The Three-line Stanza

Contrary to Kerouac’s suggestion, the three-line stanza is hardly essential. As Nobuyuki Yuasa writes in the introduction his translation of Bashō’s The Narrow Raod to the Deep North, haiku “consists of seventeen syllables, divided into three sections of five-seven-five.” Yuasa, however, translates haiku into English using a four-line stanza because haiku is “based on colloquialism, . . . the closest approximation of natural conversational rhythm can be achieved in English by a four-line stanza rather than the constrained three-line stanza.” He also did not attempt to restrict his translations to seventeen syllables. Thus, Bashō’s most famous haiku [Furuike ya, kawazu tobikomu, mizu no oto] is rendered as:

Breaking the silence
Of an ancient pond,
A frog jumped into the water—
A deep resonance.

Jack introduces a Master

Kerouac also proposed that ‘Western Haiku’ should “simply say a lot in 3 short lines in any Western language. Above all, a Haiku must be very simple and free of all poetic trickery and make a picture and yet be as air and graceful as a Vivaldi Pastorella. Here is a great Japanese Haiku that is simpler and prettier than any Haiku I could write in any language:–

A day of quiet gladness,
Mount Fuji is veiled
In misty rain –Basho”

Kerouac on haiku

The following verse reflects Kerouac’s appreciation of the sensibilities associated with haiku:

Frozen
in the birdbath,
a leaf

At the same time, Kerouac must have been aware that modern haiku poets had abandoned some traditional elements of haiku, holding that “haiku has a deeper essence based on our response to the objects and events in our lives.” Based on this standard, a good haiku should present an image, while also conveying what the poet felt when he or she encountered that image:

Straining at the padlock,
The garage doors
At noon

Dharma Bum

Jack Kerouac is perhaps the person most responsible for popularizing haiku in the United States, initially through his novel The Dharma Bums. Along with Dharma Bums creation “Japhy Ryder,” Kerouac had read the complete works of D.T. Suzuki (on Zen Buddhism) and R.H. Blyth’s 4-volume Haiku (published from 1949 to 1952, and containing translations of several thousand traditional haiku).

My Haiku Journey

One of my current passions is for haiku and haibun. Unfortunately, I don’t yet read or write Japanese. Fortunately, haiku has become very popular outside of Japan, making its way to the West in the early 20th century, and becoming by World War I “an indigenous Western phenomenon,” particularly at first in France:

A shell hole—
in its water
the sky.
Maurice Betz