Types of Poems - Japanese Fixed Poem Forms

There are a number of fixed poem forms that orginated in Japan. Most of us are only familiar with a few (1) Haiku, (2) Tanka (aka Waka), (3) Senryu, and (4) the Renga. These days the most popular fixed poem form taught in American public schools is the Japanese Haiku poem (or rather the English language interpretation of what a Haiku is and is not). By doing so, we may be short changing generations of future poets by their growing up not understanding the very Japanese fixed poem form they were taught to admire and emulate.

There are major differences when a Haiku is written in English, starting with the differences in language formats and assumptions and ending with the cultural differences in terms of what is a Haiku. First of all, a single (what we call Haiku) is really called a “Haikai,” because Haiku is the plural of the word. Additionally, in Japan Haiku (both Traditional and Gendai) are penned in a solitary vertical line. Whereas, English versions are generally three lines in our misguided effort to match the three separate phrases in this Japanese fixed poem form.

Beyond those facts come the subtle and unique linguistic differences that can be attributed to one culture’s imitation of another culture’s poetic form. Somewhere along the evolution of what we English speaking peoples think of the Japanese Haiku certain details got a little mixed up. We kind of neglected to account for the fact that the traditional seventeen “On” (aka “morae”) only loosely compares to counting syllables in English.

The major difference is that the “On” counts as one short sound syllable unit, but not the same as a syllable as we commonly think about. By doing so, we are neglecting to take into account that any elongated vowel in an “On” counts as an extra syllable or more correctly “phase,” as does any diphthong, and so does any word ending in the letter “n” count as an extra syllable as we know it. So it is very easy for the English speaking to think that a Haiku is traditionally seventeen syllables in three phrases (5 syllables, 7 syllables, 5 syllables) -- when actually in Japanese it really is all about seventeen separate sounds within the words, which if translated correctly is actually closer to twelve of our English syllables.

There are some who will say that a Haiku is like a snapshot of life – a word picture of just a slice of a moment. It gets a little more complicated than that because the true meaning of any successful haiku is in the “kiru.” A kiru is the placement of a near image or idea within the Haiku. Normally, this is done by use of a “cutting word” which some would say is a form of punctuation by way of a word instead of a comma, period, or other punctuation symbol. Consider this a separation of thoughts or images by word.

There are seven basic fixed poem rules for writing a traditional Japanese Haiku:

• Express a single word picture of a moment in time of discovery or enlightenment
• Use of a seasonal suggestion word or phrase
• Don't assign human attributes upon nature
• Not pass human judgments, observations, or interpretations of the single word picture
• Think in terms of seventeen syllables (not the 5-7-5 model commonly taught)
• Keep it pure by allowing the reader to see whatever they want within the Haiku
• Remember that the Japanese language has no articles (a, an, the), seldom uses pronouns, and doesn't tell whether or not a word is single or plural. Like a telegram, be stingy with your words, but make every word count.

Here are some hints to make these rules a little easier:

Use of a seasonal suggestion – In traditional Japanese Haiku there are over five hundred different translated seasonal words. Use of seasonal word is known as a "kigo." Why is this important? Remember in a Haiku you are expressing a moment in time. In fact there is a list of them in a saijiki (extensive list of standard seasonal words). For example, if you were writing a Haiku for summer, words that you would use would include references to not only to the season, but other categories within the season such as:

• Season (broken down into early, mid, and late)
• Heavens
• Earth
• Humanity
• Observances (Holidays)
• Animals
• Plants

So just simply choosing to write a Haiku that takes place in summer, lends itself to subtle complexity that doesn't always meet the English speaking mind quite the way it would in Japan. To lightly illustrate here are just a few summer poem words and their seasonal connotations:

• summer like (early summer)
• barley autumn (when the barley is ready to harvest, late summer)
• smoldering (late summer)
• autumn near (late summer)
• night autumnal (late summer)

Use of Modern Online Syllable Counter - While it is perfectly OK to count your syllables manually be aware that there are free Syllable counting sites online.

Flying glimpse corner eye

smoldering plum bougainvillea

evening lull goodbye.

Jerilee Wei © 2011

Modern Japanese gendai (現代) haiku depart from Traditional Haiku in terms of not being rigid to the customary seventeen syllables or “On.” Another way that this fixed poem form is different is that instead of being focused on nature, they are customarily about every day circumstances and items.