EXPLANATORY NOTE BY AUTOR: The "Haiku" was invented and developed over hundreds of years in Japan to be a complete poem in seventeen syllables and to pack in a whole vision of life in three short lines. A "Western Haiku" need not concern itself with the seventeen syllables since Western languages cannot adapt themselves to the fluid syllabillic Japanese. I propose that the "Westrern Haiku" simply say a lot in three short lines in any Westren language.
Above all, a Haiku must be very simple and free of all poetic trickery and make a little picture and yet be as airy and graceful as a Vivaldi Pastorella. Here is a great Japanese Haiku that is simpler and prettier than any Haiku I could ever write in any language:
A day of quiet gladness,
Mount Fuji is velied
In misty rain.
(Basho) (1644-1694)
Here is another:
She has put the child to sleep,
And now washes the clothes;
The summer moon.
(Issa) (1763-1827)
And another, by Buson (1715-1783):
The nightingale is singing.
Its small mouth
Open.
Scattered Poems, Jack Kerouac
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[Recojo la introducción de "Some Western Haikus" del libro-antología Scattered Poems, que hace unas semanas me hizo llegar mi buen amado Manolo Arana. No me atrevo a traducirla, porque ya en inglés me parece una explicación genial del fenómeno haiku. Tal vez en próximos días ponga algún haiku del propio Jack Kerouac. Por otro lado, creo que la poesía -en particular-tiende a cubrir toda creación con un halo de misticismo, que de vez en cuando no estaría de más en destapar y mostrar a naturaleza de los textos, como en este caso hace Kerouac al explicar y acercar al lector su propia concepción del término haiku.]
