Sabine Sommerkamp (1992)
The German-language haiku seal. From the beginning to the present
September 1920 Rainer Maria Rilke wrote from Geneva: “Do you know the little Japanese (three-line) stanza, the Shark quays is called? the (sic) Nouvelle Revue Francaise brings transcriptions of this indescribably mature and pure design in its smallness… ”The addressee of the letter in which Rilke announces his“ discovery ”of haikus is Gudi Nölke. A few days later, from September 17th to 20th, he is her guest at Chalet Wartenstein, discussing haiku with her and her Japanese companion Asoka Matsumoto, which for him is becoming "a new and valuable part of consciousness".Little moths shudder across the book, shivering; they are dying tonight and will never know that it was not spring.This one of a total of three handed down Haiku Rilkes is one of the early isolated individual examples that break the Japanese three-liner compositionally in German-speaking countries. The German-language haiku seal only really began in the 60s. But let's take a look back and ask about the very first examples of German haiku and the influencing factors that determine them.
I. Early individual examples of German-language haiku
German haiku have been around for about 90 years. At first sporadically, then none for a long time, then more, since the Second World War in a steady increase. An exact description of this early German-language “haiku era” can only be approximate for the following reasons: Firstly, a large part of the sources has not yet been viewed, for example a lot that appeared in private print or occasionally in magazines; on the other hand, it has not yet been possible to precisely delimit the influences of Japanese short forms, which ran through English and French, from their own lines of tradition. Impressionism, which began in France and manifested itself in all areas of art, the general enthusiasm for Japan around 1900 and, last but not least, the political situation after Japan's victory in the Russo-Japanese War in 1904/05, awakened a feeling of spiritual affinity and identity in Germany which encouraged literary imitation, among other things. However, this correspondence in artistic and aesthetic terms makes it difficult to assess possible suggestions from Tanka and Haiku in the short lyrical forms that Impressionism increasingly cultivated. Knowledge of Japanese poetry and direct influences can be demonstrated in individual poets since around 1890. The first “independent” German haiku are contained in the poetry collection “Polymeter” by Paul Ernst (1898-1866), published in 1933:A water rose that emerges from the deep.The poets around 1900, whose work contains haiku or impressionist, self-contained three-liner, include Peter Altenberg (1859-1919), Alfred Mombert (1872-1942) and Arno Holz (1863-1929), who temporarily with Paul Ernst worked on the renewal of the lyrical forms:The water ripples.
The embers go out in the sky, softly raise the eternal stars.The French “Shark Kai” fashion, which was influenced by Impressionism, appeared in the early 20s, in addition to Rilke, in the works of Franz Blei (1871 - 1942) and Ivan Goll (1891 - 1950), which were partly playful and partly sentimental Three lines:
Did you cry so much After twenty years of parting, it's still raining.Klabund, who recorded French haiku from around 1920 in his famous literary history, calls these poems "imitations of the lyrical style of the Japanese". Formally and in terms of content, the three-liners that emerged during this period can generally be seen in the in-depth knowledge of their authors' haiku. Only Rilke comes close to the Zen content of the Japanese model, as the following haiku, created a few weeks before his death, shows:
Entre ses vingt fards elle cherche un pot plein: devenue pierre.Haiku gained a higher degree of popularity in Germany through two publications by Franz Blei and Ivan Goll. In his book “Haikai”, published in 1925, Blei defines haiku as “a picture in the smallest of spaces with a pointed accent in the third or even the second line” and explains his theoretical statements using examples he wrote himself. Goll describes the haiku in his essay "Twelve Hai-Kai's of Love", published in 1926, as a "lyrical epigram that should convey the most intense image and wide feeling possible in as few words as possible". It is probable that the cited early haiku attempts as well as the two essays by Blei and Goll contributed to the spread of the Japanese three-liner and "contributed to its penetration into the Bundische Jugend between the world wars". But "by the National Socialist ideological literature the beginnings of dealing with the little poems were suffocated."
II. Invigorating impulses for German post-war poetry
The period of the Second World War was not very productive for German-speaking haiku. It was only after 1945 that the Japanese three-liner became literarily attractive again and subsequently initiated the start of an autonomous German-language haiku poem. Their emergence was favored on a broad basis by the haiku adaptation of leading post-war poets, such as Günter Eich:Caution The chestnuts are blooming. I take note of it, but do not comment on it.The haiku influence in Eich's poetry, which also translated Japanese haiku into German, is reflected in the works of other authors who shaped German post-war poetry, such as Paul Celan, Helmut Heißenbüttel, Eugen Gomringer and Bertolt Brecht:
The farmer plows the field. Who will bring in the harvest?The question of whether this is a direct or indirect haiku adaptation brought about by other literary influences cannot be answered unequivocally due to the parallel developments and interactions in increasingly international literature. The fact is, however, that such haiku moments in the work of influential authors of German poetry on a broad basis provide powerful impulses with regard to concentrated brevity, objectivity, immediacy, symbolic content and imagery. The reasons for the growing interest in haiku after the Second World War can be seen in three main aspects. Firstly, there was a lot of “catching up” in German poetry, secondly, the “literary insecurity” of the war poets and the lack of history that could be felt everywhere turned the gaze towards the Far East, and thirdly, the flood of translations of foreign literature favored the stylistic adaptation of the Japanese three-line.
III. German-language haiku translations: an overview
None of the earliest German translations of Japanese poetry (1894) directly influenced the few haiku that appeared for the first time, because these translations placed the emphasis on old Japanese poetry and tanka. For the German-speaking area, the haiku was only properly developed after 1900. As in the case of Rilke, the source for the early German-language haiku were French translations or translations from English. In addition to Karl Florenz's popular poet's greetings from the East (30), which lasted until the 1894s, in which the haiku is translated as a rhyming quatrain, early translations include Hans Bethge's “Japanese Spring” (1911) and those from that time well-known transmissions by Paul Enderling, Julius Kurth and Otto Hauser. Furthermore, Michel Revon's much-read “Anthologie de la littdrature jaonaise des origines au XXe siècle” (1910), which, expanded by the writer Paul Adler and translated from French, was published in German in 1926, Wilhelm Gundert's literary history “Japanese Literature”, which is still valid today (1929), the great English haiku anthology by Miyamori Asatarô “An Anthology of Haiku Ancient and Modern” (1932) and the popular translations of Paul Lüth's “Spring, Swords, Women” (1942). The “Haiku interpreters”, which are widely read after the Second World War, include Werner Helwig, “Wortblätter im Winde” (1954), Manfred Hausmann, “Liebe, Tod und Vollmondnächte” (1951), Gerolf Coudenhove, “Vollmond und Zikadenkänge” ”(1955),“ Japanese Seasons ”(1963), Günther Debon,“ In the Snow the Ferry ”(1955), Erwin Jahn,“ Falling Blossoms ”(1968), Dietrich Krusche,“ Haiku ”(1970) and Jan Ulenbrook, “Haiku: Japanese Three Letters” (1979). The translations of the Viennese sinologist and Japanese scientist Anna von Rottauscher, published for the first time in 1939 and reprinted every few years, deserve special mention: “You yellow chrysanthemums. Japanese Wisdom: Haiku Poetry ”. Because this volume, with its Japanese three-line lines translated into irregular verses, simple language and a wealth of associations, "documents one of the roots of the German haiku in its reception history".IV. A foundation for German-language haiku poetry
In the course of a rediscovery of the Japanese three-liner, in the first decade after the Second World War, numerous adaptations and independent attempts at haiku were created simultaneously and independently at different locations by different authors. For example in Vienna, where René Altmann (1929-1978), Hans Carl Artmann (born 1921), Andreas Okopenko (born 1930) and Hans Weissenborn (born 1932) devoted themselves to haiku in the Freundeskreis since 1946. In 1953, the first haiku collection by the Lower Austrian author Karl Kleinschmidt appeared with “Der schmale Weg” - a date that demonstrably marks the beginning of German-language haiku poetry for the first time. Kleinschmidt, who only calls his 200 three-line poems "Haiku" in the subtitle and only in the parenthesis, documents a "groping", in part not very independent poetic approach. It does not meet the verse specification of the classic seventeen-syllable pattern (5/7/5) but adheres to its "haiku source", the translations of Anna von Rottauscher, both formally and in terms of content:The way I dip my hands in the water in the morning - it sounds so strange. Spring ...?
