An introduction to Haiku #1 - The Rhyme Problem

What is a haiku?

Before we try to answer such a rigorous question, a disclaimer must be made regarding the uncertainty of the concept. There is no agreement whatsoever.

We will start with the case of rhymes. According to one definition from the Merriem-Webster Dictionary and many other sources, a haiku must be unrhymed. Quora has many answers along this line: Haiku never rhymes.

However, if you were to take a look at the complete works of Matsuo Basho, considered by many as the most important and famous haiku poet, you would find plenty of rhymes. That, of course, assuming you read it in the original language, Japanese, or at least through the lens of romaji (Japanese language written with Latin script). To give a few examples, you can check the haiku nº 62, 150, 222, 384, 401, 573, 664, 962, among others, in the complete haiku by Basho translated and annotated by Jane Reichhold, published by Kodansha International Ltd.

Rhyming was actually more common in haiku than you might think if you only consider what English authors claim about this poetic form. The problem usually resides on translation. The rhyme work from Japanese poets can be quite difficult to translate into English rhymes. To preserve the essence of the poem, English translators frequently choose to forsake rhymes, but that doesn’t mean that haiku is an unrhymed form. Quite the contrary. There is no such rule.

Some English authors will claim that it never rhymes based on a strict and not widely accepted definition of rhyme as being exclusively the repetition of a sound at the end of the verses. This definition, however, also has its own problems, which would take us towards another discussion regarding the notion and variations of rhyme. It also fails to consider that there are haiku with such type of rhyme.

It seems quite clear from Japanese poets that haiku doesn’t have strict rules about rhymes. This whole dilemma seems to derive from the frequently commented fact that many forms of Japanese poetry usually don’t have rhymes — a fact that should also be disputed, since the problem is not the lack of rhymes per se, according to modern western definitions of rhymes, but how common they become in a language such as Japanese, provoking a different cultural appreciation — or lack thereof.

This strict position also fails to account the variations of haiku culture across the world. Brazilian authors, for example, are more used to rhyming haiku. Guilherme de Almeida used to write rhyming haiku, after learning about this poetic form with a group of Japanese people living in São Paulo, Brazil.

So, to us it doesn’t matter if a poem rhymes or not to be considered a haiku.

The essence of this form lies elsewhere.