Text - Editura - Haiku
Radu ȘerbanHAIKUIN ROMANIA1
DTP: Andreia E. PrecubAuthor’s CollectionDescrierea CIP a Bibliotecii Naţionale a RomânieiŞERBAN, RADUHaiku in Romania / Radu Şerban. - Cluj-NapocaEcou Transilvan, 2015ISBN 978-973-8099-96-8821.135.1-1 ECOU TRANSILVAN Publishing House,Cluj-Napoca, 2015E-mail: office@edituraecou.roPhone number: 0745828755; 0364730441www.edituraecou.ro2
Radu ȘerbanHAIKUIN ROMANIAEcou Transilvan20153
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Haiku on the Sky ofRomanian LiteratureLecture at HIA‘s annual haiku contest prizeTokyo, December 5, 2015Radu Șerban1. From “doina” to haiku, on UNESCOintangible heritage list of HumanityJapan has tentatively listed haiku as aUNESCO intangible cultural heritage ofHumanity, in 2014. The Romanian “doina”,already on the same list since 2009, is a “lyrical,solemn chant, improvised and spontaneous”(quote from UNESCO site). “Doina” alsoinvolves a style of short poetry, close to haiku,slightly melancholic.By their nature and tradition, the verses of“doina” are a collective (collaborative) product,5
not having a named author. Haiku also, as weknow from Bashō, are many times composed,refined and recited in groups, not by only onepoet. Beyond this characteristic of „groupcreation”, I see many other similarities betweenthe aesthetics of “doina” and haiku, both takinggreat inspiration from nature, the seasons,weather, state of spirit etc.In the UNESCO Decision 4.COM 13.69 ismentioned (R2) about “doina”: “inscription ofthe element on the Representative List wouldbear witness to human creativity and wouldcontribute to enhancing the visibility ofintangible cultural heritage”. That is 100% validalso for haiku. This is why I sincerelycongratulate HIA, for tentatively listing haiku atUNESCO! Two years ago, in 2013, Mount Fujiwas also inscribed in the same list. Afterclimbing to the top of Fuji-san, on July 22-23,2014, I noted this: “The simple awareness of thepresent moment, devoid of sophistication,focused my attention on the essence of thespirit, just like in a haiku: no complicatedjudgements, no detailed analysis, nometaphorical parallels; only a distilled image ofthe present place and present moment”.6
By joining the UNESCO heritage list, the 17syllables poetic form, proves to be not just apopular composition, but a profound creation.Of course, by its nature, it is easier forRomanians to write a haiku than a novel, forinstance. This is one of the reasons for itsattractiveness, even for the people without atalent for literature. Its universality comes alsofrom the facility of making it.Including doina and haiku on the sameUNESCO heritage list would not be anaccidental association of facts. There are somebasic, important parallels between them. Itconfirms a resonance in the spirits and minds ofthe two peoples, Romanian and Japanese, ofthe beauty of their nature and landscape, withfour distinctive seasons and plenty of colorfulplants and flowers, all over the plains, hills andmountains, with the changing aspects of theseas and skies and a transcendental harmonybetween human being and the environment.Like in haiku, in doina too, the poeticornaments are avoided, or, in any case, they arenot very relevant like in the “pastels” of theRomanian classical poet, Vasile Alecsandri (1821– 1890), for instance.7
2. Precursors of haiku in Romania:from Ovid to EminescuThe tradition of poetry in Romania datesback at least 2050 years, when the biggest poetof the Roman Empire at the time, Ovid (43 BC –17/18 AD), spent the last years of his life inTomis, today the city of Constanta. Let’s takethree of his verses (translated from Latin):The morning star shinebrightly, to vanquish the nightand usher the day1.Doesn’t it resonate in some haiku format?Like in an old Roman mosaic of his entire work,such verses complete together the harmoniouspicture of Ovid’s literary creation.But let’s recognise, that was in the Latinlanguage, even though Romanian derives fromit.The very first Japan-related Romaniandocuments date back to the times of NicolaeMilescu Spatarul (1636 – 1708), a famousRomanian ambassador, writer and traveler,who penned his memoirs about the Land of the1Metamorphoses: Book The Eighth - Poem by Ovid8