Winter snow suddenly turned into rain 0 spring, are you there?A German-language haiku poem, which is equivalent to the Japanese model in terms of form and content, is nevertheless autonomous, and appears in 1962 under the title “Haiku”. The author is the Austrian writer Imma von Bodmershof (1895-1982). Although Anna von Rottauscher's translations were a “bridge” to haiku for her, too, she dresses almost half of the 128 poems arranged according to the seasons in the classical style Haiku form. In the course of her in-depth haiku studies, she later revised the longer three-lines of this collection: “... when I published the first haiku at that time, I still thought that it was allowed to use 19 or even 21 syllables (always only odd numbers, the even numbers close, the odd ones leave the reader free) and used 60 of 128 Haiku this possibility. In the meantime I have completely withdrawn from it. There is a power in the number 17 that cannot be replaced by anything else. By revealing a few nuances, I have shortened the longer haiku of this volume. " But not only the form, but also the content is central for the author, who is a friend of Rilke, and as for him the image, the symbol, the zen content inherent in the Japanese three-liner is the actual haiku component: ”… one can Hailu ( sic) not at all do"They can only meet you, only one image at a time can be transparent for the symbol, and that is all that matters in my eyes."
The candle goes out. How loud the cricket calls in the dark garden.A burning candle in the darkness, closely linked to the appearance of Jesus in Christianity, depicts spiritual knowledge as a self-nourishing and thus self-consuming light. It is a doomed fire that has eternal value. In the present poem it is already in the process of decay, its extinction indicates the reference to the time of day and the season: its state corresponds to the position of the sun on autumn evening. With the onset of darkness, voices that were previously barely audible, “in the dark garden”, are awakened inside the person: the external environment, nature, is a mirror of the spiritual space. As the force of seasonal growth is reflected in the sun-ripened fruits during the harvest season of autumn, the spiritual maturity of man is revealed in times of decline. Only in the autumn darkness does the “light fruit” unfold its full radiance, the internalization of the sun becomes audible like the loud calling of the cricket in the nocturnal garden. This image places the poem in the series of traditional Japanese haiku. If one compares it, for example, with Issa's related three-liner, in which the nocturnal weeping of the cicadas is put into perspective with the indication that the stars must also part, one recognizes the same interplay of light and shadow. It is even more clearly expressed in Bashô's well-known cicada haiku, in which the chirping of the crickets under the midday sun seems to penetrate the rocks, into the darkness. The extinction of the candle and the call of the cricket exemplify the seasonal rhythm of systole and diastole in their relationship to one another, in which the human being, included, perceives the light of the sun as a spiritual force "in the dark garden". Haiku, the two “Haiku Collections” and “In the Foreign Garden” by the much-read author, published in 1970 and 1980, and the poetological “Study of Haiku” by her husband Wilhelm von Bodmershof, as well as the poetry of Hajo Jappe, who is a friend of both authors (1903 - 1988), who published his first haiku volume in 1958, lend a solid foundation to the German-language haiku poetry, which is still being developed.
Through the crumbling roof, the wind gently reaches me in cherry blossom branches.
V. Basic poetological positions of German-speaking “haijin”
A representative picture of the current German haiku scene was provided by the 30 und. September 1979 in Bottrop organized the “First Federal German Haiku Biennale”. The aim of this first major gathering of around 20 authors from all over Germany was to recite short poems of their own, to discuss the importance of the Japanese haiku for German poetry, and to comment on its binding nature and possible adaptations. A fundamental clarification of these aspects was necessary, among other things, due to the appearance of the first anthology of the German Haiku (1979), since this anthology presents a broad spectrum of German-speaking forms from the beginnings to the present, but also without the authoritative stylistic evaluation The question of a relevant poetics implies. There was uncertainty about the “correctness” of the lyrical starting point both among the authors represented here and among the other 'haijin', for whom this book represents a preliminary guide. The discussion was therefore primarily about the degree of poetic adaptation to traditional Japanese haiku. Here, as well as on the basis of the poems presented later, the individual contributions can be summarized in three basic positions, some of which merge into one another: in a partial, a formal and substantive and in a purely substantive approximation to the Japanese three-liner. Apart from Jürgen Völkert-Marten, Peter Coryllis, among others, spoke in favor of a partial alignment, who pointed out that the Japanese fluidity, the mental concentration of the haikus, pointed the way to German poetry to a new short form; It was not a question of imitating the three-liner, but of expressing this new form, and the risk of a purely formal orientation had to be excluded. He suggested that haiku in German be seen as a poetic aphorism with the lowest possible number of syllables. I countered this, advocating a German equivalent in terms of form and content, that the name “aphorism” may indicate a subjective assessment. What is important is the objective, universal and clear character of the short poem, the core of which is a central picture. The neutrality value of this nature-related image, which triggers a sudden recognition in the reader, is not specifically Japanese, but transferable, since its effect is aimed at the unconscious in humans. The same applies to the number of syllables; Although the German language is structured differently from the Japanese and consequently the syllable count is different, one thing is constant in East and West: the duration of a single breath, which corresponds to the length of 17 syllables. Hans Stilett agreed with this point of view by pointing out the importance of verbal omissions in the expressiveness of the individual word, the rediscovery of “buried values” through dealing with foreign cultural assets, and also the formal value. He himself tries to achieve this alignment by means of a Iambian-Trochean rhythm and a right-justified spelling. It is ideal if, as with the great musicians, the strict form combines with the intensity and liveliness of the message. The formal limitation can only restrict the small mind, for the great artist it is an additional requirement, an aesthetic attraction, because he has so much to say that he sees the form as an enrichment that prevents the artwork from flowing away. K. raised an objection to a formal adaptation. Hulsmann. On the one hand, it is not possible to apply the so-called rules to a completely differently structured language, and secondly, there are no fundamental rules. In the word "fundamental" would be the difference between European and Asian thinking. With us there is always something "fundamental"; this attitude is alien to the Japanese. The trends of modern Japanese haiku poetry also showed formal variability.Crane train on the mountain - they know the way and the destination. Where are we going
The splendidly fluttering leaves will die on the still hidden but quietly crackling buds
The view of the city from the hill of the Acropolis - the gods are silent, the people live.For the Bottrop discussion about a possible German-language haiku poetics, what Harold G. Henderson said in 1963 about the character of the North American haiku applies: “When it comes to establishing standards for haiku written in English… it does seem likely that our poets will eventually establish norms of their own. "
VI. Role model North America
English-language haiku, which, like German-language haiku, developed into an autonomous form of poetry separate from the Japanese model in the 60s, now offers the greatest literary and extra-literary heterogeneity in the western haiku hemisphere. Over 20 haiku societies and magazines are currently maintaining and disseminating this still young genre, the educational value of haiku as "the most commonly taught poetic form in the primary schools" guarantees a basis for the structure and existence of English-language haiku poetry, And last but not least, the central role that it now plays in non-literary areas such as photography, film, music, dance and poetry therapy, all of this contributes to the fact that writing haiku gradually becomes a popular way in the USA and in the motherland of the Japanese three-liner of popular sport. If one asks oneself how this development was promoted in this way, five global reasons can be named: the greater willingness of Americans to adapt to foreign cultural assets, the greater proximity of the haiku-active west coast to Japan, the comparatively high proportion of Japanese living in the USA, the strong influence of the Haikus about imagism and “beat poetry” on today's US literature and not least the direct contact of the American occupation forces in Japan with Asian literature and Zen Buddhism during the Second World War. Certainly, these reasons have no influence on the development of German-language haiku poetry. As a yardstick and orientation guide, however, the haiku situation in North America offers us the opportunity to investigate factors that could appropriately anchor German-language haiku in the local literature. One of these factors would be haiku care and distribution societies, as well as regular publications. Let's take a look back. - The first national, larger literary society for the maintenance of Japanese short poetry was the "Senryû Center" in Düsseldorf, founded in 1981. The association, which in 1984 became a member of the “Federation of International Poetry Association” in Washington and an associated member of UNESCO, counted approx. 120 domestic and foreign authors, whose contributions were published in four almanacs published by Carl Heinz Kurz between 1985 and 1987. However, the efficiency of this center proved to be low with regard to the popularization of the haiku in that the focus was not on the haiku but on the senryu. As a result, after the Senryu Center was dissolved in June 1988, numerous authors applied for membership in the recently founded “Deutsche Haiku-Gesellschaft e. V ”(DHG), Vechta, which is dedicated to the care of Senryus as well as Tankas and Rengas, but according to the statutes places the haiku at the center of its activities:“ The special concern of the association is the preservation and promotion of the independent haiku, its Distribution and maintenance in the German-speaking area. " The organ of publication of the association, which with over 80 members unites around a fifth of the haiku authors who can be shown to live in the Federal Republic, is the "quarterly journal of the German Haiku Society". After the discontinuation of “apropos”, the magazine for art, literature, criticism, in spring 1985 a haiku platform existed again for the first time. As the first regularly appearing forum for German-language haiku poetry, the “haiku spectrum” contained in “apropos” presented three times a year on 1981 to 1985 pages from 12 to 28, alongside reviews, reports, interviews, interpretations and form comparisons, poems totaling 98 “ haijin ”- 76 German-speaking, 9 Japanese and 13 English-speaking. Tanka, Renga and Senryu as well as Haiku penned by students were also published. A special section, the “German-English Haiku Encounter”, brought German-speaking and English-speaking authors together in literary terms. Analogous to the outlined poetological basic positions of German-speaking “haijin”, the haiku published in “apropos” can be divided into three broad categories, a classification that has also emerged for the North American haiku: in the traditionally oriented style of Imma von Bodmershof and Hajo Jappes, in the freer, formally more unbound style (“liberated haiku”), such as Peter Coryllis and Harald K.Two pigeons nest on a gable roof, in a niche.
