Japanese poetry of the haiku haiku genre. Japanese haiku tercets

The beauty of poetry enchants almost all people. It’s not for nothing that they say that music can tame even the most ferocious beast. So the beauty of creativity sinks deep into the soul. How do the poems differ? What is so attractive about Japanese haiku tercets? And how can we learn to perceive their deep meaning?

The beauty of Japanese poetry

The light of the moon and the fragile tenderness of the morning snow inspire Japanese poets to create tercets of unusual brightness and depth. Japanese haiku is a poem characterized by lyrical presentation. In addition, it can be unfinished and leave room for imagination and thoughtful reflection. Haiku (or haiku) poetry does not tolerate haste or harshness. The philosophy of these soul creations is directed directly into the hearts of listeners and reflects the hidden thoughts and secrets of the author. The common people love to create these short poetic formulas, where there are no unnecessary words, and the syllable harmoniously passes from folk to literary, continuing to develop and give rise to new poetic forms.

The emergence of a national poetic form

The original poetic forms, so famous in Japan, are quintets and terts (tanka and haiku). Tanka is literally interpreted as a short song. Initially, this was the name given to folk songs that appeared at the dawn of Japanese history. The Nagauta, which were distinguished by their excessive length, were forced into the tank. Epic and lyrical songs of variable length have been preserved in folklore. Many years later, Japanese haiku separated from tanki during the heyday of urban culture. Haiku contains all the wealth. In the history of Japanese poetry there have been periods of both prosperity and decline. There were also moments when Japanese haiku could disappear altogether. But over a long period of time, it became obvious that short and succinct poetic forms are a necessity and an urgent need for poetry. Such forms of poetry can be composed quickly, under a storm of emotions. You can put your passionate thought into metaphors or aphorisms, making it memorable, reflecting praise or reproach.

Characteristic features of Japanese poetry

Japanese haiku poetry is distinguished by its desire for conciseness, conciseness of forms, love for minimalism, which is inherent in Japanese national art, which is universal and can create minimalistic and monumental images with equal virtuosity. Why is Japanese haiku so popular and attractive? First of all, this is a condensed thought, reflected by the thoughts of ordinary citizens who are wary of the traditions of classical poetry. Japanese haiku is becoming the bearer of a capacious idea and is most responsive to the needs of growing generations. The beauty of Japanese poetry lies in the depiction of those objects that are close to every person. It shows the life of nature and man in harmonious unity against the backdrop of the changing seasons. Japanese poetry is syllabic, with a rhythm based on alternating the number of syllables. Rhyme in haiku is unimportant, but the sound and rhythmic organization of the tercet is primary.

Poem size

Only the unenlightened one thinks that this original verse has no parameters or limitations. Japanese haiku has a fixed meter with a certain number of syllables. Each verse has its own number: in the first - five, in the second - seven, and in the third - only seventeen syllables. But this does not limit poetic license in any way. A true creator will never respect the meter in achieving poetic expressiveness.

The small size of haiku makes even a European sonnet monumental. The art of writing Japanese haiku lies precisely in the ability to express thoughts in a concise form. In this respect, haiku is similar to folk proverbs. The main differences between such proverbs and haiku lie in their genre characteristics. Japanese haiku is not an edifying saying, not a well-aimed wit, but a poetic picture, decorated in a few strokes. The poet's task is lyrical excitement, flight of imagination and detail of the picture. Japanese haiku has examples even in the works of Chekhov. In his letters he describes the beauty of moonlit nights, stars and black shadows.

Necessary elements of the creativity of Japanese poets

The method of creating Japanese tercets requires maximum activity of the writer, complete immersion in creativity. It is impossible to simply skim through a collection of haiku without paying attention. Each poem requires thoughtful reading and philosophical reflection. A passive reader will not be able to feel the impulse inherent in the content of the creation. Only when the thoughts of the reader and the creator work together is true art born, just as the swing of a bow and the trembling of a string give birth to music. The miniature size of haiku does not at all make the creator’s task easier, because this means that the immensity must be contained in a small number of words, and there is simply no time for a lengthy presentation of one’s thoughts. In order not to hastily express the meaning, the writer looks for a culmination in each phenomenon.

Heroes of Japanese haiku

Many poets express their thoughts and emotions in haiku by giving the main role to a specific object. Some poets reflect the people's worldview with loving depictions of small forms and affirmation of their right to life. In their works, poets stand up for insects, amphibians, simple peasants and gentlemen. Therefore, Japanese haiku tercet examples have a social sound. The emphasis on small forms allows you to paint a picture on a large scale.

The beauty of nature in verse

Japanese haiku about nature is akin to painting, as it often becomes a transmission of the plot of paintings and a source of inspiration for artists. Sometimes haiku is a special component of a painting, which is presented as a calligraphic inscription underneath it. A striking example of such work is Buson’s tercet:
"Colors are all around. The sun is going out in the west. The moon is rising in the east."

Wide fields are described, covered with yellow colza flowers, seeming especially bright in the rays of sunset. The fiery ball of the sun contrasts effectively with the pallor of the rising moon. Haiku does not go into detail to demonstrate the effect of lighting or color palette, but it does offer a new perspective on the painting. The grouping of the main elements and details of the picture depends on the poet. The laconic manner of depiction makes Japanese haiku similar to the color prints of ukiyo-e:

Spring rain is pouring!
They talk along the way
Umbrella and mino.

This Buson haiku is a genre scene in the spirit of ukiyo-e prints. Its meaning is in a conversation between two passers-by in the spring rain. One of them is covered with an umbrella, and the second is dressed in a straw cloak - mino. The peculiarity of this haiku is the fresh breath of spring and subtle humor, close to the grotesque.

Images in poems by Japanese poets

The poet who creates Japanese haiku often gives preference not to visual, but to sound images. Each sound is filled with a special meaning, feeling and mood. A poem can reflect the howl of the wind, the chirping of cicadas, the cries of a pheasant, the singing of a nightingale and lark, the voice of a cuckoo. This is how haiku is remembered, describing a whole orchestra sounding in the forest.

