Haiku is poetry, and a way of life

Haiku is allegedly the shortest poem in the world. It is a rhymeless verse consisting of 17 syllables, with roots in Japan. The following definition comes close to Basho’s one: haiku is a short rhymeless poem, characterized by a prosodic pattern of 5-7-5 syllables (mora), including a season word (kigo), a cutting word (kireji), and, we might add: suggestiveness (yoin). Suggestiveness is a poetical effect that often if not generally involves imagination, metaphor, simile, fiction etc. Haiku in Japan went through a centuries-long process of development and maturation. As a form of word craft, it is inextricably intertwined with the genius of the Japanese language. Over the centuries countless poets have refined through haiku the expressive possibilities of the Japanese language and broadened its boundaries and in the process enriched it. It was given to the world by Japan and is now practiced globally. You can write haiku in almost every language in the world.

It is an ambition to have haiku become a UNESCO World Heritage. It is the dream of the late Professor Arima, the former president of the HIA and former minister of Education.

There are differences between the Western and Japanese interpretation of haiku.

We need to stress even more than before how haiku is partly a response to the world we live in today, how haiku in a way responds to a need in the spirit of the times we live in. Why?

Our world is highly organized, almost in a technocratic way. Everything is regulated not only by governments but also by the private sector. Everything is so perfectly organized, too perfect, too complicated that one failure disturbs the whole. If there is a hitch, a problem e.g. due to covid or a war then the supply lines get blocked.We are used to being well served as a consumer and do not realize how complicated our economy and our society has become. Haiku excels at the opposite, at simplicity.

The haiku poet looks at small things in nature or undergoes the seasons in all its forms. He or she tries to capture that observation, that experience, in seventeen syllables. He expresses in words what he experiences and conveys it clearly to the reader. There is not even usually a title on a haiku verse. The words must speak for themselves. Life can be simple in a not-so-simple society. That is what haiku teaches us.

The haiku poet is not blind to what is happening in the world and in nature but he or she has a deep desire for harmony. The poet knows that nature can be cruel and that the seasons can be capricious. But because of this, the poet seeks harmony even more. It is not because something does not always exist that one cannot yearn for it. On the contrary.

Because he is a man or woman longing for harmony he does not stand violence and war. It goes against all that he has in him or her. I cannot imagine a haiku poet who goes to war or who is wicked. Haiku, harmony and peace go together. Needless to say, in today’s world where invasion of another country, atrocities, war or its threat has reappeared close to us, that haiku is a sign of peace and thus particularly timely. An overwhelming majority of people wants to live a normal and happy life, caring for their loved ones.

To illustrate this, I will for once quote myself:

An old dog faithfully Plodding at his masters’ side Growing old together

Herman Van Rompuy

Harmony also does not rhyme with negative feelings such as jealousy, avarice, revenge, humiliation, rivalry, anger, vanity, bullying, insults, etc. that sometimes make daily life or public life impossible. One cannot want to be harmonious in one part of ourselves and the opposite in another. That is unlivable and inconsistent. I know that many people live compartmentalized lives. A kind man or woman may be kind in his profession and insufferable at home or vice versa. Haiku unlearns that.

Haiku can also be a comfort to those who are suffering. Not because it is an escape from reality but because that same reality also has positive and hidden sides. The haiku poet does not allow himself to be absorbed by the bad in men but focuses on the small things that make life enjoyable and bearable.

I said that the poet is focused on the things around them. He or she is all attentive to everything that happens around them and to the repercussions this has in their heads and in their hearts. Attention is essential. Anyone who wants to mean something to people must see them, like nature, in their concrete way of life. Attention is also a form of respect for the other human being and everything else. The poet is in the present. He frees himself to accept things as they are, in their simplicity and beauty.

I add a nuance of my own. Haiku can also be about human experiences with nature and the season in the background. 