dawn in the drops on the acorn.
rauten-haiku (bayern 1) blue the sky white white blue the sky blue white white the sky blueA second factor for anchoring the German-speaking haiku is its role in school lessons, which in contrast to that in the USA can still be described as minor. Although the Japanese three-liner is increasingly finding its way into reading books and textbooks for native-speaking lessons, the lack of haiku knowledge of many educators and the comparatively small number of initiatives such as "authors in schools", which could illustrate the haiku in the classroom, are sufficient Far from laying the foundations necessary for the development and existence of German-language haiku poetry. Active support would have to be provided here, for example by haiku societies or haiku-versed teachers. A third factor that anchors haiku, the connection of haiku with non-literary areas, is all the more important. In the German-speaking world, for example, it is illustrated in the areas of lkebana, photography and music and, as in the case of Günther Klinge and Ann Atwood, has already led to a fruitful collaboration between German-American haiku productions. The cooperation of German-speaking 'haijin' with those of other countries is a fourth, essential factor, as the German-speaking haiku thus moves into an international context. In addition to Japan and the USA, China should be mentioned in particular, where writing haiku, which has been frowned upon for political reasons since the Cultural Revolution, is gradually becoming more attractive again. A fifth and final factor relevant to the anchoring of the German-speaking haiku should be mentioned: dealing with the sources of haiku poetry. Because only in this way, in direct confrontation with the aesthetic criteria of the Japanese model, can what fascinated Rainer Maria Rilke about the haiku succeed: an "indescribably mature and pure design". This article is taken from: Tadao Araki: German-Japanese Encounters in Short Poems. Munich: Iudicum Verlag. 1992. ISBN 3-89129-305-4. Pp. 79-91, references to the quotations and works mentioned can be found there.
Haiku · tanka · Tan renga · haibun · haiga · Renku seal · Renshi · rengay
Haiku
The tradition of Japanese poetry includes community seals written by two or more partners. A poet - and this is considered a special honor today - begins with the so-called hokku, which is then supplemented by further verses according to different rules and the given order of the participants. Such became early on hokku summarized and published in separate collections. It developed over time hokku to an independent branch of literature that was initially referred to as haikai and since the beginning of the 20th century as haiku. Haiku has spread like no other form of verse in the world and is now written in all major languages. Japanese haiku usually consist of three word groups of 5 - 7 - 5 sound units (moras), whereby the words are simply lined up in a column. In German, haiku are usually written in three lines. Japanese sound units are all the same length and carry less information than syllables in European languages. 17 Japanese sound units roughly correspond to the information content of 10-14 German syllables. That is why it has meanwhile become common practice among many haiku writers in European languages to manage with fewer than 17 syllables without losing the train of thought or the image shown. Indispensable components of haiku are concreteness and the reference to the present. Traditional haiku in particular indicate a season. The incomplete, open texts that are only completed in the experience of the reader are also considered to be an essential feature. Not everything is said in the text; feelings are rarely mentioned. They should only reveal themselves through the listed concrete things and the context.Modern haiku schools not only question the traditional form, but also some rules of text design and try to break new ground.
Summer grass is all that remained of the warrior's dream
tanka
The Tanka is the oldest Japanese short poem form. It is already listed in the first anthologies from the 8th and 9th centuries; its origins go back to the 5th century. For the first time, the tanka delimits the lines of 5 - 7 syllables that are common in the long poem in a closed form (meter 5 - 7 - 5 - 7 - 7). It served upscale correspondence in feudal Japan. The form kept coming up for a short time and in an artistic way, but never attained the popularity of haiku. The poem is divided into an upper gallery consisting of three lines and the two-line lower gallery. Its popularity is growing rapidly today because it offers a little more space. However, this fact should not tempt you to split a long sentence into five lines. A break in content should be felt between the two parts, which contrasts the two against each other and which can also be illustrated by a line spacing. Both the closed and the structured spelling are common. In terms of content, the Tanka is a self-contained poem that is not tied to any particular topic. In the sense of haiku, the upper gallery can represent a picture or experience, set in motion. The next two lines have the task of completing the picture, letting the movement run out, interpreting what has been experienced. So the two tunnels are more in the relationship between question and answer, riddle and solution, departure and arrival. Careful choice of words, avoidance of rhymes, word separations or repetitions of words also apply to the Tanka. A flowing rhythm and a melodious speech melody are preferable to the harshness of the Iambian staccato.Haiku, Senryu and Tanka have no headings or signatures. The discussions about this regulation and the deviations from it are as old as the poem.
Today the wind has this flavor from the sea from the dunes of 'he thinks of me'
Tan renga
Japanese “tanrenga” (short chain poem) is the name for the ancient tanka (5-7-5 / 7-7 Moren) by two authors, which was called “renga” (chain poem) when it was written. The term “renga” immediately expanded to include the longer chain poems that were written in the following years, and so typical Renga units are 2 or 3 verses (Mitsumono), 10, 12, 18 (half-casings), 20, 36 (casings ) and more verses in the traditional system. Every 5-7-5 unit and every 7-7 unit is to be regarded as a closed verse (ku).The first verse in these systems always has the name "hokku“, The second waki or wakiku, the final verse ageku (completing verse). To distinguish the multi-verse renga from the initial two-stanza renga, the latter is called tanrenga. The 5-7-5-syllable verses are called “long verses” (chôku), and the 7-7-syllable verses are called “short verses” (tanku).
