Haiku by Students at AIU (Part 6)
2010/12/04
In the posting this time, I take up AIU Festival 2010 held on October 10-11 at Akita International University（国際教養大学）and the haiku presentation by students at the AIU class of Japanese literature.
AIU Festival 2010 (Part 2)
The theme is shown in the following photos:
Here is a photo of those who enjoyed the festival.
Our network participated in the festival with the title:俳句とHAIKU （INTERNATIONAL HAIKU）.
We exhibited haiku poems and haiga paintings contributed to our website by AIU professors, students, and other haiku poets worldwide. We also gave live art of haiga painting and poetry recitation.
During the festival, we enjoyed haiku, haiga painting, and recitations with students, teachers and visitors.
Masuda Junko （桝田純子）, a haiku poet, gave a haiku recitation for audiences.
She also presented us with her travelogue on 2010 Bath Japanese Festival, in which she participated with her daughter Aika (愛佳) in May and they enjoyed home stay with Alan Summers, founder / tutor With Words (www.withwords.org.uk).
Here is a photo of audiences who enjoyed Junko’s presentation.
Haiku Presentaion (Part 2)
Professor Alexander Dolin teaches Japanese Literature and Civilization Studies at AIU. He also writes haiku.
Recently Professor Alexander Dolin took up haiku in his class of Japanese Literature, where I participated in the haiku presentation by students as a referee on November 15.
His students kindly contributed their haiku to our netwotk, which I post in the website, dividing them into three parts.
Shugo Takahashi （高橋宗吾）
教養大,季節の変わり目人の別れ
Kyouyoudai kisetsu no kawarime hito no wakare
AIU(Akita International University),
the term when season changes
the term when my friends leave
夏祭り花火見上げて友と飲む
Natsumatsuri hanabi miagete tomo to nomu
Summer festival
drinking with my friends
as looking up fireworks
秋の山緑の葉から衣がえ
Aki no yama midori no ha kara koromogae
A mountain in fall
has taken on a fresh new color cloth
from green leaves
年賀状２ケ月後れで送る友
Nengajou nikagetsu okure de okuru tomo
New years card
which arrived
two months later
夏休み久々に見る友の顔
Natsuyasumi hisabisa ni miru tomo no kao
In summer vacation,
seeing faces of my friends
which I haven’t seen for long.
紅葉踏む音に聞こえる森の声
Momiji fumu oto ni kikoeru mori no koe
The voice of forest
which I hear from
ｔhe sound of stepping on fallen leaves.
Emily Eisemann
The month’s at its end
look, all the stones lie silent
as I tread on bones.
月終わる石皆黙し骨を踏む
Tsuki owaru ishi mina mokushi hone wo fumu
It turns toward Spring
the sakura are blooming
there, smell something sweet
陽春や香り漂う桜花
Youshun ya kaori tadayou sakurabana
Morning is coming
the waves are silver
pounding on the sand
朝あけや波白銀に砂を打つ
Asaake ya nami shirogane ni suna wo utsu
Birds by the window
never stopping, all night
cannnot, cannnot sleep
よもすがら鳥窓で鳴き我起こす
Yomosugara tori mado de naki ware okosu
Fields stretch to the sky
waves of brown, rice in the wind
to the horizon
茶の波の地平に伸びる稲田かな
Cha no nami no chihei ni nobiru inada kana
Leonard V. David
Crows make their descent
on white sheets covering rooftops
I see its glory
輝きや屋根の白布にカラス降る
Kagayaki ya yane no hakufu ni karasu oru
Perched on a tree branch
under the bright, blue sky dome
the skylark sings
ドーム下えだで囀るヒバリかな
Doumu shita eda de saezuru hibari kana
On orange pathways
I walk with great confusion
Where are the pink trees?
