An introduction to Haiku # 4 - Humour

What is a haiku?

So far, we have covered the following criteria:

Rhymes are not a rule for defining what is and what isn’t a haiku.

Nature seems to be a defining topic for haiku, since poems related to humanity are categorized nowadays as senryu (though it is important to notice that even Basho and Issa had haiku about the human condition rather than nature).

The 5-7-5 syllable is also not a defining rule. Syllables in the English language have no correspondent in Japanese, and none of the great haiku masters were strict about “syllables” for considering what is a haiku.

There is another myth we must deconstruct: the problem of humour.

According to many sources, haiku should not contain humor. It is supposed to be a serious poem about nature. You will find this in many guidelines for haiku submissions.

Well, what if we told you that the 俳 of haiku (the “hai”) means comical/unusual?

Lots of haiku from the great masters contain humour. The pun is one of the haiku techniques described by Jane Reichhold in her book about the work of Basho. Kobayashi Issa also wrote a lot of humorous haiku.

If you decide to submit haiku for our magazine, don’t shy away from humorous poems. Don’t shy away from anything. That is the whole point of writing poetry.

Anything can happen under seven lines.

An introduction to Haiku #3 - Syllables

What is a haiku?

We already covered the nature theme and the rhyming problem. We can say that, as a rule, haiku is nature-based poetry. Also, we can say that rhymes are not a relevant factor for defining what is and what isn’t a haiku.

There is another attribute commonly used to define haiku: the 5-7-5 syllable structure.

We return to the problem of English translations. Just like rhymes, the 5-7-5 syllable structure is not a rule and does not define what is haiku, at least according to the Japanese tradition and the most famous haikuists.

If you see someone claiming that traditional haiku follow this 5-7-5 syllable pattern, just check Matsuo Basho, and see in Japanese how many haiku would fall under this strict rule. The same can be said about all great Japanese masters of haiku.

You see, in Japanese you wouldn’t find a single one. They don’t count syllables as we do in the English language. They don’t even write as we do, rather using a combination of Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana.

What most people think of when they claim that traditional haiku follows a 5-7-5 syllable pattern is the sounds of Japanese language. However, this doesn’t equate at all with the English way of counting syllables.

There is an easy way to distinguish these two. In Brazilian Portuguese they say that there are two types of syllables: the grammatical syllable, which is the equivalent of the English syllable; and the poetic syllable, which is the distribution of sounds, and resembles more the Japanese patterns.

If you consider poetic syllables, maybe you could claim that traditional haiku often presents the 5-7-5 structure. That is not, however, a rule for haiku. Never was.

From the three criteria we have studied so far, you can see a pattern emerging: the great haikuists were never worried about form, apart from an undefined brevity which, as we shall still discuss, was essential to properly grasp the purpose of haiku.

The content of haiku is what matters.

An introduction to Haiku #2 - Nature

What is a haiku?

Last post was dedicated to the explanation of rhyme in haiku. Japanese is a musical language, filled with rhymes or near rhymes when considered the western concepts, which explains a different appreciation for the use of such technique in poetry. Matsuo Basho wrote quite a few rhyming haiku, and the strict rule of haiku never presenting any sort of rhyme seems to come from Western culture rather than Japanese culture itself. In other countries, such as Brazil, the use of rhymes in haiku is also common. Famous writers that learned the art of haiku from Japanese poets employed rhymes and suggest that the art of haiku is not as prohibiting as one might think.

The question remains: if rhyming is not a criterion for defining what is and what is not a haiku, then what is?

There seems to be one trait common to all haiku: nature.

Haiku is nature-based poetry.

Matsuo Basho, Kobayashi Issa, Yosa Buson, Masaoka Shiki, Kyoshi Takahama, Kawahigashi Hekigoto, Nakamura Kusatao…

All haiku poets share this common topic. There are, of course, different approaches: some focus on animals, others on plants, others on landscapes… but nature seems to be the common theme that unites all haikuists.

Now, there are poems that follow the 5-7-5 syllable structure common to haiku (though this structure is also not a rule for haiku, but rather a problem derived from translation, such as the rhyme rule, something we will discuss in a future post), and are not related to nature. These fall, according to many authors, in another category named senryū.

Haiku and senryū are usually similar in structure, with English authors distinguishing the two based mainly on this criterion: the first one is about nature; the latter, about humans.

If you are submitting to The Diutay Review, we are not interested in academic debates or rigorous definitions. We only ask that the poetry submitted fits the seven lines limit.

If you are not sure whether your poem constitutes a haiku, senryū, or other form of poetry, don’t worry about it.

Labels don’t convey Beauty. Art does.