Chestnut tree - the bicycle basket underneathfills with flowers ...
on the way home very carefully around every stone
haibun
“Haibun” is a contraction of “Haikai no bunshô” and means Hai (kai) prose (bun) or prose in the Haikai style. The term came up at the beginning of the 17th century. These prose statements were made in the form of miscells, diary entries or travel diaries, letters, essays and the like. Ä. recorded. The Haibun already had its forerunners in Japanese literature. Above all, the literary genre “Zuihitsu” (miscells) and the diary and travel diary literature (Nikki, Kikô) enjoyed great popularity even before him. “Zuihitsu” means “following the brush (hitsu) (zui)” and refers to writings that, out of spontaneous inspiration, “let impressions, experiences and considerations flow into the brush” and put them on paper in a sketchy manner. A Zuihitsu can consist of simple word notes, sentences, but also of longer essays. In terms of content, it shows a variety of topics: nature and human life, social criticism, science, philosophy, literary theory, etc. It is precisely because of this diversity of topics that writers, scholars, statesmen and monks like to use this form of literary record. The Makura no sôshi (pillow book) of the lady-in-waiting Sei Shônagon (10th century AD), the Hôjôki (notes from the ten feet in the square of my hut) of Kamo no Chômei (1153-1216) are considered classic masterpieces of Zuihitsu. , the Tsurezuregusa (notes in leisure hours) by Yoshida Kenkô (1283-1350) and the Kagetsusôshi (notes on cherry blossoms and full moon night) by Matsudaira Sadanobu (1758-1829). It goes without saying that a Haibun has a high proportion of Haikai. A Haibun is generally a loose sequence of Haikai prose and Haikai poetry. The haikai are either interspersed with the prose text or complete it. The haikai in its conciseness represents the lyrical climax of the prose text. As the Haibun literature shows, however, a Haibun does not necessarily have to have one or more Haikai. Many texts can do without it without losing any of their poetic value. As for the Haikai, the Haibun Matsuo Bashô (1644-1694) is the first, if not the most important representative. Other respected Haibun writers include Yosa Buson (1715-1783), Yokoi Yayü (1702-1783), Kobayashi Issa (1763-1827). For Bashô, a successful Haibun must meet the following criteria: It must not be constructed by the mind, but must arise from the spontaneous experience; it should have a closed overall concept and yet not be conclusive; it must have a concise and simple style; The use of allusions to famous poets, scholars, monks, etc. from the past are considered to be an essential stylistic device.Afterwards at the stop
There are five of us in London. A couple of friends, my children and I are drifting through the shopping streets on this unusually sunny, yes, warm October morning. And although the newspapers write of the economic crisis, people are hurrying in this direction and that direction, full of plastic bags between all the department stores and cafes. Again and again I bump against their edges, smell expensive perfume up close, say “Excuse me” twice and then leave it. Because nobody speaks on these boulevards. There, we want to take the bus! An old bus, one with an open platform at the end! One of those to jump on! I jump… “Do you still have them all?” My friend orders me. Not only that I almost drove away on my own, because no one could run after the hustle and bustle. Not his wife, nor my daughter. And whether I had ever thought that my son, at eight years of age, couldn't have anything better to do than jump after his father. Thank God the boy was too slow, he was able to hold on to him. I should have seen how horrified he looked after me. And they only caught up with me because the next stop wasn't a hundred meters away and the bus was still waiting."Sorry," I say. And after a while: "I don't know what got into me."
This is where I was born. This is where my father died. Now I'm cutting the umbilical cord ...
haiga
As in the word haiku, hai means “funny” or “humorous” in the word haiga and ga generally means “a picture”, a colored or black and white picture, a drawing or a graphic. By haiga we mean the combination of visual and textual elements on a common surface: a canvas, a scroll, a sheet of paper, a fan, etc. The Haiga is a further development of Chinese Nanga painting, which artists from China with new elements also spread to Japan. Nanga painting is characterized by a spirit similar to that of haiku poetry. Haiga is a form of visual art in which text and image are combined on a common surface. Two worlds coexist on one painting surface and it is up to the artist to find the optimal way, each with its own rules and its own aesthetics (haiku or Picture). The essentiales of haiku poetry are well known - the essential points that describe the visual art are color, lines or lines. Brush strokes, the areas, the outlines and the composition of the picture. For the total work of art, the Haiga artist considers exactly where and in what form he places the text for the Haiku on the picture. Haiku and picture in a haiga should be displayed and work equally. The content of the text is translated into a visual language. The image and text correspond in such a way that the image should remain an independent work of art and not become a "literal" illustration of the haiku idea. I would even go so far that the described event should not be represented one to one, but would find a common level in a new representation. The image within the visual-textual composition reflects simple everyday life with its comical or humorous facets. When looking at the picture and haiku, the tiny and fleeting events unfold in the empty, unpainted space. The artist or artists avoid the description or Presentation of unnecessary trivialities. The Haiga is defined by the same characteristics as the Haiku poetry: The Haiga is unromantic, very close to the earth, unpretentious and humorous, it makes the unspectacular, daily topics and objects visible. These characteristics can also be found in the terminology known to us: Haikai taste, Haikai fragrance, simplicity, frugality, humble and simple lifestyle, bitter and passing beauty, transcendence, avoidance of the ordinary and of cleverness and refinement. Haiku no kokoro (heart and soul of haiku) can also be found in the Haiga. Simplicity, Simplicity Thrift and modesty are the main characteristics of Japanese aesthetics: "(...) achieving the greatest effect with the smallest means is particularly true of the Haiga" (Stephen Addiss) As with the Haiku, a dichotomy between the first two lines and the third line (surprising phrase) gives a twofold division of haiku and eg digital art. In a haiga, neither the haiku explains the picture nor does the picture illustrate the poem, but haiku or Images add a new layer to the other artistic element. In a haiga, the haiku and picture are presented together and given the names of the artist and the poet (often one and the same). Today we differentiate between different forms of Haiga: the traditional Haiga, the contemporary Haiga and the experimental Haiga. The traditional haiga today has a double meaning: On the one hand, we understand a traditional haiga to be a Japanese art form that started with Socho, Buson, Goshun, Shiroi and Issa or- Author
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Renku seal
The chain seal tradition began more than a thousand years ago. Authors met to create a chain poem for entertainment and relaxation, in which each writer tried to outperform the other, but also wanted to create a poem by traveling through the seasons, Japanese landscapes and visiting different locations , This type of courtly initially serious chain seal was called "renga" or "ushin renga". Around the 17th Century, the chain seal by samurai and merchant stand, who had the wealth and leisure to devote themselves to this art, had been disqualified as "funny renga" for the 'nonsense' chain seal. During the lifetime of Bashô (1644 1694) and his students, completely new principles of intuitive linking between the stanzas, the progression to ever new scenes of life and the observance of a correspondence between image and language were introduced based on old traditions of chain poetry. This type of chain seal was so different from the now tasteless haikai, much deeper and more serious that this type of chain seal has been called "Renku" (literally: "linked verses") since then. There are different lengths and forms of the renku: the hyakuin with 100 stanzas, the Kasen with 36 stanzas, the Nijûin with 20 stanzas, the Hankasen or "Halbkasen" with 18 stanzas, the Shishi with 16 stanzas, the Jûsanbutsu with 13 stanzas and the Jûnicho and Shisan with 12 stanzas each. The most common form is chasing with 36 stanzas and will be discussed here. The other applications of the Renku are modifications of the cheese shape, but all follow the same principles of "link and shift". In principle, the overall structure of the Kasen consists of three parts: the introduction, the prologue or the overture (6 stanzas) - (jo) the main movement, the development or expansion (24 stanzas) - (ha) and the conclusion, the conclusion or the epilogue (6 stanzas) - (kyû). Certain verses have special names or are reserved for specific topics. For example, there are three verse positions within the case that are dedicated to the moon and two that are dedicated to the flowers - traditionally the cherry blossoms. Other stanzas describe the run through the seasons, tell of love or relate to free topics. Link and shift - connection and diversity (of location, people and scenery) is the basic principle of Renku. It is characterized by the two keywords "link and shift" (connection and location or Change of scene) rules. The most diverse types of linking or the principles of verse connections on the one hand and principles of progression (the moving ahead, moving forward) and the principle of diversity, the change of topics and characteristics. "Link" (tsukeai) refers to the connection or relationship between two successive stanzas; "Shift" (tenji) has with the diversity of the topics or Objects and their properties and shapes. "Shift" determines the steady progress through different places and events of the Renku poetry. These traditional ideas and points of view go back to the work of Matsuo Bashô (1644-16949) and his successors. Linking categories: - object