オレンジの小道を歩き狼狽すピンクの木々はどこへ消えるや
Orennji no komichi wo aruki roubaisu pinku no kigi wa dokoe kieru ya
Tonight you shall rest
return to your dwelling place
‘til we meet again
また会おう今宵は休み家々で
Mata aou koyoi wa yasumi ieie de
Winds tossing the waves
green buds sprouting everywhere
what magic I see
風吹きて波を上げたり緑の芽四方に芽ばゆ魔術なりけり
Kaze fukite nami wo agetari midori no me shihou ni mebayu majutsu nari keri
Last of all, I refer to the “17 syllables” question.
You can read two English haiku below, which appeared in the blog Haiku Habits (http://haikuhabits.com/).
Snow floats
in puffs to the silent
soft white floor.
see the snowflakes fall
they are white and beautiful
with all the designs
The first haiku is made up of 2-6-3 syllable format.
The second is made up of 5-7-5 syllable format.
- The comment was given as follows:
Ang3lina
February 7, 2010 at 3:56 pm
I hope dat u people know that a haiku should have 5 syllables in the first line, 7 in the second line, and 5 in the third.
- I answered the comment above as follows:
Hiruta
February 8, 2010 at 12:32 am
Many years ago I started English haiku by the 5-7-5 format.
At Mt. Tsukuba
burnishing study, ideas and thoughts
as chestnuts ripen
But some years after, I found it’s better to write haiku in English by the format 3-5-3.
This is more similar to Japanese haiku.
For example, 「少年や」is counted as 5 moras (sho-u-ne-n-ya) in Japanese and makes one phrase of the Japanese haiku.
In this English translation, it is ‘A boy ― ‘, and is counted as 3 syllables.
In this case, ‘A boy over there’ makes one line in the 5-7-5 format in English haiku, but it gives birth to quite a different image from ‘A boy ― ‘ .
This is because there is quite a difference between the two languages of Japanese and English.
Since then I’ve been trying to write haiku in English by the format of 3-5-3.
But sometimes it doesn’t go perfectly because the word used for each line is made up of varieties of syllables.
Now I think haiku is the shortest form of poetry, which is composed of three short lines.
The most important point is what we want to express by this short form.
Maybe this idea leads to the shortest form of poetry, which is composed of any free short three lines.
Please enjoy writing and reading haiku.
Thank you.
Best regards,
Hidenori Hiruta
・ Ken Wagner gave me the following comment:
Ken Wagner
Thanks for your insight, Hidenori.
I get the “17 syllables” question quite often, and it is both helpful – and interesting – to get another perspective on the issue.
I added links to your two sites on the Haiku Habits “Haiku on the Web” page.
Cheers.
The next posting ‘Haiku by Students at AIU (Part 7) appears on December 11.
― Hidenori Hiruta
Dr. Akito Arima （有馬朗人）is President of the Haiku International Association (HIA)（国際俳句交流協会）(http://www.haiku-hia.com), a nonprofit organization aimed at promoting haiku globally.
Dr. Arima also leads the haiku group Ten’I (Providence)（天為）(http://haikunet.info).
On December 2, I received HAIKU INTERNATIONAL NO.91 published on November 30, 2010.
In the magazine they reported the results of the 12th HIA Haiku contest（ＨＩＡ俳句大会）, which was such a nice surprise to me.
That was because I found haiku by two friends of mine in the report.
One haikuist is Chen-ou Liu, who kindly contributed his haiku and tanka to our network.
Chen-ou Liu’s haiku was posted in the website on September 25, and tanka, on October 30.
The other haikuist is Roberta Beary, who kindly contributed her haiku for Int’l Haiku Spring Festival 2010 held by the Akita International Haiku Network with our sister festival 2010 Bath Japanese Festival.
I posted some of Roberta’s haiku from her book nothing left to say for the festival in the website on May 12.
I would like to express my hearty congratulations on such nice creations of haiku by Chen-ou Liu and Roberta Beary.
Here I post the names of haiku poets and their haiku selected as prize winners and honorable mentions (Non-Japanese Section). I also post their haiku translated into Japanese.