Rising Sun after a visit to China in 1676, duringthe Edo period in Japan. Nicknamed “RomanianMarco Polo”2, in Chapter 58 of his work “OnChina”, he describes “the famous and bigJapanese island and what is there”.The industrial revolution introduced, in acertainmanner,thecompetitiveindustrialization of the word too, making itmore interchangeable all over the world. TheJapanese words travelled up to Romania. In1878, the writer and scientist Bogdan PetriceicuHașdeu (1838 - 1907), director of State Archivesat the time, has translated for the Prince Carol I(future King) two tanka poems. They werereceived from the Prince Nigata no Itu, writtenon a special silk scroll.In 1904, two works were published inRomanian: an essay about tanka poetry, and astudy by the poet Alexandru Vlahuță, entitled„Japanese poetry and painting”, including manytanka poems translated from French.In Romanian literature, short poetry has itsown history. Ion Pillat (1891 – 1945) is famousfor his one-line poems. About him, inSeptember 1988, at a colloquium, the2Vasiliu, Florin and Lucia – „Romanian writers travellingin Japan”, Ed. Haiku, 19999
Romanian haiku specialist Florin Vasiliu (1928 –2001) introduced the lecture: “One-line Pillatianpoem and Nippon haiku”. That showed a deepinterrelation of the two kinds of poetry. In hisforeword, the poet commented that the oneline poem although resembles haikai, it differsfrom it. “The less the poet has written, the morethe reader has to read. A long poem can be readin a hurry, each verse helping to understand andenjoy the next one. But a single verse is to beread slowly. The letters are read quickly, but thetelegram stops us”. Pillat wrote about nature,plants, animals, mountains, sea, weather,forests, fire etc. Considered a world-range poet,he was defined as “A single Panlfute, but howmany echoes in the woods”. His poem “Fromshamisen” is recalling Mount Fuji, Kumamoto,Nikko, in beautiful quatrains like this:Mount Fuji, Mount FujiOver you fly the cloudsWhite storks, black storks,With stretched wings.Referring to the adored tree of theRomanian national poet, Mihai Eminescu, lime(linden) tree, some inspired authors like10
Magdalena Dale introduce in haiku the flavor ofthis plant widely spread in my country. In fact,Eminescu (1850 – 1889) can easily be affiliatedto haiku, if we cut fragments of his genialnature descriptions, like this one:All those sleepy birdsNow tired from flightHide among the leavesGood night.The natural themes of haiku in Romania,although universal, are in majority adoptedfrom Japanese culture and tradition: crickets,fireflies, chrysanthemums, moon, frogs, ponds,cuckoos, skylarks, roses etc. Through poetry,human nature humanizes wild nature. But onespecific theme, symbol of our national poet,Eminescu, is the linden tree (or lime tree). It will,probably, continue to inspire the Romanianhaiku writers, like this fragment from his poem“Longing”: And upon our bodies softlyDo the lime-tree petals fall”.(Translated by Corneliu M. Popescu)11
The hay is also a typical Romanian“ingredient” for poetry, since it is a part of thepeople’s life for millennia (On the Trajan’scolumn, in Rome, the first images of Daciacomprise nice hayracks). And apropos Rome,the name of my country is Romania, notRumania, as you spell it in Japanese, becausethe name comes from the capital city of Rome.3. BeginningsThe first haiku anthology in Romanian waspublished in 1935, a translation from Germanby the writer Traian Chelariu (1906 – 1966),under the title “Nippon Soul”.In 1937, he published a collection of fiftytanka and haiku translated from NorinagaMotoori, Matsuo Bashō and other classics. Hesuggested that the Romanian intellectualslearned about Japanese poetry, especially fromFrench.The poet and essayist Aurel Rău (born1930), brought to the Romanian reader theJapanese lyrics in his two books: „In the Heartof Yamato” and „The Japanese quince tree”. Healso translated one of the travelling logs of12
Matsuo Basho and other Japanese classics ofthe genre. In 1970 he published „From Japaneselyrics”, including some haiku.Later on, in 1942, the anthology of tanka,„From Japanese courtesans’ songs” wastranslated from French and published, by Al. T.Stamatiad. The same author published “SilkScarves”, a volume of Japanese poetrycomprising haiku by Basho, Shiki, Bussan andIssa.Translations of classical haiku in Romanianhad a positive impact on the Romanian originalcreations - in the opinion of Florin Vasiliu.In his novel “La Medeleni”, the romanticnovelist Ionel Teodoreanu (1897 – 1954) refersto the Japanese haikai, acknowledging theapparition on the firmament of the shortJapanese poem.During the 1970s, two poets, Ion Acsan andDan Constantinescu translated poems fromGerman and published 2 anthologies of tankaand haiku.In 1974 a box in Japanese style with 4Lilliputian volumes, by Basho, Buson, Issa andShiki with translations by the same poet DanConstantinescu (1921 – 1997) was published.13