linking (mono-zuke) = object linking: contains a thought connection between the objects / people, the place or the time of two successive stanzas. For example: An “umbrella” in one verse can be answered with “rubber boots” in the next verse. An activity in a stanza can continue in the following stanza at a different time or in a new place, etc. This can be formulated narratively, but objects or images must be directly related to one another. - meaning linking (imi-zuke) = concatenation through the meaning of the words: realizes a concatenation of two neighboring stanzas through the meaning of the words, through allusion or through quotations, winged words, "tea kettles" or other word games. For example, mold means a white horse in one verse and a mushroom-like coating on organic substances in the next. - scent linking (nioi-zuke) = scent connection: Bashô deepened the linking concept under the term “scent linking”. He and his successors divided the scent linking into several categories. We basically speak of scent linking when the connection between the verses is more a matter of mood and emotion than a rational association of thoughts or ideas behind the verses. Shift - principle of advancement and diversity: Linking from one stanza to the next is the heart of every Renku composition. In order to avoid monotony and standstill, it is important to master "progression and diversity" (advancement and diversity). The renku lives from the principles of progression and diversity or "shift" (tenji) for short. It is important to always move forward to new topics (see below) and not to look back. Progression - Moving Ahead: The basic idea of “moving ahead” is not to process the same experiences, feelings or similar topics in the changing verses. There is a recurrence of characteristics or Avoid behaviors or a "local" return within three consecutive verses. In this context, three consecutive stanzas are always considered: The "youngest" or last stanza is called "linking verse" (tsukeku) or subsequent verse. the middle of the three stanzas is called "preceding verse" (maeku), or middle stanza and the first or the first written is called "leap over verse" (uchikoshi) skip or return stanza. The poet of the subsequent verse must absolutely avoid a return (also called uchikoshi) to the world of the leap-over verse. This means that the author of each follow-up verse may use words, topics or elements that relate to the subject areas or Obtain scenery from the previous (middle) verse. However, he must avoid referring to topics from the leap-over verse or the stanzas before it. Diversity - The difference in topics and their elements: indoor and outdoor scenes should change transparently and not be repeated in the linking and leap-over verses. This principle also applies to things, their nature, moods, states of mind, etc. In the time of the classic Renga poetry, there were long lists of topics and materials, even special words, that could only be repeated after a certain number of stanzas or that were only allowed to be used so often within a Renga poetry. But these lists were essentially only for the seals in the Renga tradition with a hundred or more stanzas. Most groups of poets only allow one topic or material to appear once within a Kasen - but they make sure that all of these topics or at least every topic can be found in the Kasen. Conclusion - Balance is the Key: In a Renku poetry it is crucial to maintain a balance between “link” and “shift”. Shift (the principle of advancement and diversity) is the framework for the structure of the renku, while link (the types of chaining) is the flesh and blood that is supposed to describe the quality of life. If shift (the principle of progress and diversity) is overemphasized, we run the risk of losing the real life and thus the fun of the Renku seal.Renshi
Renshi is a term for the modern chain poetry, (ren - interconnected poem, shi - in the modern, formally unbound style). At least two or more poets (and translators) meet in a common place for a personal encounter. Participants are poets who are not influenced by the tradition and the classic set of rules of Japanese short poetry (compared to Renga / Renku poetry). The language can be monolingual or multilingual with a multicultural background. The central, classic motifs such as moon, blossom, love are no longer used for structuring. The motifs of the poetry are the entire spectrum of our experiences, but, to make the difference clear, essentially poetry of thought and not the result of the observation of a (natural) event, apart from the statements about a concrete encounter on site. Minimum speed: Every author is under a certain time pressure, which he masters with his ability for spontaneous and original creativity due to the situation of personal encounter. No competition: the authors are united by team spirit. The central concern is the joint creative process, respecting the diversity of the co-author. The number of chain links is free. The stanza form is free, unbound, very rarely the tanka form or the sonnet form. The number of verses is free. The metric of the verse is free. Link: The answering poet takes up a word of the last verse, the superficial meaning or the associations of a further level of meaning, 'smells' (after Bashô) the scent of the previous stanza and starts the next link in the chain. Deliberately dualistic connections are also tried out. Political and cultural allusions are also taken up. In the course of the new chain link, however, the story is not continued or even kept with the 'topic', instead there is a change in associations, an unexpected turn to a new topic, a leap into opposition. Every single step is free from the desire to return. One follows the run and changes one's mind solely out of the desire to walk forward. The trace of the previous step is blurred and the very personal idea of the subsequent author points in a new direction, which again ... etc.rengay
The Rengay was developed in 1992 by the American Gary Gay based on the Japanese Renku seal. Gary Gay has been Chairman of the American Haiku Society since 1991. He developed this novel structure of community poetry out of the disappointment of rarely being able to complete a renku session in a single session and the desire for a simple, straightforward, topic-centered form that can be used without much prior knowledge. "Ren" means "connected" as in the Japanese word Renku, the suffix "gay" comes from Gary Gay's last name. The English word "gay" also means among other things cheerful, lively and is intended to indicate the easier character of the poem. In contrast to the Japanese Renku with its strict form and the difficult to understand rules, the American Rengay is simply designed. A leader is therefore not necessary, all participants have equal rights. It consists of 6 three or two-line verses, which are written alternately as follows: 2 participants (A + B): A-3 lines • B-2 lines • A-3 lines • B-3 lines • A-2 lines • B-3 lines 3 participants (A + B + C): A-3 lines • B-2 lines • C-3 lines • A-3 lines • B-2 lines • C-3 lines or alternatively 3 participants (A + B + C): A -3 lines • B-2 lines • C-3 lines • A-2 lines • B-3 lines • C-2 lines While in Renku it is essential to go through a yearly run and the participants cover as wide a spectrum of world experience as possible , the Rengay is usually based on a topic that is determined in advance. This can be a season, but other contents such as fire, water, certain cities or situations are also possible. The headline of the Rengay usually picks up a word or a combination of words from the completed seal. As in the Renku, it is not wrong to proceed with link and shift to guarantee a greater variety of topics and perspectives. However, inventor Gary Gay does not consider this to be absolutely necessary. Each verse can only be based on the agreed subject, without paying attention to the previous verse. In his opinion, there is nothing wrong even with the repeated use of meaningful words. But as with other forms of chain seal, the following also applies here: each verse must stand on its own and be able to exist as such. Ultimately, the quality of the verses and how they interact determines whether a Rengay is successful or not. Since the Rengay was provided with only a few rules from the outset, it has developed in several directions and, unlike its traditional ancestors, is predestined for further experiments. For example, the Dutch haiku author Max Verhart developed the variant of the "mystery rengay" in 2000: The participants start without an agreed topic and are surprised by what emerges in the course of the poem (the first mystery rengay by Max Verhart and Betty Kaplan was appropriately titled: Dracula's Coffin). Authors from different countries often write multilingual Rengay.All in all, this is an open and easy-to-learn form of community poetry, in which the focus can be on the joy of poetry and experimentation.
autumn glow
In the high maple next to the stone crossa shimmer of red.
Church clock. In the night silenceclearly falls a first apple.
Haze in the hills. The ups and downs of the basketsbetween the vines.
Two wine festivals to choose from on Saturday evening.Impending sky.
Your father holds the kite,but a Withrust him away.
Thanksgiving dinner. On TV football and fire in the fireplace.
A B C D E F G H I J · K L M · N O P Q R · S T U V W X Y Z
ageku,
the final verse of a chain seal. This last stanza on the one hand describes the end of the sequence, on the other hand it anticipates a future event (e.g. a reunion). In the classic Renga / Renku poetry (e.g. Kasen) that is ageku settled in the same season as in the previous spring (bloom) verse - that is, in spring. 'Spring' can be used to refer to spring, the middle of spring or the end of spring in general. In more modern or contemporary Renga / Renku seals (e.g. Shisan), other seasons are also described. Even ageku Without a season (various) are not uncommon. Whatever is chosen, that ageku should have a mirror function for hokku offer in the form of a summary, greeting or an optimistic outlook. To meet all of these requirements ageku To be able to fulfill, the author is largely of the strict rules of connection, jump and diversity that apply to all other stanzas (the hokku except), exempt. The composition of the ageku is therefore like the hokku, a special honor. The poet who hokku, the input verse, shouldn't have written that too ageku, the final verse, write.