The lark sings.
With a resounding blow in the thicket
The pheasant echoes him.
(Basho)

Readers do not have a three-dimensional panorama of associations and images, but they awaken thoughts with certain directions. The poems resemble monochrome ink drawings, without unnecessary details. Only a few skillfully selected elements help create a picture of late autumn that is brilliant in its laconicism. You can feel the pre-wind silence and sad stillness of nature. The light contour of the image nevertheless has increased capacity and fascinates with its depth. And even if the poem describes only nature, one can feel the state of the poet’s soul, his painful loneliness.

Flight of the reader's imagination

The appeal of haiku lies in the feedback. Only this poetic form allows one to have equal opportunities with writers. The reader becomes a co-author. And he can be guided by his imagination in depicting the image. Together with the poet, the reader experiences sadness, shares melancholy and plunges into the depth of personal experiences. Over the long centuries of existence, ancient haiku has not become less profound. Japanese haiku rather does not show, but hints and suggests. The poet Issa expressed his longing for his dead child in haiku:

Our life is a dewdrop.
Let just a drop of dew
Our life - and yet...

Dew is a metaphor for the frailty of life. Buddhism teaches the brevity and ephemerality of human life and its low value. But still, the father cannot come to terms with the loss of a loved one and cannot approach life like a philosopher. His silence at the end of the stanza speaks louder than words.

Misunderstanding in haiku

A mandatory element of Japanese haiku is reticence and the ability to independently continue the line of the creator. Most often, a verse contains two significant words, and the rest is formalities and exclamations. All unnecessary details are discarded, leaving bare facts without embellishment. Poetic means are selected very sparingly, since metaphors and epithets are not used whenever possible. It also happens that Japanese haiku poems are true, but the direct meaning lies in the subtext.

From the heart of a peony
A bee crawls out slowly...
Oh, with what reluctance!

Basho wrote this poem at the moment of parting with his friend’s house and clearly conveyed all the emotions.

Japanese haiku pose was and remains an innovative art, owned by ordinary people: merchants, artisans, peasants and even beggars. Sincere feelings and natural emotions inherent in every person bring together representatives of various classes.

where the bell once sank

Where are you, moon, now?
Like a sunken bell
She disappeared to the bottom of the sea.

A secluded house.
Moon... Chrysanthemums... In addition to them
A patch of small field.

In a mountain village

The nuns story
About previous service at court...
There is deep snow all around.

Mossy gravestone.
Under it - is it in reality or in a dream? –
A voice whispers prayers.

The dragonfly is spinning...
Can't get a hold
For stalks of flexible grass.

The bell fell silent in the distance,
But the scent of evening flowers
Its echo floats.

Falls with a leaf...
No, look! Halfway there
The firefly flew up.

Fisherman's hut.
Mixed up in a pile of shrimp
Lonely cricket.

Sick goose dropped
On a field on a cold night.
A lonely dream on the way.

Even a wild boar
Will spin you around and take you with you
This winter field whirlwind!

sad me
Give me more sadness,
Cuckoos distant call!

I clapped my hands loudly.
And where the echo sounded,
The summer moon is growing pale.

On the night of the full moon

A friend sent me a gift
Risu, I invited him
To visit the moon itself.

Of great antiquity
There's a whiff... The garden near the temple
Covered with fallen leaves.

So easy, so easy
Floated out - and in the cloud
The moon thought.

White fungus in the forest.
Some unknown leaf
It stuck to his hat.

Dewdrops sparkle.
But they have a taste of sadness,
Don't forget!

That's right, this cicada
Are you all drunk? –
One shell remains.

The leaves have fallen.
The whole world is one color.
Only the wind hums.

Trees were planted in the garden.
Quietly, quietly, to encourage them,
Autumn rain whispers.

So that the cold whirlwind
Give them the aroma, they open up again
Late autumn flowers.

Rocks among cryptomerias!
How I sharpened their teeth
Winter cold wind!

Everything was covered with snow.
Lonely old woman
In a forest hut.

Planting rice

I didn’t have time to take my hands away,
Like a spring breeze
Settled in a green sprout.

All the excitement, all the sadness
Of your troubled heart
Give it to the flexible willow.

She closed her mouth tightly
Sea shell.
Unbearable heat!

In memory of the poet Tojun

Stayed and left
Bright moon... Stayed
Table with four corners.

Seeing a painting for sale
works by Kano Motonobu

...Brushes by Motonobu himself!
How sad is the fate of your masters!
The twilight of the year is approaching.

Under the open umbrella
I make my way through the branches.
Willows in the first down.

From the sky of its peaks
Only river willows
It's still raining.

Saying goodbye to friends

The ground disappears from under your feet.
I grab onto a light ear...
The moment of separation has arrived.

Transparent Waterfall…
Fell into a light wave
Pine needle.

Hanging in the sun
Cloud... Across it -
Migratory birds.

Autumn darkness
Broken and driven away
Conversation of friends.

Death Song

I got sick on the way.
And everything runs, my dream circles
Through scorched fields.

A strand of dead mother's hair

If I take her in my hands,
It will melt - my tears are so hot! –
Autumn frost of hair.

Spring morning.
Over every nameless hill
Transparent haze.

I'm walking along a mountain path.
Suddenly I felt at ease for some reason.
Violets in the thick grass.

On a mountain pass

To the capital - there, in the distance -
Half the sky remains...
Snow clouds.

She is only nine days old.
But both fields and mountains know:
Spring has come again.

Where it once stood

buddha statue

Cobwebs above.
I see the image of Buddha again
At the foot of the empty.

Soaring larks above
I sat down to rest in the sky -
On the very ridge of the pass.

Visiting Nara City

On Buddha's birthday
He was born
Little deer.

Where it flies
The pre-dawn cry of the cuckoo,
What's there? - Distant island.

Flute Sanemori

Sumadera Temple.
I hear the flute playing by itself
In the dark thicket of trees.

KORAI (1651–1704)

How is this, friends?
A man looks at the cherry blossoms
And on his belt is a long sword!

On the death of a younger sister

Alas, in my hand,
Weakening unnoticeably,
My firefly went out.

ISSE (1653–1688)

Seen everything in the world
My eyes are back
To you, white chrysanthemums.

RANSETSU (1654–1707)

autumn moon
Painting a pine tree with ink
In blue skies.