Through this, the haiku poet exercises himself in modesty. He acknowledges reality as it is. Through this focus on what is happening outside him or her, he forgets his Ego. His own will or vanity goes up in smoke when he comes into contact with the reality around him. It is then no longer about himself but about the other. Instead of self-centeredness, haiku is about other-centeredness. In this sense, haiku has an ethical dimension. It can make us a better person.

Poetry is a solitary activity but in haiku it does not stop there. The haiku poet has his verses discussed in haiku groups and sometimes adapts them. This is unthinkable in classical poetry. So there is also a social dimension to haiku poetry. Let us not forget that haiku is not only an ‘art’ but also a ‘craft’. One can always learn technically or learn to look and listen better. The social contact also humbles us.

I give another historical proof of why haiku is a social thing. Basho was known as a master of haikai. This was a sequence of linked verse, which was usually written by two or more fellow poets. Bashô, as a recognized master, would often write the first verse in such a sequence, which was called hokku, literally ‘initial verse’. A fellow poet would then link to the initial verse a fourteen syllable verse, called wakiku, or ‘added verse’. This in turn was followed by a third verse, again comprising seventeen syllables, and this one would in turn be followed by a fourteen syllable verse, etc. In some way a kukaï had a social dimension. A kukai is a haiku contest where the participants, the poets do the judging themselves.

For many writers the brevity of haiku poses a problem. How is it possible for poetry to be so short and yet still be poetry? The brevity and the honest, overt simplicity allow everyone to participate, making it a communal, social medium.

There are a lot of similarities between meditation and haiku. It presupposes the same ‘attention’. In the case of meditation, it is focusing on the mantra, a word repeated continuously during meditation. 

Of course, there are also a differences. The poet puts his experiences into words and into beauty. The meditator wants to distance himself from the agenda of the Ego by reciting the mantra. The mantra pushes aside the worries of the present. Therefore energy is released for the other, the neighbor, the cosmos, the divine, eternity. Less Ego means more Love. The poet, however, does not leave it at that and wants to share something and touch people through the power of words and underlying thoughts. Of course there is no contradiction between meditation and haiku. They can be practiced separately but they can also strengthen each other. At least that is my experience.

Needless to say, this othercenteredness doesn’t really respond to the spirit of the times, where there is a lot of individualization and individualism. Society is too atomized, fragmented, polarized, intolerant. It is sometimes the triumph of self-righteousness. Listening and respecting require an effort from the Ego. It becomes a little less Ego as a result. I already mentioned how the haiku poet cannot be anything but modest. Modesty is becoming a rare virtue in today’s world, especially in public life.

Individualism or egoism, of course, is something else than poetry, even haiku poetry, as an expression of an individual’s experience and feeling.

Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902) is recognized as the founding father of modern haiku. Under the influence of Western notions of literature and poetry, he held that literature, including poetry, should be realistic and an expression of the individual. But an Individual person is not a ‘ God deep in his heart’. I recall modesty.

A haiku is short. That is why it is read twice. Sometimes haiku is compared to Twitter or X which is also limited to 280 characters. However, there is a big difference: a Twitter post usually contains a so-called opinion of its own, usually expressed negatively and aggressively. Haiku is not about the author and thus has nothing to do with self-conceit and vanity. So perhaps the opposite of Twitter.

I come back to haiku as a candidate for UNESCO heritage. We are promoting it more than eight years since Professor Arima established the Haiku UNESCO Promotion Council in 2017 supported by four major Haiku Associations in Japan and with 47 local authorities.  Parliament Members also established a supporting group in the Diet in same year. The President is Fumio Kishida, former Prime minister.

In Japan, many cultural assets want to be registered by UNESCO every two years. We are now on the way waiting to be registered from the Agency of Culture within Japan. It takes time to be investigated by the Agency. Once haiku is registered from the Cultural Agency, hopefully in two years we go for UNESCO in Paris.

We continue to work to bring Akito Arima’s last and his entire life’s wish of “world peace through haiku” to a good end. We are hopeful knowing that hope is a verb. We work so that our hope comes through. May I quote another of my verses?

All over the world Poets sing of life and nature This sharing makes peace

Herman Van Rompuy