Haijin,
honorable term for a perfect haiku poet in Japan. In German-speaking countries however, Haiku poet or Haiku poet is the correct name for Haiku writing poets.
Hankasen
or "semi-cheese", form of Renga / Renku seal with 18 stanzas.
hokku,
Start verse of the Renga / Renku seal. The Japanese haiku developed from the Tanka seal (tanka means short poem or song with grace). When you started to write the Tanka by two authors, you called it tan renga, which means something like short chain poem. The tan renga was written further over time: the same or more authors attached stanza to stanza and that renga, the chain poem, was born. The guest of honor, usually a Renga master moving through the country, had the honor of the start verse, the hokku, to write the common chain. This verse could - in contrast to all other following verses - be written without having to refer to a previous stanza and established itself as a separate form of verse - later it developed into haiku
hyakuin,
Form of Renga / Renku seal with 100 stanzas.
Junicho,
Form of Renga / Renku seal with 12 stanzas.
Jûsanbutsu,
Form of Renga / Renku seal with 13 stanzas.
Kasen,
the most popular form of Renga / Renku poetry with 36 stanzas. The overall structure of a Kasen consists of three parts: the introduction, the prologue or the overture (6 stanzas) - (jo) the main clause, development or extension (24 stanzas) - (ha) and the conclusion, the inference or the epilogue (6 stanzas) - (kyu). Certain verses have special names or are reserved for special subjects. For example, there are three verse positions within the Kasen, which are dedicated to the moon and two to the blossoms - traditionally the cherry blossoms. Other stanzas describe the course through the seasons, tell of love or refer to free topics. The Renga / Renku is governed by “connection and change of location or scene” (“link and shift”).
kigo (Japanese 季 語, German Season word),
special words or phrases that are generally associated with a particular season in Japan or in the respective country. This allows an economy of expression, which is particularly valuable in the very short forms of Japanese poetry, to mark the time of year in which the poem or verse is set.
Kukai,
a haiku meeting of interested people Haijin, on which the participants of the round write Haiku in the first step, generally on a given topic. In the second step, the haiku are collected and listed anonymously. In part three, each participant awards points (according to a given system) for the texts (except for his own). In the last step, the points for each haiku are counted, the haiku are discussed and the authors are named. In the meantime, the name Kukai has also been used for virtual haiku meetings on the Internet, which follow the same principle. Either a main topic is given for the haiku to be sent in or a kigothat is said to be contained in the haiku.
Matsuku,
Verse one tanka with 7-7 moors.
More or blackberry (Lat. blackberry, Period),
Japanese sound unit, plural: Moren. The moras are all of the same length and contain less information than syllables in European languages. Japanese poetry is not syllable but quantizing. For example, the vowel a can make up two moras or n represent a more. Each Mora is represented in Kana (= Japanese characters) by one character and is considered a rhythmic unit in poetry. The pioneers of the German-speaking haiku and tanka mistakenly transferred the Japanese structure of the moras one to one to our syllable structure.
Nijûin,
Form of Renku seal with 20 stanzas.
Ringa(Japanese 連 歌),
is a traditional Japanese chain poem. It has emerged from the tanka and then from the tan renga developed. Today it is also known as contemporary renku known. Certain verses have special names or are reserved for special subjects. For example, there are verse positions within the chain poetry that are dedicated to the moon and two to the blossoms - traditionally the cherry blossoms. Other stanzas describe the course through the seasons, tell of love or refer to free topics. The Renga / Renku is governed by “connection and change of location or scene” (“link and shift”). The most varied types of linking or the principles of stanza connections on the one hand and principles of progression (moving forward) and the principle of diversity (changing themes and properties) are observed.
saijiki,
a collection or a directory of seasonal words (kigo)that are used in a traditional haiku.
senryu (Japanese 川 柳),
one to Haiku very similar Japanese poem form. While the traditional Japanese Haiku is more oriented towards nature, the Japanese Senryū deals with the spiritual experience, with the personal, the emotional.
shisan,
Form of Renga / Renku seal with 12 stanzas.
Shishi,
Form of Renga / Renku seal with 16 stanzas.
Sabine Sommerkamp (1992)
The German-language haiku seal. From the beginning to the present
September 1920 Rainer Maria Rilke wrote from Geneva: “Do you know the little Japanese (three-line) stanza, the Shark quays is called? the (sic) Nouvelle Revue Francaise brings transcriptions of this indescribably mature and pure design in its smallness… ”The addressee of the letter in which Rilke announces his“ discovery ”of haikus is Gudi Nölke. A few days later, from September 17th to 20th, he is her guest at Chalet Wartenstein, discussing haiku with her and her Japanese companion Asoka Matsumoto, which for him is becoming "a new and valuable part of consciousness".Little moths shudder across the book, shivering; they are dying tonight and will never know that it was not spring.This one of a total of three handed down Haiku Rilkes is one of the early isolated individual examples that break the Japanese three-liner compositionally in German-speaking countries. The German-language haiku seal only really began in the 60s. But let's take a look back and ask about the very first examples of German haiku and the influencing factors that determine them.
I. Early individual examples of German-language haiku
German haiku have been around for about 90 years. At first sporadically, then none for a long time, then more, since the Second World War in a steady increase. An exact description of this early German-language “haiku era” can only be approximate for the following reasons: Firstly, a large part of the sources has not yet been viewed, for example a lot that appeared in private print or occasionally in magazines; on the other hand, it has not yet been possible to precisely delimit the influences of Japanese short forms, which ran through English and French, from their own lines of tradition. Impressionism, which began in France and manifested itself in all areas of art, the general enthusiasm for Japan around 1900 and, last but not least, the political situation after Japan's victory in the Russo-Japanese War in 1904/05, awakened a feeling of spiritual affinity and identity in Germany which encouraged literary imitation, among other things. However, this correspondence in artistic and aesthetic terms makes it difficult to assess possible suggestions from Tanka and Haiku in the short lyrical forms that Impressionism increasingly cultivated. Knowledge of Japanese poetry and direct influences can be demonstrated in individual poets since around 1890. The first “independent” German haiku are contained in the poetry collection “Polymeter” by Paul Ernst (1898-1866), published in 1933:A water rose that emerges from the deep.The poets around 1900, whose work contains haiku or impressionist, self-contained three-liner, include Peter Altenberg (1859-1919), Alfred Mombert (1872-1942) and Arno Holz (1863-1929), who temporarily with Paul Ernst worked on the renewal of the lyrical forms:The water ripples.
The embers go out in the sky, softly raise the eternal stars.The French “Shark Kai” fashion, which was influenced by Impressionism, appeared in the early 20s, in addition to Rilke, in the works of Franz Blei (1871 - 1942) and Ivan Goll (1891 - 1950), which were partly playful and partly sentimental Three lines:
Did you cry so much After twenty years of parting, it's still raining.Klabund, who recorded French haiku from around 1920 in his famous literary history, calls these poems "imitations of the lyrical style of the Japanese". Formally and in terms of content, the three-liners that emerged during this period can generally be seen in the in-depth knowledge of their authors' haiku. Only Rilke comes close to the Zen content of the Japanese model, as the following haiku, created a few weeks before his death, shows:
Entre ses vingt fards elle cherche un pot plein: devenue pierre.Haiku gained a higher degree of popularity in Germany through two publications by Franz Blei and Ivan Goll. In his book “Haikai”, published in 1925, Blei defines haiku as “a picture in the smallest of spaces with a pointed accent in the third or even the second line” and explains his theoretical statements using examples he wrote himself. Goll describes the haiku in his essay "Twelve Hai-Kai's of Love", published in 1926, as a "lyrical epigram that should convey the most intense image and wide feeling possible in as few words as possible". It is probable that the cited early haiku attempts as well as the two essays by Blei and Goll contributed to the spread of the Japanese three-liner and "contributed to its penetration into the Bundische Jugend between the world wars". But "by the National Socialist ideological literature the beginnings of dealing with the little poems were suffocated."
