Haiku event to celebrate 50 years of cultural exchange between Japan and EU

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

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

My name is Kazuko Nishimura, and I am a haiku poet from Japan.
I would like to express my gratitude for the opportunity to exchange haiku with friends of the EU on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the EU-Japan Friendship Treaty. I believe that this is nothing more or less than the fruit of the long-standing efforts of Mr. Herman Van Rompuy, the EU-Japan Haiku Exchange Ambassador, and all members at the International Haiku Association, first and foremost the late Dr. Akito Arima, the former president of the association.

I was born in 1948. I was born during the post-WWII baby boom, when I had to apply for admission into university, it was in the midst of what has been called the university entrance examination war. When I got married it was during the marriage boom, and when I gave birth to my children, it was during the years of the second baby boom. The only thing that did not have anything to do with any boom was my life with haiku, that genre somewhere tucked away in a corner of literature, which I have been composing ever since I was a teenager. Recently, I have been thinking about why I have been writing, reviewing and enjoying haiku for such a long time, and what the appeal of haiku is.

One reason is that haiku are short. You can make them anywhere. They are easy to remember. You don’t need to choose a special place to compose them, and you don’t need any special tools.
The second reason is that haiku poems seek their subject matter in everyday life, including the changing seasons. The small sensations and discoveries of everyday life provide the seeds for creative work.

Finally, I would like to mention the appeal of haiku gatherings. At haiku gatherings, everyone submits his/her work anonymously on an equal basis, and the verses are judged on their own merits without interference of any bias. That creates the possibility to find like-minded others who are moved by your verse. When I participate in haiku gatherings, I am not just the wife of Mr. Nishimura or the mother of our children, but I am recognised as an author in my own right, and I feel like an author in my own right. I think that this sums up the appeal that has kept me making haiku without ever getting bored.

We will introduce this ‘haiku meeting’ in more detail at tomorrow’s workshop.

By the way, who is the most famous Japanese person in the world?
It’s Basho.

Furuike ya, kawazu tobikomu mizu no oto

His haiku about the sound of splashing water when a frog/frogs jump into the pond is a well-known work. It is the world’s shortest poem, consisting of 5, 7 and 5 syllables. This Japanese regular form of poetry, consisting of an alternation of 5 and 7 syllables, can already be seen in the oldest collection of Japanese poetry, the Manyoshu (759). After going through various changes, the 5, 7 and 5 syllables became an independent verse form at the hands of Masaoka Shiki, and by the same token it became the world’s shortest poem.
For Japanese people, the rhythm of five-syllables and seven-syllables is pleasant to the ear, and easy to recite and to remember. Even today, we can see this rhythm used in slogans, enka (traditional-style Japanese popular ballads) and commercial jingles, and that is probably because it is so easy to recite and remember that pattern.

Speaking of easy to remember, I can’t forget the poem by Jean Cocteau that I heard when I was a teenager

My ears are empty shells (私の耳は貝のから)
Longing for the murmur of the sea. (海の響をなつかしむ)

This is the poem L’Oreille, which is included in Cocteau’s collection Poésies.

Mon oreille est un coquillage
Qui aime le bruit de la mer.

The Japanese translation is by Horiguchi Daigaku, and is included in his collection of translated poems Gekka no ichigun (月下の一群)

The Japanese translation has been hailed as a masterful translation in Japan. It is in some respect superior to the original. Especially the choice of the word ‘なつかしむ’ as a translation for ‘qui aime’ is richer in overtones and connotation than the original. It suggest that the shell longs for the sea, the habitat where it once lived before being extracted from it, possibly by force.
I think the poem by Cocteau is unforgettable because it was translated into a seven-five syllable rhythm.

Incidentally, already one hundred years ago some haiku poets made attempts at shedding the constraints of the regular verse experimenting with free verse.

Basho’s old pond haiku has been translated into many languages all over the world, and there are said to be over 100 different versions. When I was a Japanese teacher, I once asked my students from various countries what the sound of water was like. They gave various answers, such as ‘pudon’, ‘pippi’, and ‘zabun’ etc. It obviously also depends on the size of the frog. What kind of sound do you imagine? Japanese people usually say ‘pochan’. It’s a light sound.
The seasonal word in this haiku is ‘frog’, and it represents the stirrings of spring, of life emerging from hibernation, but I think that people in different countries will imagine different things. This is because there is such a difference in the size of frogs.
Why are seasonal words so crucial to haiku? The origins of this can also be found in the history of Japanese literature. From the beginnings of Japanese literature, ‘seasons’ were a topic of major interest, along with themes such as ‘love’, ‘parting’, ‘travel’ and ‘sorrow’.

This is thought to be related to the Japanese view of nature. While Western people have developed their civilisation by conquering nature, we in the East have created our culture by acknowledging that we are part of nature and that we live by the grace and blessings of nature.

Season words or not?
I believe that season words conjure up a world of imagination, but there are people who look for keywords elsewhere, outside the vocabulary of the season words.

It is said that there are currently 10 million people in Japan who write haiku. Every week, both national and local newspapers include a section for tanka and haiku, and people from all walks of life send in their works. I also serve as a judge on some of these sections, and we receive between 300 and 400 haiku each week. There are also haiku programmes on TV and radio, and haiku competitions are held all over the country every month.

In recent times haiku has become a form of poetry that people all over the world enjoy writing and reading in their own language. The International Haiku Association is receiving haiku from 32 countries.
My life is a simple and ordinary one, but haiku has been a source of spiritual and emotional enrichment. Haiku has helped me to vividly recall memories, and I have been both encouraged and comforted by the great haiku written by poets of the past. I hope to continue to devote my life to further perfecting my art.
I have published a selection of the 100 best haiku I have written so far, and I have selected 20 out of those 100 for translation into English and French. You will have received a booklet with those 20 translated haiku, and I would be delighted if you would read them together with the essay and let me know what you think.
I have shared my thoughts on the appeal of haiku, but I expect that the internationalisation of haiku will lead to further new developments. It is now time for me to learn about the appeal of haiku exerts on everyone of you. Thank you very much.

Yesterday Mr. and Mrs. Van Rompuy took us on a trip to Cadzand, a sea resort in the Netherlands, just across the Belgian-Dutch border. There Mr. and Mrs. Van Rompuy took us on visit to a so-called haiku park, where 20 haikus have been inscribed and exhibited on panels, mounted on supports, for walkers-by to read.
Looking out over the sea, we wrote:

A calm North Sea,
twenty haiku panels
waiting for spring / Hana Fujimoto
(海静か二十の句碑や春を待つ / 藤本はな)

In the North Sea
sea currents meeting,
Spring is not far away / Kazuko Nishimura
(春遠からじ北海の潮境 / 西村和子)

Buffeted by gusts
of wind, sea currents
blending / Kazuko Nishimura
(寒風はぶつかり潮目混じり合ふ / 西村和子)