A tanka book in Romanian was published in1987, in Munich, by Dumitru Ichim, who hademigrated to Canada. In fact, Ichim is theexpression of an “exiled” poet (rememberOvid!), who escaped the limitations of thecommunist regime, by publishing abroad duringthe censored period of 1945-1990, two volumesof haiku, in 1977: “Valley of golden sand” and“Footmarks”. Then, in 1993, he came with anew one, “Draw well of the light”.In 1983, the poet Alexandru Chiriacpublished a volume of poems in three verses inJapanese style. In the same decade, anotherpoet, Vasile Smărăndescu, released the volumeof poetry „The cemetery of the rains”, including30 micropoems in haiku style.4. Steps towards genuine haiku in RomaniaIn 1919, the poet George Voevdicatranslated tanka from German, publishing thevolume „Oriental Flowers”. He even adaptedthe poems to the European tradition, addingrhyme, rhythm and titles.In the first part of the 20th century, LucianBlaga, a famous diplomat, philosopher and poet14
(1895 - 1961), by his love of nature andprofound sense of time, had affinities withhaiku. Maybe a good, inspired, poetictranslation can put in Japanese, in a haiku form,his verses:Such a deep silence surrounds me,That I think I hear moonbeamsStriking on the windows.He even uses the word „haiku” in one of hispoems: „Haiku spirit/ snowflakes that frozenthe light/ and reviewing the cold winter ofwords”.Another poet and critic, Tudor Vianu (1898– 1964), has considered haiku akin to “smallobjects of fine arts”. In the same spirit, Ion Pillatwrote in his “Poetic Art”: “Not the words, thesilence gives voice to the song”.Romanian literature registers its first haikuin manuscript, by Alexandru Macedonski(1854-1920), who wrote a number of poemsinspired by Japan, although he never collectedthem into a volume; among the 10 so called“rondels” about Japan, published posthumously,we can find: Rondelul apei din ogradajaponezului, Rondelul marii japoneze, Rondelulcrizantemei (“The water rondel from the15
Japanese yard”, “The rondel of the JapaneseSea”, “Chrysanthemum rondel” . His own modelof poetry, “rondel” was also a kind of shortpoem.The first 12 haiku poems published inRomania belong to Al. T. Stamatiad (1885 –1955), in his volume “Sentimental landscapes” 1935. It is worth mentioning that the volumewas awarded the most prestigious distinction ofthe “Romanian Academy”.Ioan Timuș (1890 – 1969), writer and firstRomanian specialist in Japanology, publishedtwo books about Japan, which he visitedbetween 1917 – 1922. In 1943 he received theGrand Prix of the Romanian Academy for thebook „Japan of yesterday and today”.Gheorghe Băgulescu (1886–1963), formerambassador of Romania to Japan, made manyreferences to haiku in his writings, beingconsidered one of the initiators of haiku inRomania3.The propensity to exoticism of the 19thcentury in Romanian literature has favored theinterest in haiku, with its lyricism, fitting theidyllic view of Romanian village life held at thetime.3Florin Vasiliu, „Haiku Poem in Romania”, 200116
The lyric poems in Romania within the“bucolic” period, like elegies, are tendingtowards pure forms, pure beauty, emptied ofsolid substance, as it is the case in many classichaiku. But the contemporary poems, be it in theperfect haiku format or not, tend to put somecontent, some solid substance in its purebeauty. Even the subject of war can bereflected in modern haiku.The old Romanian pastoral ballads werethe source of inspiration for the cultivatedcreators of poetry in Romania. The best knownballad, Mioriţa, starts with a snapshot of nature,almost in a haiku manner:Near a low foothillAt Heaven’s doorsill,Where the trail’s descendingTo the plain and ending 5. Romanian haikuover the last quarter of a centuryUndoubtedly, the last quarter of a centuryhas been the most prolific period in theRomanian haiku, in all aspects: number ofcomposed poems, quality, interest of thereaders,internationalacknowledgement,17
contests, online publications, magazines,booklets etc.Starting with the year 1990, haiku poetryhas been promoted largely in Romania, due tosome enthusiasts like Florin Vasiliu and VasileSmărăndescu, and other poets like ManuelaMiga, Magdalena Dale, Eduard Țară or IonCodrescu (the list is much larger). A generic title“Haiku Poem in Romania” has been given byFlorin Vasiliu to a book in 2001.Klaus Dieter-Wirth, writing about haiku inEurope, in the prestigious book published in2014 by HIA on the occasion of its 25 thanniversary, emphasized the importance of theinternational haiku festivals in Constanta,Romania, in 1992 and 1994. He also underlinesamong earlier European attempts towardsinternationalization of haiku, the bilingualmagazine edited in Romania by Ion Codrescu.It is worth mentioning the book SomethingOut of Nothing, 2015, collecting interpretationsof original haiku of 74 North American poets bycontemporary haiga master Ion Codrescu.A history of Romanian literature, publishedby the literary critic Ion Rotaru (1924 – 2006),includes haiku among the literary genres in mycountry.18