II. Invigorating impulses for German post-war poetry
The period of the Second World War was not very productive for German-speaking haiku. It was only after 1945 that the Japanese three-liner became literarily attractive again and subsequently initiated the start of an autonomous German-language haiku poem. Their emergence was favored on a broad basis by the haiku adaptation of leading post-war poets, such as Günter Eich:Caution The chestnuts are blooming. I take note of it, but do not comment on it.The haiku influence in Eich's poetry, which also translated Japanese haiku into German, is reflected in the works of other authors who shaped German post-war poetry, such as Paul Celan, Helmut Heißenbüttel, Eugen Gomringer and Bertolt Brecht:
The farmer plows the field. Who will bring in the harvest?The question of whether this is a direct or indirect haiku adaptation brought about by other literary influences cannot be answered unequivocally due to the parallel developments and interactions in increasingly international literature. The fact is, however, that such haiku moments in the work of influential authors of German poetry on a broad basis provide powerful impulses with regard to concentrated brevity, objectivity, immediacy, symbolic content and imagery. The reasons for the growing interest in haiku after the Second World War can be seen in three main aspects. Firstly, there was a lot of “catching up” in German poetry, secondly, the “literary insecurity” of the war poets and the lack of history that could be felt everywhere turned the gaze towards the Far East, and thirdly, the flood of translations of foreign literature favored the stylistic adaptation of the Japanese three-line.
III. German-language haiku translations: an overview
None of the earliest German translations of Japanese poetry (1894) directly influenced the few haiku that appeared for the first time, because these translations placed the emphasis on old Japanese poetry and tanka. For the German-speaking area, the haiku was only properly developed after 1900. As in the case of Rilke, the source for the early German-language haiku were French translations or translations from English. In addition to Karl Florenz's popular poet's greetings from the East (30), which lasted until the 1894s, in which the haiku is translated as a rhyming quatrain, early translations include Hans Bethge's “Japanese Spring” (1911) and those from that time well-known transmissions by Paul Enderling, Julius Kurth and Otto Hauser. Furthermore, Michel Revon's much-read “Anthologie de la littdrature jaonaise des origines au XXe siècle” (1910), which, expanded by the writer Paul Adler and translated from French, was published in German in 1926, Wilhelm Gundert's literary history “Japanese Literature”, which is still valid today (1929), the great English haiku anthology by Miyamori Asatarô “An Anthology of Haiku Ancient and Modern” (1932) and the popular translations of Paul Lüth's “Spring, Swords, Women” (1942). The “Haiku interpreters”, which are widely read after the Second World War, include Werner Helwig, “Wortblätter im Winde” (1954), Manfred Hausmann, “Liebe, Tod und Vollmondnächte” (1951), Gerolf Coudenhove, “Vollmond und Zikadenkänge” ”(1955),“ Japanese Seasons ”(1963), Günther Debon,“ In the Snow the Ferry ”(1955), Erwin Jahn,“ Falling Blossoms ”(1968), Dietrich Krusche,“ Haiku ”(1970) and Jan Ulenbrook, “Haiku: Japanese Three Letters” (1979). The translations of the Viennese sinologist and Japanese scientist Anna von Rottauscher, published for the first time in 1939 and reprinted every few years, deserve special mention: “You yellow chrysanthemums. Japanese Wisdom: Haiku Poetry ”. Because this volume, with its Japanese three-line lines translated into irregular verses, simple language and a wealth of associations, "documents one of the roots of the German haiku in its reception history".IV. A foundation for German-language haiku poetry
In the course of a rediscovery of the Japanese three-liner, in the first decade after the Second World War, numerous adaptations and independent attempts at haiku were created simultaneously and independently at different locations by different authors. For example in Vienna, where René Altmann (1929-1978), Hans Carl Artmann (born 1921), Andreas Okopenko (born 1930) and Hans Weissenborn (born 1932) devoted themselves to haiku in the Freundeskreis since 1946. In 1953, the first haiku collection by the Lower Austrian author Karl Kleinschmidt appeared with “Der schmale Weg” - a date that demonstrably marks the beginning of German-language haiku poetry for the first time. Kleinschmidt, who only calls his 200 three-line poems "Haiku" in the subtitle and only in the parenthesis, documents a "groping", in part not very independent poetic approach. It does not meet the verse specification of the classic seventeen-syllable pattern (5/7/5) but adheres to its "haiku source", the translations of Anna von Rottauscher, both formally and in terms of content:The way I dip my hands in the water in the morning - it sounds so strange. Spring ...?
Winter snow suddenly turned into rain 0 spring, are you there?A German-language haiku poem, which is equivalent to the Japanese model in terms of form and content, is nevertheless autonomous, and appears in 1962 under the title “Haiku”. The author is the Austrian writer Imma von Bodmershof (1895-1982). Although Anna von Rottauscher's translations were a “bridge” to haiku for her, too, she dresses almost half of the 128 poems arranged according to the seasons in the classical style Haiku form. In the course of her in-depth haiku studies, she later revised the longer three-lines of this collection: “... when I published the first haiku at that time, I still thought that it was allowed to use 19 or even 21 syllables (always only odd numbers, the even numbers close, the odd ones leave the reader free) and used 60 of 128 Haiku this possibility. In the meantime I have completely withdrawn from it. There is a power in the number 17 that cannot be replaced by anything else. By revealing a few nuances, I have shortened the longer haiku of this volume. " But not only the form, but also the content is central for the author, who is a friend of Rilke, and as for him the image, the symbol, the zen content inherent in the Japanese three-liner is the actual haiku component: ”… one can Hailu ( sic) not at all do"They can only meet you, only one image at a time can be transparent for the symbol, and that is all that matters in my eyes."
The candle goes out. How loud the cricket calls in the dark garden.A burning candle in the darkness, closely linked to the appearance of Jesus in Christianity, depicts spiritual knowledge as a self-nourishing and thus self-consuming light. It is a doomed fire that has eternal value. In the present poem it is already in the process of decay, its extinction indicates the reference to the time of day and the season: its state corresponds to the position of the sun on autumn evening. With the onset of darkness, voices that were previously barely audible, “in the dark garden”, are awakened inside the person: the external environment, nature, is a mirror of the spiritual space. As the force of seasonal growth is reflected in the sun-ripened fruits during the harvest season of autumn, the spiritual maturity of man is revealed in times of decline. Only in the autumn darkness does the “light fruit” unfold its full radiance, the internalization of the sun becomes audible like the loud calling of the cricket in the nocturnal garden. This image places the poem in the series of traditional Japanese haiku. If one compares it, for example, with Issa's related three-liner, in which the nocturnal weeping of the cicadas is put into perspective with the indication that the stars must also part, one recognizes the same interplay of light and shadow. It is even more clearly expressed in Bashô's well-known cicada haiku, in which the chirping of the crickets under the midday sun seems to penetrate the rocks, into the darkness. The extinction of the candle and the call of the cricket exemplify the seasonal rhythm of systole and diastole in their relationship to one another, in which the human being, included, perceives the light of the sun as a spiritual force "in the dark garden". Haiku, the two “Haiku Collections” and “In the Foreign Garden” by the much-read author, published in 1970 and 1980, and the poetological “Study of Haiku” by her husband Wilhelm von Bodmershof, as well as the poetry of Hajo Jappe, who is a friend of both authors (1903 - 1988), who published his first haiku volume in 1958, lend a solid foundation to the German-language haiku poetry, which is still being developed.
Through the crumbling roof, the wind gently reaches me in cherry blossom branches.