Flower... And another flower...
This is how the plum blossoms,
This is how warmth comes.

I looked at midnight:
Changed direction
Heavenly river.

KIKAKU (1661–1707)

Midge light swarm
Flies upward - floating bridge
For my dream.

A beggar is on the way!
In the summer all his clothes are
Heaven and earth.

To me at dawn in a dream
My mother has come... Don't drive her away
With your cry, cuckoo!

How beautiful your fish are!
But if only, old fisherman,
You could try them yourself!

Paid tribute
Earthly and fell silent,
Like the sea on a summer day.

JOSO (1662–1704)

And fields and mountains -
The snow quietly stole everything...
It immediately became empty.

Moonlight is pouring from the sky.
Hid in the shadow of the idol
Blinded Owl.

ONITSURA (1661–1738)

No place for water from the vat
Spit it out for me now...
Cicadas are singing everywhere!

TIYO (1703–1775)

During the night the bindweed entwined itself
Around the tub of my well...
I'll get some water from my neighbor!

To the death of a little son

O my dragonfly catcher!
Far into the unknown distance
Have you run in today?

Full moon night!
Even the birds didn't lock it up
Doors in their nests.

Dew on saffron flowers!
It will spill onto the ground
And it will become simple water...

O bright moon!
I walked and walked to you,
And you are still far away.

Only their screams can be heard...
Egrets are invisible
In the morning on fresh snow.

Plum spring color
Gives its aroma to a person...
The one who broke the branch.

KAKEI (1648–1716)

The autumn storm is raging!
Barely born month
He's about to sweep it out of the sky.

SICO (1665–1731)

O maple leaves!
You burn your wings
Flying birds.

BUSON (1716–1783)

From this willow
The evening twilight begins.
Road in the field.

Here they come out of the box...
How could I forget your faces?..
It's time for holiday dolls.

Heavy bell.
And at its very edge
A butterfly is dozing.

Only the top of Fuji
They didn’t bury themselves
Young leaves.

Cool breeze.
Leaving the bells
The evening bell floats.

Old well in the village.
The fish rushed after the midge...
A dark splash in the depths.

Thunderstorm shower!
Slightly clings to the grass
A flock of sparrows.

The moon shines so brightly!
Suddenly came across me
The blind man laughed...

"The storm has begun!" –
Robber on the road
Warned me.

The cold penetrated to the heart:
On the crest of the deceased wife
I stepped in the bedroom.

I hit with an ax
And froze... What a scent
There was a whiff of air in the winter forest!

To the west is moonlight
Moving. Shadows of flowers
They are going east.

The summer night is short.
Sparkled on the caterpillar
Drops of dawn dew.

KITO (1741–1789)

I met a messenger on the way.
Spring wind playing
The open letter rustles.

Thunderstorm shower!
Dropped Dead
The horse comes to life.

You're walking on the clouds
And suddenly on a mountain path
Through the rain - cherry blossoms!

ISSA (1768–1827)

This is how the pheasant screams
It's like he opened it
The first star.

The winter snow has melted.
Light up with joy
Even the faces of the stars.

There are no strangers between us!
We are all each other's brothers
Under the cherry blossoms.

Look, nightingale
Sings the same song
And in the face of the gentlemen!

Passing wild goose!
Tell me your wanderings
How old were you when you started?

O cicada, don't cry!
There is no love without separation
Even for the stars in the sky.

The snow has melted -
And suddenly the whole village is full
Noisy kids!

Oh, don't trample the grass!
There were fireflies shining
Yesterday at night sometimes.

The moon has come out
And the smallest bush
Invited to the celebration.

That's right, in a previous life
You were my sister
Sad cuckoo...

Tree - for felling...
And the birds carefree
They're building a nest there!

Don't quarrel along the way,
Help each other like brothers
Migratory birds!

To the death of a little son

Our life is a dewdrop.
Let just a drop of dew
Our life - and yet...

Oh, if only there was an autumn whirlwind
He brought so many fallen leaves,
To warm the hearth!

Quietly, quietly crawl,
Snail, along the slope of Fuji
Up to the very heights!

In thickets of weeds,
Look how beautiful they are
Butterflies are born!

I punished the child
But he tied him to a tree there,
Where the cool wind blows.

Sad world!
Even when the cherry blossoms...
Even then...

So I knew in advance
That they are beautiful, these mushrooms,
Killing people!

Japanese haiku tercets for schoolchildren

Japanese haiku tercets
Japanese culture is quite often classified as a “closed” culture. Not immediately, not from the first acquaintance, the uniqueness of Japanese aesthetics, the unusual charm of Japanese
customs and beauty of Japanese art monuments. Lecturer-methodologist Svetlana Viktorovna Samykina, Samara, introduces us to one of the manifestations of the “mysterious Japanese soul” - haiku poetry.

