If we note that haiku about nature is an example of a classic Japanese poem, then we are right. Indeed, the central image of any poem is nature, which correlates with a person’s life, his emotional impulses and mood.
Moreover, the poet should always indicate the time of year: what is before him - summer or winter. For this, the so-called "seasonal word" is used, which allows the reader to easily understand: is it a haiku about spring or autumn.
Haiku was even recorded in a special way, they were always printed on separate sheets of paper so that the reader could ponder their essence without turning the sheet of paper over.
The most famous haiku creator
In Japan, many poets who have worked in this genre are still revered. This is Arakida Moritake, and Yamazaki Sokan. But perhaps the most famous poet of this genre was Matsuo Basho.
Here are some examples of the wizard:
Autumn evening.
Bare tree branches.
A lone raven sits on them.
***
I see an old pond.
A frog is jumping.
Water splashed.
This poet, who lived in the 17th century, created particularly lyrical poems filled with tenderness, love, quiet sadness and the belief that the moments of human existence can be captured on paper.
This author has many works. They are dedicated to different seasons, different states of the human soul. But in them in concentrated form the essence of Japanese culture is transmitted, quiet, but strong and original.
Why haiku have become so popular
The popularity of this type of poetry was also associated with the fact that other poetic genres in Japan at that time were strictly regulated. Not everyone could afford to write poems on military or political topics. A haiku was considered a lower genre, which important people paid little attention to, so poets could express their feelings and feelings in it in the lyrical key of that time.
Thus, haiku is a world of human experiences concentrated in one column or three lines.
The beauty of such poetry is its laconicism and vivid perception of the world, the ability to convey in a few words the whole palette of human feelings. Where Shakespeare would write a whole dramatic work, and Leo Tolstoy would create a multi-volume novel, a haiku poet can say only one sentence, but it will be immortal, like Byron’s poem or Homer's poem.
Haiku is our life today!
The art of the described Japanese versification is currently very popular. Today you can read a haiku on any topic, it can even be a haiku about school. Humorous haiku and even caricature haiku were also spread.
The Japanese themselves are proud that their poetic genre has received such fame. Therefore, students in the Land of the Rising Sun even receive special homework to write such poems. Any topics can be selected: football, basketball, volleyball. Haiku is a form of art that can embrace all spheres of life.
However, classical haiku, dedicated to the natural world and the world of human feelings, are still popular. They delight and inspire our contemporaries in any country in the world.