V. Basic poetological positions of German-speaking “haijin”
A representative picture of the current German haiku scene was provided by the 30 und. September 1979 in Bottrop organized the “First Federal German Haiku Biennale”. The aim of this first major gathering of around 20 authors from all over Germany was to recite short poems of their own, to discuss the importance of the Japanese haiku for German poetry, and to comment on its binding nature and possible adaptations. A fundamental clarification of these aspects was necessary, among other things, due to the appearance of the first anthology of the German Haiku (1979), since this anthology presents a broad spectrum of German-speaking forms from the beginnings to the present, but also without the authoritative stylistic evaluation The question of a relevant poetics implies. There was uncertainty about the “correctness” of the lyrical starting point both among the authors represented here and among the other 'haijin', for whom this book represents a preliminary guide. The discussion was therefore primarily about the degree of poetic adaptation to traditional Japanese haiku. Here, as well as on the basis of the poems presented later, the individual contributions can be summarized in three basic positions, some of which merge into one another: in a partial, a formal and substantive and in a purely substantive approximation to the Japanese three-liner. Apart from Jürgen Völkert-Marten, Peter Coryllis, among others, spoke in favor of a partial alignment, who pointed out that the Japanese fluidity, the mental concentration of the haikus, pointed the way to German poetry to a new short form; It was not a question of imitating the three-liner, but of expressing this new form, and the risk of a purely formal orientation had to be excluded. He suggested that haiku in German be seen as a poetic aphorism with the lowest possible number of syllables. I countered this, advocating a German equivalent in terms of form and content, that the name “aphorism” may indicate a subjective assessment. What is important is the objective, universal and clear character of the short poem, the core of which is a central picture. The neutrality value of this nature-related image, which triggers a sudden recognition in the reader, is not specifically Japanese, but transferable, since its effect is aimed at the unconscious in humans. The same applies to the number of syllables; Although the German language is structured differently from the Japanese and consequently the syllable count is different, one thing is constant in East and West: the duration of a single breath, which corresponds to the length of 17 syllables. Hans Stilett agreed with this point of view by pointing out the importance of verbal omissions in the expressiveness of the individual word, the rediscovery of “buried values” through dealing with foreign cultural assets, and also the formal value. He himself tries to achieve this alignment by means of a Iambian-Trochean rhythm and a right-justified spelling. It is ideal if, as with the great musicians, the strict form combines with the intensity and liveliness of the message. The formal limitation can only restrict the small mind, for the great artist it is an additional requirement, an aesthetic attraction, because he has so much to say that he sees the form as an enrichment that prevents the artwork from flowing away. K. raised an objection to a formal adaptation. Hulsmann. On the one hand, it is not possible to apply the so-called rules to a completely differently structured language, and secondly, there are no fundamental rules. In the word "fundamental" would be the difference between European and Asian thinking. With us there is always something "fundamental"; this attitude is alien to the Japanese. The trends of modern Japanese haiku poetry also showed formal variability.Crane train on the mountain - they know the way and the destination. Where are we going
The splendidly fluttering leaves will die on the still hidden but quietly crackling buds
The view of the city from the hill of the Acropolis - the gods are silent, the people live.For the Bottrop discussion about a possible German-language haiku poetics, what Harold G. Henderson said in 1963 about the character of the North American haiku applies: “When it comes to establishing standards for haiku written in English… it does seem likely that our poets will eventually establish norms of their own. "
VI. Role model North America
English-language haiku, which, like German-language haiku, developed into an autonomous form of poetry separate from the Japanese model in the 60s, now offers the greatest literary and extra-literary heterogeneity in the western haiku hemisphere. Over 20 haiku societies and magazines are currently maintaining and disseminating this still young genre, the educational value of haiku as "the most commonly taught poetic form in the primary schools" guarantees a basis for the structure and existence of English-language haiku poetry, And last but not least, the central role that it now plays in non-literary areas such as photography, film, music, dance and poetry therapy, all of this contributes to the fact that writing haiku gradually becomes a popular way in the USA and in the motherland of the Japanese three-liner of popular sport. If one asks oneself how this development was promoted in this way, five global reasons can be named: the greater willingness of Americans to adapt to foreign cultural assets, the greater proximity of the haiku-active west coast to Japan, the comparatively high proportion of Japanese living in the USA, the strong influence of the Haikus about imagism and “beat poetry” on today's US literature and not least the direct contact of the American occupation forces in Japan with Asian literature and Zen Buddhism during the Second World War. Certainly, these reasons have no influence on the development of German-language haiku poetry. As a yardstick and orientation guide, however, the haiku situation in North America offers us the opportunity to investigate factors that could appropriately anchor German-language haiku in the local literature. One of these factors would be haiku care and distribution societies, as well as regular publications. Let's take a look back. - The first national, larger literary society for the maintenance of Japanese short poetry was the "Senryû Center" in Düsseldorf, founded in 1981. The association, which in 1984 became a member of the “Federation of International Poetry Association” in Washington and an associated member of UNESCO, counted approx. 120 domestic and foreign authors, whose contributions were published in four almanacs published by Carl Heinz Kurz between 1985 and 1987. However, the efficiency of this center proved to be low with regard to the popularization of the haiku in that the focus was not on the haiku but on the senryu. As a result, after the Senryu Center was dissolved in June 1988, numerous authors applied for membership in the recently founded “Deutsche Haiku-Gesellschaft e. V ”(DHG), Vechta, which is dedicated to the care of Senryus as well as Tankas and Rengas, but according to the statutes places the haiku at the center of its activities:“ The special concern of the association is the preservation and promotion of the independent haiku, its Distribution and maintenance in the German-speaking area. " The organ of publication of the association, which with over 80 members unites around a fifth of the haiku authors who can be shown to live in the Federal Republic, is the "quarterly journal of the German Haiku Society". After the discontinuation of “apropos”, the magazine for art, literature, criticism, in spring 1985 a haiku platform existed again for the first time. As the first regularly appearing forum for German-language haiku poetry, the “haiku spectrum” contained in “apropos” presented three times a year on 1981 to 1985 pages from 12 to 28, alongside reviews, reports, interviews, interpretations and form comparisons, poems totaling 98 “ haijin ”- 76 German-speaking, 9 Japanese and 13 English-speaking. Tanka, Renga and Senryu as well as Haiku penned by students were also published. A special section, the “German-English Haiku Encounter”, brought German-speaking and English-speaking authors together in literary terms. Analogous to the outlined poetological basic positions of German-speaking “haijin”, the haiku published in “apropos” can be divided into three broad categories, a classification that has also emerged for the North American haiku: in the traditionally oriented style of Imma von Bodmershof and Hajo Jappes, in the freer, formally more unbound style (“liberated haiku”), such as Peter Coryllis and Harald K.Two pigeons nest on a gable roof, in a niche.
dawn in the drops on the acorn.
rauten-haiku (bayern 1) blue the sky white white blue the sky blue white white the sky blueA second factor for anchoring the German-speaking haiku is its role in school lessons, which in contrast to that in the USA can still be described as minor. Although the Japanese three-liner is increasingly finding its way into reading books and textbooks for native-speaking lessons, the lack of haiku knowledge of many educators and the comparatively small number of initiatives such as "authors in schools", which could illustrate the haiku in the classroom, are sufficient Far from laying the foundations necessary for the development and existence of German-language haiku poetry. Active support would have to be provided here, for example by haiku societies or haiku-versed teachers. A third factor that anchors haiku, the connection of haiku with non-literary areas, is all the more important. In the German-speaking world, for example, it is illustrated in the areas of lkebana, photography and music and, as in the case of Günther Klinge and Ann Atwood, has already led to a fruitful collaboration between German-American haiku productions. The cooperation of German-speaking 'haijin' with those of other countries is a fourth, essential factor, as the German-speaking haiku thus moves into an international context. In addition to Japan and the USA, China should be mentioned in particular, where writing haiku, which has been frowned upon for political reasons since the Cultural Revolution, is gradually becoming more attractive again. A fifth and final factor relevant to the anchoring of the German-speaking haiku should be mentioned: dealing with the sources of haiku poetry. Because only in this way, in direct confrontation with the aesthetic criteria of the Japanese model, can what fascinated Rainer Maria Rilke about the haiku succeed: an "indescribably mature and pure design". This article is taken from: Tadao Araki: German-Japanese Encounters in Short Poems. Munich: Iudicum Verlag. 1992. ISBN 3-89129-305-4. Pp. 79-91, references to the quotations and works mentioned can be found there.