I've barely gotten better
Exhausted, until the night...
And suddenly - wisteria flowers!
Basho
Just three lines. A few words. And the reader’s imagination has already painted a picture: a tired traveler who has been on the road for many days. He is hungry, exhausted, and finally, he has a place to sleep for the night! But our hero is in no hurry to enter, because suddenly, in an instant, he forgot about all the hardships in the world: he is admiring the wisteria flowers.
Haiku or haiku. As you like. Homeland - Japan. Date of birth: Middle Ages. Once you open a collection of haiku, you will forever remain captive of Japanese poetry. What is the secret of this unusual genre?
From the heart of a peony
A bee slowly crawls out...
Oh, with what reluctance!
Basho
This is how the Japanese treat nature sensitively, reverently enjoy its beauty, and absorb it.
Perhaps the reason for this attitude should be sought in the ancient religion of the Japanese people - Shintoism? Shinto preaches: be grateful to nature. She can be ruthless and harsh, but more often she is generous and affectionate. It was the Shinto faith that instilled in the Japanese a sensitivity to nature and the ability to enjoy its endless changeability. Shinto was replaced by Buddhism, just as in Rus' Christianity replaced paganism. Shinto and Buddhism are a stark contrast. On the one hand, there is a sacred attitude towards nature, the veneration of ancestors, and on the other, complex Eastern philosophy. Paradoxically, these two religions coexist peacefully in the Land of the Rising Sun. A modern Japanese will admire blooming sakura, cherry trees, and autumn maples blazing with fire.
From human voices
Shudderingly in the evening
Cherry beauties.
Issa
Japan loves flowers very much, and they prefer simple, wild flowers with their timid and discreet beauty. A tiny vegetable garden or flower bed is often planted near Japanese houses. An expert on this country, V. Ovchinnikov, writes that you need to see the Japanese islands to understand why their inhabitants consider nature to be a measure of beauty.
Japan is a country of green mountains and sea bays, mosaic rice fields, gloomy volcanic lakes, picturesque pine trees on the rocks. Here you can see something unusual: bamboo bent under the weight of snow - this is a symbol of the fact that in Japan north and south are adjacent.
The Japanese subordinate the rhythm of their lives to events in nature. Family celebrations are timed to coincide with the cherry blossoms and the autumn full moon. Spring on the islands is not quite similar to ours in Europe, with melting snow, ice drifts, and floods. It begins with a violent outbreak of flowering. Pink sakura inflorescences delight the Japanese not only with their abundance, but also with their fragility. The petals are held so loosely in the inflorescences that at the slightest breath of wind a pink waterfall flows onto the ground. On days like these, everyone rushes out of town to the parks. Listen to how the lyrical hero punishes himself for breaking the branch of a flowering tree:
Throw a stone at me.
Plum blossom branch
I'm broke now.
Kikaku
The first snow is also a holiday.
It does not appear often in Japan. But when he walks, the houses become very cold, since the Japanese houses are light gazebos. And yet the first snow is a holiday. The windows open and, sitting by the small braziers, the Japanese drink sake and admire the snow flakes that fall on the paws of the pine trees and on the bushes in the garden.
First snow.
I'd put it on a tray
I would just watch and watch.
Kikaku
The maples are blazing with autumn leaves - in Japan it is a holiday to admire the crimson foliage of maples.
Oh, maple leaves.
You burn your wings
Flying birds.
Siko
All haiku is appeal. To whom?
To the leaves. Why does the poet turn to maple leaves? He loves their bright colors: yellow, red - even the wings of birds burn. Let us imagine for a moment that the poetic appeal was addressed to the leaves of an oak tree. Then a completely different image would be born - an image of perseverance, endurance, because the leaves of oak trees remain firmly on the branches until winter frosts.
The classic tercet should reflect some time of year. Here is Issa talking about autumn:
Peasant in the field.
And showed me the way
Picked radish.
Issa will say about the transience of a sad winter day:
Opening his beak,
The wren did not have time to sing.
The day is over.
And here you will, without a doubt, remember the sultry summer:
Flocked together
Mosquitoes to the sleeping person.
Lunch time.
Issa
Think about who's waiting for lunch. Of course, mosquitoes. The author is ironic.
Let's see what the structure of haiku is. What are the rules of this genre? Its formula is simple: 5 7 5. What do these numbers mean? We can have children explore this problem and they will certainly find that the numbers above indicate the number of syllables in each line. If we look carefully at the haiku collection, we will notice that not all tercets have such a clear structure (5 7 5). Why? Children will answer this question themselves. The fact is that we read Japanese haiku in translation. The translator must convey the author's idea and at the same time maintain a strict form. This is not always possible, and in this case he sacrifices form.
This genre chooses means of artistic expression extremely sparingly: few epithets and metaphors. There is no rhyme, no strict rhythm is observed. How does the author manage to create an image in a few words, with meager means? It turns out that the poet works a miracle: he awakens the imagination of the reader himself. The art of haiku is the ability to say a lot in a few lines. In a sense, every tercet ends with an ellipsis. After reading a poem, you imagine a picture, an image, experience it, rethink it, think it through, create it. That is why for the first time in the second grade we are working with the concept of “artistic image” using the material of Japanese tercets.
Willow is bent over and sleeping.
And it seems to me that a nightingale is on a branch -
This is her soul.
Basho
Let's discuss the poem.
Remember how we usually see willow?
This is a tree with silver-green leaves, bent near the water, near the road. All the willow branches are sadly lowered down. It is not for nothing that in poetry the willow is a symbol of sadness, melancholy, and melancholy. Remember the poem by L. Druskin “There is a willow ...” (see the textbook by V. Sviridova “Literary Reading” 1st grade) or Basho:
All the excitement, all the sadness
Of your troubled heart
Give it to the flexible willow.
Sadness and melancholy are not your path, the poet tells us, give this load to the willow tree, because all of it is the personification of sadness.
What can you say about the nightingale?
This bird is inconspicuous and gray, but how it sings!
Why is the nightingale the soul of the sad willow?
Apparently, we learned about the thoughts, dreams, and hopes of the tree from the song of the nightingale. He told us about her soul, mysterious and beautiful.
In your opinion, does the nightingale sing or is silent?
There may be several correct answers to this question (as often happens in a literature lesson), because everyone has their own image. Some will say that the nightingale, of course, sings, otherwise how would we know about the soul of the willow? Others will think that the nightingale is silent, because it is night and everything in the world is sleeping. Each reader will see his own picture and create his own image.
Japanese art speaks eloquently in the language of omissions. Understatement, or yugen, is one of his principles. Beauty is in the depths of things. Be able to notice it, and this requires subtle taste. The Japanese don't like symmetry. If the vase is in the middle on the table, it will automatically be moved to the edge of the table. Why? Symmetry as completeness, as completeness, as repetition is uninteresting. So, for example, the dishes on a Japanese table (service) will necessarily have different patterns and different colors.
An ellipsis often appears at the end of haiku. This is not an accident, but a tradition, a principle of Japanese art. For a resident of the Land of the Rising Sun, the thought is important and close: the world is forever changing, therefore in art there cannot be completeness, there cannot be a peak - a point of balance and peace. The Japanese even have a catchphrase: “The empty spaces on a scroll are filled with more meaning than what the brush has written on it.”
The highest manifestation of the concept of “yugen” is the philosophical garden. This is a poem made of stone and sand. American tourists see it as a “tennis court” - a rectangle covered with white gravel, where stones are scattered in disarray. What does a Japanese think about while peering at these stones? V. Ovchinnikov writes that words cannot convey the philosophical meaning of a rock garden; for the Japanese it is an expression of the world in its endless variability.
But let's return to literature. The great Japanese poet Matsuo Basho raised the genre to unsurpassed heights. Every Japanese knows his poems by heart.
Basho was born into a poor samurai family in the province of Iga, which is called the cradle of old Japanese culture. These are incredibly beautiful places. The poet's relatives were educated people, and Basho himself began writing poetry as a child. His life path is unusual. He took monastic vows, but did not become a real monk. Basho settled in a small house near the city of Edo. This hut is sung in his poems.
IN A REED COVERED HUT
How a banana moans in the wind,
How the drops fall into the tub,
I hear it all night long.
In 1682, a misfortune happened - Basho's hut burned down. And he began a many-year wandering around Japan. His fame grew, and many students appeared throughout Japan. Basho was a wise teacher; he not only passed on the secrets of his skill, he encouraged those who were looking for their own path. The true style of haiku was born in controversy. These were disputes between people truly dedicated to their cause. Bonte, Kerai, Ransetsu, Shiko are students of the famous master. Each of them had his own handwriting, sometimes very different from the handwriting of the teacher.
Basho walked the roads of Japan, bringing poetry to people. His poems include peasants, fishermen, tea pickers, the entire life of Japan with its bazaars, taverns on the roads...
Left for a moment
Farmer threshing rice
Looks at the moon.
During one of his travels, Basho died. Before his death, he created the “Death Song”:
I got sick on the way,
And everything runs and circles my dream
Through scorched meadows.
Another famous name is Kobayashi Issa. His voice is often sad:
Our life is a dewdrop.
Let just a drop of dew
Our life - and yet...
This poem was written on the death of his little daughter. Buddhism teaches not to worry about the departure of loved ones, because life is a dewdrop... But listen to the poet’s voice, how much inescapable grief is in this “and yet...”
Issa wrote not only on high philosophical topics. His own life and fate were reflected in the poet’s work. Issa was born in 1763 into a peasant family. The father dreamed of his son becoming a successful merchant. To do this, he sends him to study in the city. But Issa became a poet and, like his fellow poets, he walked around the villages and made his living by writing haiku. At the age of 50, Issa got married. Beloved wife, 5 children. Happiness was fleeting. Issa loses everyone close to her.
Maybe that’s why he is sad even in the sunny season of flowering:
Sad world!
Even when the cherry blossoms...
Even then...
That's right, in a previous life
You were my sister
Sad cuckoo...
He would marry two more times, and the only child who would continue his family would be born after the poet’s death in 1827.
Issa found his way in poetry. If Basho explored the world by penetrating into its hidden depths, looking for connections between individual phenomena, then Issa in his poems sought to accurately and completely capture the reality surrounding him and his own feelings.
It's spring again.
A new stupidity is coming
The old one is replaced.
Cool wind
Bent down to the ground, he contrived
Get me too.
Shh... Just for a moment
Shut up, meadow crickets.
It starts to rain.
Issa makes the subject of poetry everything that his predecessors studiously avoided mentioning in poetry. He connects the low and the high, arguing that every little thing, every creature in this world should be valued on an equal basis with a person.
A bright pearl
The New Year has shone for this one too
A little louse.
Roofer.
His ass is wrapped around him
Spring wind.
There is still great interest in Issa's work in Japan today. The haiku genre itself is alive and dearly loved. To this day, a traditional poetry competition is held in mid-January. Tens of thousands of poems on a given topic are submitted to this competition. This championship has been held annually since the fourteenth century.
Our compatriots create their own Russian haiku on Internet sites. Sometimes these are absolutely amazing images, for example, of autumn:
New autumn
Opened its season
Toccata of rain.
And gray rains
Long fingers will weave
Long autumn...
And “Russian” haiku force the reader to speculate, build an image, and listen to the ellipses. Sometimes these are mischievous, ironic lines. When the Russian national team lost at the football championship, the following haiku appeared on the Internet:
Even in football
You need to be able to do something.
It's a pity we didn't know...
There are also “ladies’” haiku:
There's nowhere else to go
Shorten the skirt:
Running out of legs.
I forgot who I am.
We haven't fought for so long.
Remind me, honey.
But here are more serious ones:
I'll hide it safely
Your pain and grievances.
I'll flash a smile.
Don't say anything.
Just be there.
Just love.
Sometimes “Russian” haiku echo well-known plots and motifs:
The barn is not on fire.
The horse sleeps quietly in the stable.
What should a woman do?
Of course, you caught the roll call with Nekrasov.
Tanya-chan lost her face,
Crying about the ball rolling into the pond.
Pull yourself together, daughter of a samurai.
Eneke and Beneke enjoyed sushi.
Whatever the child amuses himself with, as long as
Didn't drink sake.
And haiku lines are always the path to the reader’s own creativity, that is, to your personal inner solution to the topic proposed to you. The poem ends, and here the poetic comprehension of the topic begins.