Closer to our days, Eduard Țară is one of themost internationally recognized authors ofhaiku, receiving many awards. In 2010, he wona European contest with the following haiku:Unfolding a mapthe cherry petals connectEurope and Japan.The starting point of this quarter of acentury has been marked by a formerRomanian diplomat in Tokyo, Florin Vasiliu, whopublished in 1989, together with BrândușaSteiciuc, the book “Haiku constellation; Lyricinterferences”, a kind of cornerstone in guidingRomanians to understand and write haikupoems. It was followed by other essays on thehistory and technique of haiku. One year later,the same author launched the first haikumagazine in Romania and one of the first inEurope: “Haiku Magazine of Romanian –Japanese Relationship”. What is very important,is not only the number of copies printed (8.000),but the composition of the editorial team,including the Minister of Culture at the time,the famous writer and poet Marin Sorescu(1936-1996).19
In fact, Marin Sorescu wrote a short stanzaof 3 verses, without calling them haiku, in abook titled “The Clouds”. For example:Random with me happenssomethinga human life.Sorescu was even a member of the editorialstaff of Haiku magazine.Next year, 1991, marked another premiere,the first association of haiku-lovers, RomanianHaiku Society (RSH), which gained nationalcoverage. Since Romania is a large country (aslarge as Honshu) and, at the time the internetdidn’t exist, haiku enthusiasts started toorganize themselves at a regional level, settingup local societies, among them the first one inConstanta, with the essential contribution ofIon Codrescu, who founded also his ownmagazine, “Albatros”.Quite prolific in Romanian haiku, the year1992 was relevant not only by attractiveness ofthe genre - reflected in number of societies andmagazines, but also by setting up a specificpublishing house, named Haiku, which editedbooklets in Romanian, English and French. It20
was followed by another printing house, Alcor,founded by Cornelia Atanasiu.In 1993, the president of HIA at the time, Mr.Sono Uchida, received some haiku-poets fromBucharest, establishing one of the firstpeople-to-people Romanian – Japaneserencontre related to haiku.An important figure in today's haiku scenein Romania is Valentin Nicolițov, the veryprolific president of the Romanian Haiku Societyand chief editor of Haiku magazine. Hisinterview with the American poet CharlesTrumbull, founder of Chi-ku group in Chicagowas published in Haiku Magazine in 2013,mentioning the editing of „Senryu Therapy”, aRomanian - American anthology including 15Romanian and 15 American poets.Some regional haiku movements found theirway of expression, in Slobozia, Târgu Mureș,Piatra Neamț, Cluj-Napoca, Arad, Satu Mare,Iași, Slobozia or Târgoviște. In Târgu Mureș, forinstance, the poet Ioan Găbudean (whoprefaced my first haiku booklet in 2012)founded the “Ephemeral Joys”, a haiku clubattracting about 80 members, among themsome of his pupils too. His fruitful activityculminated with 2 magazines: Orpheus and21
Beautiful Pictures. And to complete the rangeof haiku activities, he set up the “Ambassador”,a printing house, editing booklets in Romanian,English and French. As you may see, the wordambassador as such has been instrumental inRomanian haiku, with many diplomats activelyengaged in writing this form of short poetry.Today, there are more than 2000 studentsin my country, learning the Japanese languagein schools and universities.Sakura tea house in Cluj-Napoca is wellknown for promoting haiku in Romania. There,the poet Cristina Oprea met for the first timewith haiku. In the city of Slobozia, in 1995,Șerban Codrin, poet, founded a haiku schooland two magazines, Orion and Little Orion. Inthis very prolific decade for haiku in Romania,he published books like „Zen Garden” and„Beyond the silence”, alongside with otherpoets: Mioara Gheorghe (Petals of Light),Florentin Smarandache (Bell of Silence), FlorinVasiliu (The Bag with Glow Worms), ȘtefanTeodoru (Meeting in the Twilight), Duțu Nițu(Letters of the Steps).Emblematic for the period, “The Bag withGlow Worms” is structured on 4 parts, one foreach season. While the spring is announced by22
