Introduction to Haiku in English

After Matsuo Basho, haiku continued to develop, with the emergence of such famous poets as Tsewumura (1760 1783) and Kobayashi Ichika (1767 1827). Their themes were broader, their forms freer, and their contents more full of the flavor of life. For example, Kobayashi Ichika's famous line:

It was Masaoka Zigui (1867~1902) who established the name "haiku". Beginning in 1892, Masaoka published the newspaper Yorisaiya Haiku (Haiku of the Yorisaiya), in which he advocated the reform of haiku. Masaoka argued that haiku-renge lacked literary value, and that haiku-renge's verses should become poems on their own, and be named haiku.

In the following innovative haiku, although the poet retains the three-line structure of the traditional haiku, only the third line contains a complete word. This kind of formal innovation is absolutely unimaginable in traditional Japanese haiku:

The change in form adds freshness to the haiku, but the spirit of haiku is the same from the past to the present, from Japanese to English. Traditional Japanese haiku are mostly about occasional feelings of reality, focusing on details in which the truth and beauty of life are expressed. English haiku pursues the same expressive effect, except that, in the development of English haiku, the range of haiku subjects has become broader and broader, so that some poems express anti-war ideas, some poems deal with sports activities, and some poems even depict sexuality. For example, the following poem:

This poem expresses a condemnation of war through thoughts of dead relatives.

-- That's all for today. If interested you can go back and look for my translations of English haiku, or stay tuned to mine, and in future chapters I will continue to feature what I think are some excellent English haiku.