——————————————

This article is part of a group of manuals from the series “Thematic planning for textbooks by V.Yu. Sviridova and N.A. Churakova “Literary reading” grades 1-4.”

People love and willingly create short songs - concise poetic formulas, where there is not a single extra word. From folk poetry, these songs move into literary poetry, continue to develop in it and give rise to new poetic forms.

This is how national poetic forms were born in Japan: pentaverse - tank and tercet - haiku.

Haiku (haiku) is a lyrical poem characterized by extreme brevity and unique poetics. It depicts the life of nature and human life against the backdrop of the cycle of seasons.

Japanese poetry is syllabic, i.e. Its rhythm is based on the alternation of a certain number of syllables. There is no rhyme: the sound and rhythmic organization of the tercet is a subject of great concern to Japanese poets.

Haiku has a stable meter. Each verse has a certain number of syllables: five in the first, seven in the second and five in the third - a total of seventeen syllables. This does not exclude poetic license, especially among such bold and innovative poets as Matsuo Basho(1644-1694). He sometimes did not take into account the meter, striving to achieve the greatest poetic expressiveness.

The dimensions of haiku are so small that in comparison with it a European sonnet seems like a large poem. It contains only a few words, and yet its capacity is relatively large. The art of writing haiku is, first of all, the ability to say a lot in a few words.