the butterflies with a “white triumph”, in thesummer time the branch of acacia enters thewindow “with green prying eyes”; autumn iscatching within a double window a spider whichdies in its own web. In winter time, thesnowman becomes a “menhir for a moment”,an ephemeral Stonehenge. Finally, in the fifthcycle called “Meditations”, Vasiliu statesphilosophically: “Old clock, when you’ll beplough, I will be furrow”.During the ‘90s, some haiku anthologieswere published: Shadow of Dragonfly, OneHundred Masts, Calligraphies of the Instant etc.Owing its beginnings to the internationalliterature, being translated from French,German and English, Romanian haiku startedrepaying its debt, by being present in manyprestigious haiku publications, and winningdifferent prizes at contests, even 20 years ago.Three hundred years after the death ofMatsuo Basho, in 1994, Bucharest andConstanța hosted conferences on this topicwith international participation. It was a goodoccasion for Florin Vasiliu (1928 – 2001), at thetime president of the Romanian Society ofHaiku, to publish the essay “Matsuo Basho –The Saint of Haiku”. A competition was23
organized to commemorate the occasion, withthe winning poems being published in “HIMagazine”.Florin Vasiliu made an inventory, in 2001, ofthe Romanian haiku poetry with internationalrecognition, concluding that 22 poets receivedprizes from Japanese juries, and 45 wereincludedinprestigiousinternationalanthologies, more than 100 being published inforeign magazines.At its 7th international haiku festival, in 2013,Constanța succeeded to attract poets fromdifferent countries, and even differentcontinents, including from the birth country ofhaiku. It is worth quoting from the message ofthe Ambassador of Japan, HE Keiji Yamamoto,to this Festival: “I’m pleasantly surprised at thefact that in Romania there are many Haikusocieties not only in Bucharest, but also in othercities like Iasi, Târgu Mureş, Slobozia, Bacău andConstanţa etc, where more than 300 peopleenjoy the short poetry originated in Japan”. In2014, a national colloquium of classical poetry,including haiku, took place in Constanta.In 2004, the first prize winner of the“Kusamakura” haiku competition in Kumamotowas a Romanian, Marian Nicolae Tomi, who,24
after visiting Japan published the book “Flyingto Kumamoto”. Translations of Romanian poetsare being published in different Japanese haikumagazines: Ko, Hi, HIA, World Haiku etc. Moreand more Romanian haiku are published inon-line magazines, including Japanese ones,American or even Irish. For instance, in“Shamrock Haiku Journal”, suggestively called“Haiku from Ireland and the rest of the world”,Romanian haiku are present.In Romania, on the other hand,international haiku are more and morefrequently published. In Bucharest in 2012,Marius Chelaru founded the biannual magazineKado – review of Euro/Asian Poetry and PoeticCulture, a member of the Association ofMagazines and Publications from Europe.In 2008, the first international haiku contestwas organized in our country, being ums”.A weekly contest of haiku online isorganized, since 2007, by the Romanian HaikuSociety.25
6. Sharpening the Green PencilLast year, the Romanian Kukai Grouporganized the Third Haiku Contest, entitled“Sharpening the Green Pencil” – 2014”. Animpressive participation of 47 countries from 6continents, with 517 poems by 264 poets givesyou an idea of the scale of the contest. TheRomanian Kukai Group printed its book of thecontest, well structured, with some interestingcomments for the first three prizes. Theinternationalization of haiku is given, amongothers, by the number of participants andwinners from outside Japan. Only 8 poemscame from Japan, written by 3 authors. The firstthree winners come from other countries:Poland, the USA and Vietnam.A look at the first prize, by Dorota Pyra,gives us an idea of the high quality of thepoems:snowy orchardthe smell of summerin a baked apple.26
Corneliu Traian Atanasiu, a highly skillfulhaiku poet and founder of Romanian Kukai,comments on it as follows:“The snowy orchard evokes the irreparableand permanent invasion of a space destined forharvest and summer reverie. For it was not onlythe apples, legendarily the most tempting,round-shaped fruits, that perished in this prolificspace, but also the quiet rest in the grassswayed by the insects’ busy humming. They alldisappeared under the glacial, unforgivingwhiteness”.7. Nichita Stănescu– a Nobel Prize candidate – haiku writerBefore the fall of the communist regime inRomania, a famous poet, Nichita Stanescu(1933 – 1983), was a writer of haiku. He was apoet with large international recognition, acandidate for the Nobel Prize for literature, andhad a profound sense of lyricism. But haiku forhim was just a temporary digression and hishaiku poems were not published in Romania,since haiku as such was rejected by the regime,27