木内徹選 (Selected by Toru Kiuchi)
特選 (Prize Winners)
Chen-ou Liu (Canada) チェン・ウー・リュー（カナダ）
autumn dusk・・・ 秋の夕暮れ・・・
I stir my coffee コーヒーをかき回す
anticlockwise 時計と反対で回りで
Kevin O’Donnel (New Zealand) ケヴィン・オドネル（ンユージーランド）
the winter sun 冬の日が
stretches your shadow あなたの影を伸ばす
as far as a seagull’s call カモメの呼び声と同じくらい遠くへ
入選 (Honorable Mentions)
Dubravko Korbus (Croatia) ドゥブラウコ・コルブス（クロアチア）
the first snowflakes 初雪が
hold down a bowed back of こごんだ背中をさらに押しつける
the scarecrow かかしの
Darrel Lindsey (U.S.A) ダレル・リンゼイ（アメリカ）
outside the asylum 収容所施設の外で
the vertigo 眩暈が
of flowers 花の
Lyle Rumpel (Canada) ライル・ランベル（カナダ）
night owl 夜のフクロウ
the forest grows 森がふくらむ
between calls 鳴き声のあいだに
Roberta Beary (U.S.A.) ロバータ・ベアリー（アメリカ）
cherry blossoms 桜の花
the incessant sound 止めどなく
of mother’s cough 母が咳き込む
木村聡雄選 (Selected by Toshio Kimura)
特選 (Prize Winners)
Urszula Wielanowska (Poland) ウルスラ・ウイラノブスカ（ポーランド）
gondola ゴンドラ
emerges from the mist 霞より現れて
the end of the canto 歌の終り
Florentina Loredana Dalian (Romania) フロレンティナＬ・ダリアン（ルーマニア）
Leaving behind あとには
a sad lotus in bloom 悲しげな蓮の花
an alone rower ひとり漕ぐ
入選 (Honorable Mentions)
M Fazio (Australia) Ｍ・ファチィオ（オーストラリア）
the town clock 町の時計
chimes three-regretting 私三時を打てば―悔いる
my words 我が言葉
Valeria Simonova-Cec (Italy) ヴァレリア・シモノヴァチェク（イタリー）
cold marble ひんやりと大理石
on St. John’s lips 聖ヨハネの唇に
the unspoken word 語られないままの言葉
Robert Naczas (Ireland) ロバート・ナクザス（アイルランド）
idle morning ― けだるい朝
passing magpie よぎるカササギ
steals my thought 我が想いをかすめ
Malcolm Creese (UK) マルコム・クリース（イギリス）
With only two notes たった二言で
the cuckoo says more than the カッコウは
blackbird ever can ツグミより多くの歌を
Last of all, I refer to what HIA President Akito Arima concluded in the international symposium titled Haiku Worldwide – Present and Future.
The symposium was given for the celebration of the 20th anniversary of HIA on November 28, 2009 in Tokyo.
As panelists, they had Annie Bachini, President of the British Haiku Society, Lenard Moore, president of the Haiku Society of America, Marijan Cekoji, president of the Croatian Haiku Society, Stephan Wolfschutz, president of the German Haiku Society, and Dr. Akito Arima.
Tsunehiko Hoshino, HIA vice-president played a role of coordinator.
Dr. Arima predicted as follows:
Haiku will spread out to the world more because of its brevity and its coexistence with nature.
At present, some young people in Japan write the short poems of three lines: haiku.
As a result, people overseas will have more chances to read English haiku written by native speakers of Japanese.
The international haiku contests could be held on the Internet worldwide in 20 or 30 years. This might be possible because haiku is written in the shortest form of poetry.
We sincerely hope that haiku will be loved in English as well as in their own languages.
By Hidenori Hiruta
HIA member
Int’l Haiku Spring Festival 2010 has just started on May 12 on the website of the Akita International Haiku Network in Akita, Northern Honshu, Japan.
At the same time 2010 Bath Japanese Festival , our sister festival, has begun and gives Festival Launch Party in Bath, UK, this evening.