Brevity makes haiku similar to folk proverbs. Some tercets have gained currency in popular speech as proverbs, such as the poem by Basho:

I'll say the word -
Lips freeze.
Autumn whirlwind!

As a proverb, it means that “caution sometimes forces one to remain silent.”

But most often, haiku differs from a proverb in its genre characteristics. This is not an edifying saying, a short parable or a well-aimed wit, but a poetic picture sketched in one or two strokes. The poet’s task is to infect the reader with lyrical excitement, to awaken his imagination, and for this it is not necessary to paint a picture in all its details.

Chekhov wrote in one of his letters to his brother Alexander: "... you will get a moonlit night if you write that on the mill dam a piece of glass from a broken bottle flashed like a bright star and the black shadow of a dog or wolf rolled in a ball..."

This method of depiction requires maximum activity from the reader, draws him into the creative process, and gives impetus to his thoughts. You cannot skim through a collection of haiku, flipping through page after page. If the reader is passive and not attentive enough, he will not perceive the impulse sent to him by the poet. Japanese poetics takes into account the counter-work of the reader's thoughts. Thus, the blow of the bow and the response of the string trembling together give birth to music.

Haiku is small in size, but this does not detract from the poetic or philosophical meaning that a poet is able to give to it, nor does it limit the scope of his thoughts. However, the poet, of course, cannot give a multifaceted image and at length, to fully develop his thought within the framework of haiku. In every phenomenon he seeks only its culmination.

Giving preference to the small, haiku sometimes painted a picture of a large scale:

The sea is raging!
Far away, to Sado Island,
The Milky Way is spreading.

This poem by Basho is a kind of peephole. Leaning our eyes towards it, we will see a large space. The Sea of ​​Japan will open before us on a windy but clear autumn night: the sparkle of stars, white breakers, and in the distance, at the edge of the sky, the black silhouette of Sado Island.

Or take another Basho poem:

On a high embankment there are pine trees,
And between them the cherries are visible, and the palace
In the depths of flowering trees...

In three lines there are three perspective plans.

Haiku is akin to the art of painting. They were often painted on the subjects of paintings and, in turn, inspired artists; sometimes they turned into a component of the painting in the form of a calligraphic inscription on it. Sometimes poets resorted to methods of depiction akin to the art of painting. This is, for example, Buson’s tercet:

Crescent flowers around.
The sun is going out in the west.
The moon is rising in the east.

Wide fields are covered with yellow colza flowers, they seem especially bright in the sunset. The pale moon rising in the east contrasts with the fiery ball of the setting sun. The poet does not tell us in detail what kind of lighting effect is created, what colors are on his palette. He only offers a new look at the picture that everyone has seen, perhaps, dozens of times... Grouping and selection of pictorial details is the main task of the poet. He has only two or three arrows in his quiver: not one should fly past.

Often the poet creates not visual, but sound images. The howl of the wind, the chirping of cicadas, the cries of a pheasant, the singing of a nightingale and a lark, the voice of a cuckoo - each sound is filled with a special meaning, giving rise to certain moods and feelings.

The lark sings
With a resounding blow in the thicket
The pheasant echoes him

The Japanese poet does not unfold before the reader the entire panorama of possible ideas and associations that arise in connection with a given object or phenomenon. It only awakens the reader’s thought and gives it a certain direction.

On a bare branch
Raven sits alone.
Autumn evening.

(Basho)

The poem looks like a monochrome ink drawing. Nothing extra, everything is extremely simple. With the help of a few skillfully chosen details, a picture of late autumn is created. You can feel the absence of wind, nature seems frozen in sad stillness. The poetic image, it would seem, is slightly outlined, but it has great capacity and, bewitching, leads you along. It seems that you are looking into the waters of a river, the bottom of which is very deep. And at the same time, he is extremely specific. The poet depicted a real landscape near the hut and, through it, his state of mind. He is not talking about the raven’s loneliness, but about his own.

It is no wonder that over the centuries of its existence, ancient haiku has acquired layers of commentary. The richer the subtext, the higher the poetic skill of haiku. It shows rather than suggests. Hint, hint, reticence become additional means of poetic expressiveness. Longing for his dead child, the poet Issa said:

Our life is a dewdrop
Let just a drop of dew
Our life - and yet...

Dew is a common metaphor for the frailty of life, just like a flash of lightning, foam on water, or quickly falling cherry blossoms. Buddhism teaches that human life is short and ephemeral, and therefore has no special value. But it’s not easy for a father to come to terms with the loss of his beloved child. Issa says “and yet...” and puts down the brush. But his very silence becomes more eloquent than words.

It is quite understandable that there is some confusion in haiku. The poem consists of only three verses. Each verse is very short. Most often, a verse has two meaningful words, not counting formal elements and exclamatory particles. All excess is wrung out and eliminated; there is nothing left that serves only for decoration. Even the grammar in haiku is special: there are few grammatical forms, and each carries a maximum load, sometimes combining several meanings. The means of poetic speech are selected extremely sparingly: haiku avoids epithet or metaphor if it can do without them.

Sometimes the entire haiku is an extended metaphor, but its direct meaning is usually hidden in the subtext.

From the heart of a peony
A bee crawls out slowly...
Oh, with what reluctance!

Basho composed this poem while leaving the hospitable home of his friend.

It would be a mistake, however, to look for such a double meaning in every haiku. Most often, haiku is a concrete image of the real world that does not require or allow any other interpretation.

An “ideal” landscape, freed from all roughness - this is how old classical poetry painted nature. In haiku, poetry regained its sight. A man in haiku is not static, he is in motion: here is a street peddler wandering through a snowy whirlwind, and here is a worker turning a grinding mill. The gulf that already lay between literary poetry and folk song in the tenth century became less wide. A raven pecking a snail in a rice field with its nose is an image found in both haiku and folk songs.

Haiku teaches you to look for hidden beauty in the simple, inconspicuous, everyday. Not only the famous, many times sung cherry blossoms are beautiful, but also the modest, invisible at first glance, flowers of colza and shepherd's purse.

Take a close look!
Shepherd's purse flowers
You will see under the fence.