as being subversive, by its sometimes allusivesense, unable to be controlled by the critics.But the haiku poems inherited by Romanianliterature from Stanescu are really characteristicto his style and very valuable in a historicalperspective. One of the most suggestive is thisone:If time had had leaves,what an autumnwould have been!What one can add to such a poem? Maybethis: if Nichita had been Japanese, one can onlyimagine what splendid haiku he would havewritten!The Japanese atmosphere is present in hishaiku, associating the immaterial breeze withthe irregular but smooth form of stones,specific to Zen philosophy:Breeze of the fanon the oval formof a stone.By their universality, his poems touch theessences of life:28
The fogwraps in itself the new bornof the light.How gentle, the fog is caressing the somuch needed light, in its embryonic form!At the same time, we can find morephilosophical nuances, marrying his haiku withthe maxim, at the confluence of images andthoughts:Death is a childsucking instead of milkthe sand of clepsydra.Master of love poetry, Stanescu reflectedhis vibrant, melancholic sentiments in haiku,too, mixing drops of human sensitivity in thenature’s mortar, with his pestle of talent:On turtle’s shellfall tear dropsyou weep, or it rains?Nevertheless, with all due consideration,we have to recognize, that N. Stanescu29
produced just “accidental haiku”, notimmersing thoroughly into its miraculous world.8. “Simple forms”: Brâncuși and haikuIn the spring of 2015, when abundantpolychrome azalea where graciously temptingme in the miraculous Tokyo gardens, Dr. KeimiHarada, former mayor of Minato Ward, invitedme to visit the “Simple Forms”, an art exhibition.The main “star” of that exhibition was the “Birdin Space”, by the Romanian sculptor ConstantinBrâncuși. It was reproduced on all posters andadvertisements. I made the parallel with haiku,immediately as I saw again the magnificentpiece of art, in its entire splendor, calmlycaressed by day light, magically filtered throughthe demi-draped window, on the 52nd floor ofMori Tower. The emotion of meeting, over thetime and space, my famous compatriot, fatherof modern sculpture, was multiplied with thewarm welcome by the chairperson of theMuseum, Mrs. Yoshiko Mori, who offered me arefined sample of Japanese hospitality(omotenashii).30
It is worth quoting here some haikuinspired by Brâncuși’s works, since we have anannual haiku contest on this topic.The final act:carrying in skies the genius,a flying turtle.The flying turtle was the last piece of art byBrâncuși. Shortly after that magnificent creationhe passed away, his soul ascending to the sky,according to our beliefs. This simple turtle,surprisingly flying, is symbolizing a miracle. It isthe genius, departing from us, but leaving a richheritage, which inspires and will inspire,centuries ahead, the artists, like the famousJapanese master Isamu Noguchi, but alsoincluding poets of haiku, like Cristina Oprea forexample:the Endless Column –somewhere, another cricketis counting the stars.The true inspiration for this delicate haiku is,of course, "The Endless Column". What makes itso special, besides brevity, is the juxtaposition31
of the image of Column with the cricketendlessly chirping, counting the infinity of thestars.The same author gives us a splendidexample of paronym, in Romanian language,where the sound of the cricket is named withthe same word as winch (cric):old jackscrew in the grass –the chirping of cricketslifts the moonThe beauty comes with the old sound of thecricket in the grass lifting the moon (like awinch). This is the revelation, so much neededin a haiku, beyond the juxtaposed elements.A sculpture of Brâncuși may have slightlydifferent interpretations, depending on theperson looking at it, and the same applies to thehaiku inspired by them:Flight of the torrentsa flowing form of bird –feathered thought.Trained both in folk and modern arts,Brâncuși had simplified the bird up to its32