Masuda Aika（桝田愛佳）, a haiga painter, and her mother Masuda Junko (桝田純子), a haiku poet, take part in the party as their special guests from Akita (秋田), Japan.
They exhibit haiga (俳画) and haiku (俳句), showing how to paint haiga for the participants in Bath on May 13.
They also enjoy staying with Alan Summer’s family in Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire for four days, from May 11 till 14.
Here in Akita, we would like to share the delights and high spirits of our festival with each other, reading aloud haiku by Roberta Beary, first of all.
Roberta Beary, a haiku poet, in Washington, USA, contributed her haiku book, ‘nothing left to say’ to us in celebration of the first anniversary of the opening of the Akita International Haiku Network.
Roberta is a haiku friend of Alan’s and mine.
She says in her e-mail as follows:
Hi Hidenori
Thank you for including haiku from my book, ‘nothing left to say’ at the Int’l Haiku Spring Festival in partnership with the 2010 Bath Japanese Festival. I got to meet Alan Summers last September when I traveled to London. He is an amazing person!!
Here is the short introduction: Roberta Beary (www.robertabeary.com) was born and raised in New York City. In 1990 she moved to Japan for five years of haiku study. Her individual poems, an unconventional hybrid of haiku and senryu, have been honored throughout North America, Europe and Asia for their innovative style. Her book of haiku and senryu, The Unworn Necklace (Snapshot Press, 2007), selected as a William Carlos Williams Book Award finalist (Poetry Society of America), was named a Haiku Society of America Merit Book Award prize winner. She also co-edited two Haiku Society of America anthologies both of which were named Merit Book Award winners. Her most recent work, a chapbook titled ‘nothing left to say’(edited by Michael Dylan Welch) is the 20th title in the Hexagram Series of master haiku poets.
Here is a photo of me taken in December 2005 at the Kumamoto Hotel in Japan. I was in Kumamoto to receive the Grand Prize in the Kusumakura International Haiku Contest. The prize included a trip to Japan! My winning haiku: thunder/the roses shift/into shadow
Here is the photo of me which appears on my book of haiku, The Unworn Necklace, winner of the Poetry Society of America Finalist Award. A hardcover edition will be published this year by Snapshot Press, UK.
Here is a picture of my husband, the writer Frank Stella, and me taken at The White House Christmas Tour 2009. President Obama was out of town that day!
Now I present the former 17 haiku from her book.
I tell you about her haiku in Japanese, which helps our Japanese readers appreciate them. My interpretation isn’t given as a form of Japanese haiku.
nothing left to say
an empty nest
fills with snow
言うことは何も残されていない
一つの空の巣
雪で一杯である
break up―
my daughter’s voice cracks
across two continents
崩壊―
娘の声がかすれる
二つの大陸を横切って
blackout―
my son speaks a secret
i always knew
暗転―
息子が秘密を明かす
ずっと知っていた
blue moon
dad’s phone message
unslurred
青みがかった月
パパのフォーンメッセージ
明瞭な発音だった
third blizzard―
the untuned piano’s
middle c
三回目のブリザード―
未調律のピアノの
中間のｃ
snowed in
the dog clicks
from room to room
雪が中に舞い込んだ
犬が意気投合する
部屋から部屋へ
just after midnight
he corrects
her auld lang syne
ちょうど真夜中過ぎ
彼が正す
彼女のオールドラングサインを
talking divorce
he pours his coffee
then mine
離婚について話し合う
彼がコーヒーを注ぐ
それから私に
last train
a can rolls the length
of the quiet car
終列車
缶が一つ端から端まで転がる
静かな車両の
so much silence
on a path
lit by fireflies
底知れない静寂
小径の上
蛍が明かりを灯す
rivermoon
we run
out of words
川に月が
私たちは走り出す
言葉より先に
quiet rain
…the deeper quiet
of uncut roses
静かな雨
．．．もっと深い静けさが
伸び盛りのバラたちに
piano practice
in the room above me
my father shouting
ピアノの稽古
上の部屋で
父が大声で言っている
talk of war
the spin cycle’s
steady hum
戦争の話
飛行機のきりもみ降下の円形の
変わらないブーンという音
culling figs
mother and son
speaking again
いちじくを摘みながら
母と息子が
また話している
snowbound
reading out loud
to an empty room
雪で閉じこめられた
声を大きく朗読をする
空っぽの部屋に
not hearing it
till the cat stirs
birdsong
まだ耳にしていない
猫がかき立てるまで
鳥の歌を
The latter 18 haiku of ‘nothing to say’ by Roberta Beary appear in the future posting on the website, when we hold our festival again.