(Basho)

In another poem by Basho, the face of a fisherman at dawn resembles a blooming poppy, and both are equally beautiful. Beauty can strike like lightning:

I've barely gotten around to it
Exhausted, until the night...
And suddenly - wisteria flowers!

(Basho)

Beauty can be deeply hidden. The feeling of beauty in nature and in human life is akin to a sudden comprehension of truth, the eternal principle, which, according to Buddhist teachings, is invisibly present in all phenomena of existence. In haiku we find a new rethinking of this truth - the affirmation of beauty in the unnoticed, ordinary:

They scare them and drive them out of the fields!
The sparrows will fly up and hide
Under the protection of tea bushes.

(Basho)

Trembling on the horse's tail
Spring webs...
Tavern at noon.

(Izen)

Some features of haiku can only be understood by becoming familiar with its history.

Over time, the tanka (pentamental verse) began to be clearly divided into two stanzas: a tercet and a couplet. It happened that one poet composed the first stanza, the second - the subsequent one. Later, in the twelfth century, chain verses appeared, consisting of alternating tercets and couplets. This form was called "renga" (literally "strung stanzas"); The first tercist was called the "initial stanza", in Japanese "haiku". The renga poem did not have a thematic unity, but its motifs and images were most often associated with a description of nature, and with an obligatory indication of the season.

Renga reached its greatest flowering in the fifteenth century. For it, precise boundaries of the seasons were developed and the seasonality of one or another natural phenomenon was clearly defined. Even standard “seasonal words” appeared, which conventionally denoted always the same season of the year and were no longer used in poems describing other seasons.

The opening stanza (haiku) was often the best stanza in the rengi. This is how separate collections of exemplary haiku began to appear.

The tercet was firmly established in Japanese poetry and acquired true capacity in the second half of the seventeenth century. It was raised to unsurpassed artistic heights by the great poet of Japan Matsuo Basho, the creator of not only haiku poetry, but also the entire aesthetic school of Japanese poetics. Even now, after three centuries, every cultured Japanese knows Basho’s poems by heart. A huge research literature has been created about them.

The lyrical hero of Basho's poetry has specific characteristics. This is a poet and philosopher, in love with the nature of his native country, and at the same time - a poor man from the outskirts of a big city. And he is inseparable from his era and people. In every little haiku of Basho one can feel the breath of a vast world.

Basho was born in the castle town of Ueno, Iga Province, into the family of a poor samurai, Matsuo Yozaemon. He was the third child in the family. Basho is a literary pseudonym, but it displaced all other names and nicknames of the poet from the memory of descendants.

Iga Province was located in the very cradle of old Japanese culture, in the center of the main island - Honshu. Many places in Basho's homeland are known for their beauty, and folk memory has preserved songs, legends and ancient customs there in abundance. Basho loved his homeland and often visited it in his declining years.

Wandering Raven, look!
Where is your old nest?
Plum trees are in bloom everywhere.

Everything that once seemed familiar suddenly transforms, like an old tree in spring. The joy of recognition, the sudden comprehension of beauty, so familiar that you no longer notice it, is one of the most significant themes in Basho’s poems.

The poet's relatives were educated people, which presupposed, first of all, knowledge of Chinese classics. Both father and elder brother made a living by teaching calligraphy.

Since childhood, a friend of the prince's son, a great lover of poetry, Basho himself began to write poetry. After the early death of his young master, he went to the city and took monastic vows, thereby freeing himself from serving his feudal lord. However, Basho did not become a real monk. He lived in a small house in the poor suburb of Fukagawa, near the city of Edo. This hut with all the modest landscape surrounding it - banana trees and a small pond in the yard - is described in his poems. Basho had a lover. He dedicated a laconic elegy to her memory:

Oh don't think you're one of those people
Who left no trace in the world!
Remembrance day...

Basho walked along the roads of Japan as an ambassador of poetry itself, kindling in people a love for it and introducing them to true art. He knew how to find and awaken the creative gift even in a professional beggar. Basho sometimes penetrated into the very depths of the mountains, where “no one will pick up a fallen wild chestnut fruit from the ground,” but, valuing solitude, he was never a hermit. In his travels, he did not run away from people, but became close to them. A long line of peasants working in the fields, horse drivers, fishermen, and tea leaf pickers pass through his poems.

Boy perched
On the saddle, and the horse is waiting.
Collect radishes.

In 1682, Basho's hut burned down in a great fire. From that time on, he began his many years of wandering around the country, the idea of ​​which had been in his mind for a long time. Following the long literary tradition of China and Japan, Basho visits places glorified in the poems of ancient poets, and peers into everyday life in all its details.

During one of his travels, Basho died. Before his death, he created the "Death Song":

I got sick on the way,
And everything runs, my dream circles
Through scorched meadows.

Basho's poetry is distinguished by a sublime system of feelings and at the same time amazing simplicity and truth of life. There were no base things for him. Poverty, hard work, the life of Japan with its bazaars, taverns on the roads and beggars - all this was reflected in his poems. But the world remains beautiful for him. There may be a wise man hidden in every beggar.

For Basho, poetry was not a game, not amusement, not a means of subsistence, as for many contemporary poets, but the calling of his whole life. He said that poetry elevates and ennobles a person.

As Basho's fame grew, students of all ranks began to flock to him, wherever he lived, wherever he stopped on his travels. By the end of his life he had many students throughout Japan. But Basho’s school was not just a school of a master and students humbly listening to him, usual for that time. On the contrary, Basho, who himself was in continuous spiritual movement, encouraged those who came to him to find their own path. Shofu(Basho style), or true style in haiku poetry, was born in controversy. These are disputes between people devoted to their high craft. That is why so many talented poets came out of Basho’s school. Boncho, Kyorai, Joso, Ransetsu, Shiko and others - their names are not lost in the powerful light of Basho's poetry. Each had his own handwriting, sometimes very different from the handwriting of the teacher. This is one of his first students, his old friend Takarai Kikaku, the most educated resident of Edo, a carefree reveler who sang the streets and rich shopping shops of his native city, an exquisite, subtle poet of nature.