essences. In fact it is the essence of flight(something intangible), not of bird. One of hismasterpieces in many variants, named“Măiastra”, represents in Romanian folklore amagic bird, which leads a prince to his princess.Flying like a bird, the thought can lead us to ouressences of human kind. A symbolic, stylizedbird brings in our mind a common proverb:Birds of a feather flock together. Emphasizingthe beauty in simplicity and brevity, it is thecase of haiku and Brâncuși’s modern sculptures,“two birds of a feather”.Transcending time and space, theJapanese “cosmic haiku” fits with Brâncuși’s“simple forms”, floating together on thesmooth surface of the matter. The attentiveand subtle choice of words, to fit with thesimple forms, when it comes on haiku aboutBrancusi, laconic and even, is complementedsometimes by the open ended content, likeEndless Column.On synesthesia, or the combination ofhaiku with other arts, it is worth mentioning theexposition we organized in our Embassy in Junethis year, called “Chromatic Entropies”, of theRomanian painter Laura Nicolae, whocomposed her own haiku (translated in Italian,33
Spanish and some in Japanese) for everypainting, in a syncretic attempt of fusionbetween the two arts. It is a kind of graphictranscription of words, or vice versa.9. Haiku in the Romanian vocabularyCertainly, in the last 25 years, the Romaniancommon vocabulary has been enriched with anew word: haiku. It may be a simplecoincidence with the Romanian Revolution of1989, but it seems the haiku revolution inRomania has, more or less, the same age. Evenif only a limited number of people have aserious idea of what haiku is, millions haveheard about it. It is obvious, the influence andreputation of haiku in Romania is rapidlyincreasing.It is a happy accidental sequence of eventsthat the Haiku International Association has thesame age as the Romanian Revolution. The year1989 turned an important page in Romanianhistory, with my country entering the samefamily as Japan, a family of democracy, humanrights and the free market.34
In the Explanatory Dictionary by theRomanian Academy (2009), the first definitionof haiku is quite laconic: “Japanese poem madeof three verses, first and last by 5 syllables, thesecond by 7”. Obviously, it is too simplistic. But Iam not in a position to criticize it. Being a liveentity, haiku will find, steadily, its properdefinition, already provided by differentdictionaries. We cannot accept the definition of“sonnet” for instance, by just: “a 14 versespoem grouped in 2 stanzas”. Such definitions,concent
In 1937, he published a collection of fifty tanka and haiku translated from Norinaga Motoori, Matsuo ashō and other classics. He suggested that the Romanian intellectuals learned about Japanese poetry, especially from French. The poet and essayist Aurel Rău (born 1
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a. Haiku for Android from the Play Store b. Haiku or Canto for iOS from the App Store 2. (Optional) To upload/view photos in Haiku or anto, you’ll need On ase a. OnBase for Android b. OnBase for iOS 3. Log in to Haiku/Canto a. Haiku for Android b. Haiku for
Brazilian quatrain poems and a few haiku. Up to 1919 haiku was not as well known in Brazil, even though a few had been published. The trova was the closest Brazilian poetic form to haiku until then. It consists of four verses with seven metric syllables each and a pair of ending rhymes in the second and fourth verses.
In the late 1950’s / early 60’s, Leonard Cohen published what is likely the first haiku by a leading Canadian poet. The haiku-like poem was titled and dedicated to Frank and Maria . work, and the Canadian Haiku Anthology was born (1979), featuring twenty poets from coast to coast with
HAIKU IN AUSTRALIA Collated by Lyn Reeves and Beverley George Part One — samples of haiku from some of the poets mentioned in the history. LYNETTE ARDEN —Vice-President, Australian Haiku Soci
Haiku poems deal with nature and present a clear sensory image. It is a concise form, much like a telegram. Haikus are usually written in the present tense. Haiku Example #1 Against the bright sky stones glow where strong arms place them to say “Remember”. Haiku Example #2 New Year's Dawn tidal ebb and flow silver moon to golden glow
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An Introduction to Conditional Random Fields Charles Sutton1 and Andrew McCallum2 1 EdinburghEH8 9AB, UK, csutton@inf.ed.ac.uk 2 Amherst, MA01003, USA, mccallum@cs.umass.edu Abstract Often we wish to predict a large number of variables that depend on each other as well as on other observed variables. Structured predic- tion methods are essentially a combination of classi cation and graph-ical .