Last of all, let me decorate our on line festival with the photo flowers presented by Patricia Lidia, a haiku poet, in Romania.
The next posting ‘Haiku by Helen McCarthy for Int’l Haiku Spring Festival 2010 (2)’ appears tomorrow on May 13.
― Hidenori Hiruta
First of all, I tell you about the Earthday Haiku Contest.
2010 Bath Japanese Festival UK in association With Words (UK); Sketchbook Haiku Journal (USA); and Planetpals (Worldwide) are in partnership with the planet to bring the Earthday Haiku Contest.
They are also pleased to have the support of Akita International University; and International Haiku Spring Festival 2010 with Japanese festival director Hidenori Hiruta (Akita, Northern Honshu, Japan).
The contest is designed to combine the love of earth with the sheer simple fun of writing Japanese haiku in English!
We call it the “Kids Count for Earthday” Earthday Haiku Contest 2010. Kids will need to count 5-7-5 to create their Earthday haiku and help all of us to learn how to keep the planet clean and healthy!
The contest theme is “What Earthday means to you”.
The contest is open to individual students 7-20 years old.
Starting Date : April 22nd, 2010.
Ending Date: May 22nd, 2010
Contest rules are shown on the Internet at http://kidsearthdayhaiku.blogspot.com/.
You can also learn more about haiku and Earthday at this site.
Secondly, I refer to President Mineo Nakajima （中嶋嶺雄）at Akita International University（国際教養大学） in order to express a lot of thanks for the support of the Earthday Haiku Contest.
AIU President Mineo Nakajima is eminent as Ph.D., Sociology, The University of Tokyo, M.A., International Relations, The University of Tokyo, and B.A., China Studies, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.
You will see what Dr. Nakajima has been doing as AIU President on the Internet at http://www.aiu.ac.jp.
Dr. Nakajima has also a clear understanding of haiku and feels a great love for haiku.
This is partly because his late father, Seiyo Nakajima （中嶋晴陽）, was one of the haiku poets in Japan.
In 1990, Dr. Nakajima compiled a book of haiku by his father, titled Seiyo Kushu (晴陽句集).
Let me show you its front cover page and the last haiku by Seiyo Nakajima.
Dr. Nakajima has written articles or essays on haiku for haiku journals or the newspapers, and has appeared in NHK TV program on haiku these days.
He also contributed the article of congratulations on the first issue of the yearly pamphlet by Akita International Haiku Network.
This is its front cover page, in which his article is shown:
In this article Dr. Nakajima presented haiku he wrote during his stay in Nara, when he went on a school trip in his junior high school days.
猿沢の灯の涼しさを宿にいて
嶺雄
Sarusawa no hi no suzushisa o yado ni ite
Donald Keene, the ex- member of the President’s Advisory Board at AIU, kindly contributed his Japanese translation for Matsuo Basho’s haiku from ‘The Narrow Road to Oku ‘ by Matsuo Basho （ 「おくのほそ道」松尾芭蕉）.
象潟や雨に西施がねぶの花
Kisakata ya ameni Seishi ga nebu no hana
Kisakata ―
Seishi sleeping in the rain,
Wet mimosa blossoms.
Donald Keene
Last of all, we sincerely hope that haiku will spread out to the world more because of its brevity and its coexistence with nature.
We also hope that more children and more young people will get interested in and love haiku through this Earthday Haiku Festival.
The next posting ‘Haiku by Students at AIU (Part 4)’ appears on May 1.