In 1691, Mukai Kyorai and Nozawa Boncho compiled the anthology The Monkey's Straw Cloak (Sarumino), an outstanding monument to the poetry of the "true style".

Kyorai, Hattori Toho, Shiko, and Koriku conveyed to us the teacher’s thoughts about art in their books.

The impact of Basho's work, his ideas, and his very personality on subsequent Japanese poetry was enormous. You could say it was decisive. And although at the beginning of the eighteenth century the art of haiku came to a standstill, already in the middle of this century a poet of very great talent appeared who gave it a new life - Yosa Buson. He was equally gifted as a poet and as an artist. (His illustrations for Basho’s travel diary are wonderful "On the paths of the north".) His poems during his lifetime were almost unknown, they were appreciated only in the nineteenth century, and real understanding came to Buson’s poetry only in our century.

Buson's poetry is romantic. Often in three lines of a poem he could tell a whole short story. So, in the poem “Changing clothes with the onset of summer” he writes:

They hid from the master's sword...
Oh, how happy the young spouses are
Change your winter dress to a light one.

According to feudal orders, the master could punish his servants with death for “sinful love.” But the lovers managed to escape. The seasonal words “change of warm clothes” convey a joyful feeling of liberation on the threshold of a new life.

In Busson’s poems the world of fairy tales and legends comes to life:

As a young nobleman
The fox turned around...
Spring evening.

Foggy evening in spring. The moon shines dimly through the haze, cherry trees are blooming, and in the semi-darkness fairy-tale creatures appear among people. Buson only draws the outlines of the picture, but the reader is confronted with a romantic image of a handsome young man in an ancient court attire.

Buson often resurrected images of antiquity in poetry:

Hall for overseas guests
It smells like mascara...
White plums in bloom.

This haiku takes us deep into history, into the eighth century. Special buildings were then built to receive “overseas guests.” One can imagine a poetry tournament in a beautiful old pavilion. Guests arriving from China write Chinese poems with fragrant ink, and Japanese poets compete with them in poetry in their native language. It is as if a scroll with an ancient picture is unfolding before the reader’s eyes.

Busson knew how to create poems of great lyrical power using the simplest means:

They are gone, the days of spring,
When distant sounds sounded
Nightingale voices.

Kobayashi Issa created his poems at the end of the eighteenth - beginning of the nineteenth centuries, at the dawn of modern times. He came from a village. He spent most of his life among the urban poor, but retained his love for his native places and peasant labor, from which he was cut off:

With all my heart I honor
Resting in the midday heat,
People in the fields.

The biography of this outstanding master is tragic. All his life he struggled with poverty. His beloved child died. The poet spoke about his fate in poems full of aching pain, but a stream of folk humor also breaks through them. His poetry speaks of love for people, and not only for people, but also for all small creatures, helpless and offended. Watching a funny fight between frogs, he exclaims:

Hey, don't give in
Skinny frog!
Issa for you.

But at times the poet knew how to be harsh and merciless: he was disgusted by any injustice, and he created caustic, prickly epigrams.

Issa was the last major poet of feudal Japan. Haiku lost its importance for many decades. The revival of this form at the end of the nineteenth century already belongs to the history of modern poetry.

Three lines, haiku Dictionary of Russian synonyms. haiku noun, number of synonyms: 3 tercets (4) ... Dictionary of synonyms

HAIKU- (haiku) genre of Japanese poetry. An unrhymed tercet, genetically descended from tanka; consists of 17 syllables (5+7+5). It is distinguished by the simplicity of poetic language, freedom of presentation... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

Haiku- (haiku) (initial verses), a genre of Japanese poetry (which originated in the 15th century), an unrhymed tercet of 17 syllables (5+7+5) on comic, love, landscape, historical and other subjects. Genetically related to tanka. It is distinguished by the simplicity of its poetic language... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary

Haiku- This is an article about Japanese poetry, about the operating system see Haiku. Monument to Matsuo Basho, one of the most famous compilers of haiku Haiku (Japanese: 俳句), Haiku (Japanese: 発句), a genre of traditional Japanese lyrical poetry waka. Contents... Wikipedia

HAIKU- (Japanese): the top three-line tanki, which has become an independent type of poetry; consists of 17 syllables (alternating 5 – 7 – 5 syllables). Basically, haiku is a lyrical poem about nature, which certainly indicates the time of year. Circulation... ... Eurasian wisdom from A to Z. Explanatory dictionary

Haiku- (otherwise haiku) genre and form of Japanese poetry; tercet, consisting of two encircling five-syllable verses and one seven-syllable in the middle. Genetically goes back to the first half-strophe of Tank (haiku literally the beginning verses), from which... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

HAIKU- HOKKU, haiku, a genre of Japanese poetry: 17 complex tercet (5 + 7 + 5), often with a caesura after the 2nd verse. Originated in the 15th century. as the beginning of a tercet of comic rank; genetically also goes back to the first half-strophe of tanka (haiku lit. ... ... Literary encyclopedic dictionary

haiku- (haiku), a genre of Japanese poetry. An unrhymed tercet, genetically dating back to tanka; consists of 17 syllables (5 + 7 + 5). It is distinguished by the simplicity of its poetic language and freedom of presentation. * * * HOKKU HOKKU (haiku), a genre of Japanese poetry. Unrhymed... Encyclopedic Dictionary

haiku- genre of Japanese poetry, unrhymed tercet, lyrical miniature; as if a separated, independent first part of the tank. Rubric: Types and genres of literature + Structure of a poetic work. Synonym: haiku Genus: Solid forms Other... ... Terminological dictionary-thesaurus on literary criticism

haiku- see haiku. Literature and language. Modern illustrated encyclopedia. M.: Rosman. Edited by prof. Gorkina A.P. 2006 ... Literary encyclopedia

Hokku-OS- Haiku Desktop Haiku OS Developer Haiku Inc. OS family Source code open Latest version N/A N/A Kernel type ... Wikipedia

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• Haiku. Japanese tercets Buy for 239 RUR
• Haiku. Japanese tercets, Basho Matsuo, Ransetsu, Kikaku. The Japanese lyrical poem haiku (haiku) is distinguished by its extreme brevity and unique poetics. It depicts the life of nature and the life of man in their fused, indissoluble unity on...