― Hidenori Hiruta
Akita International Haiku / Senryu / Tanka Network, whose website is Akita International Haiku Network, was established in Akita, Northern Honshu, Japan, in May, 2009.
We established this Network, with the motto, “We all try our best / in our busy, busy lives / to write poetry.” We opened the website in the hope that children as well as adults will write and enjoy haiku, senryu and tanka, and that they will share it on our network.
Our webmaster, Thorfinn Tait, opened the Akita International Haiku Network in May, 2009.
He is a teacher of English at Meioh High School in Akita.
He graduated from Edinburgh University in UK, where he majored in linguistics and learned Japanese.
He says in our yearly pamphlet as follows:
In May, I set up a website for the Network at Mr Hiruta’s request, using a free WordPress blog at wordpress.com. Recently blog software has become popular for producing all kinds of pages, and it seems particularly well-suited to our network.
As a result, the Network’s website has now been up and running for a year. Mr Hiruta has been posting haiku and articles contributed from poets inside and outside of Japan there on a weekly basis. If you haven’t already done so, please check out the web site at the address above.
I think we have an excellent opportunity to make the Akita International Haiku Network truly international and promote traditional Japanese forms of poetry around the world through our website. I hope you will all lend a hand to make the website a success.
In celebration of the 1st anniversary of the opening of our network, we hold International Haiku Spring Festival 2010 (Akita, Northern Honshu, Japan).
This festival is presented in Partnership with 2010 Bath Japanese Festival.
Please check out the Bath Japanese festival at http://sites.google.com/site/bathjapanesefestival/welcome/.
Let’s share haiku! Let’s share haibun!
Let’s share senryu! Let’s share tanka!
・What is it?
It is an online festival designed to give our readers an opportunity to share the Japanese short forms of poetry with each other, and enjoy writing and reading haiku, senryu, or tanka.
・When is it?
We are happy to announce that the Festival with run from May 12th – 23rd 2010.
・Where is it?
On the website of Akita International Haiku Network
・How do I get involved?
Please give us a comment on this site, saying that I would like to send my haiku, senryu, tanka, or haibun.
You will receive an e-mail from Hidenori Hiruta with his e-mail address.
We sincerely hope that you will enjoy our online festival on the Internet.
Last of all, let me show you part of how we have shared our poetic activities with our readers.
On July, 2009, a British haiku poet, John McDonald, gave us a comment on Basho’s peach blossoms posted on June 14, 2009.
Since then Mr. McDonald has given us a comment and encouraged us to continue posting haiku and articles on the website.
He also contributed his haiku book, whose title is THE THROU-GAUN CHIEL scots haiku, to me.
I posted part of his haiku in Scots as well as in English with my Japanese translation.
Scots haiku by Mr. McDonald ( Part 1) was posted on September 5, 2009 and Part 2 of his Scots haiku was posted on October 17, 2009.
In January, 2010, Mr. McDonald published his haiku booklet, whose front cover is shown as follows:
I also show part of his booklet.
Mr. McDonald sent the following e-mail to me.
Dear Hiruta San,
thank you most kindly for the translations, since there are others coming on sat. I’ll wait until then to collate the whole thing. This is just a small desktop effort by myself a copy for ourselves and then I’d like to send a copy to the scottish poetry library – this is a library we in scotland built a number of years ago a lovely modern building to house purely poetry from, as well as scottish writers, poets from all over the world so I felt this would be an archives where the two of us could sit forever (or as long as the building exists).hope my plan works out. Once I get saturdays translations I’ll set it up and hopefully get a copy off to you next week. thanks again
aye john
This is how we have enjoyed sharing the poetic works with each other.
We sincerely hope that you will share poetic works with us through International Haiku Spring Festival 2010.
The next posting ‘CHILDREN’S AND YOUNG PERSONS’ HAIKU CONTEST : Kids Count for Earthday 5-7-5 Haiku Contest 2010’ appears on April 24.
― Hidenori Hiruta
