There is a popular divine saying that informs the Sufi quest to seek the knowledge and presence of God, it reads: “Know me before you worship me. If you do not know me, how would you worship me (rightly)?” This statement is true to haiku as the art is more than just a poetry form, but a discipline. Today, many do not seek the knowledge of the pristine haiku aesthetics, but are attempting it, thereby churning out mediocre works and parade them as haiku. This article briefly explains the often-misconstrued terminologies of haiku.
To begin with, defining haiku is important, and I will like to examine two definitions for the purpose of clarity.
The first definition is from Wikipedia. In today’s world, the first place we get residual knowledge of things is Google and the leading page and source of reference that almost always comes top is Wikipedia. Wikipedia must have therefore rightly influenced the haiku attempt of many and, in the same vein, what they perceive to be a haiku. Wikipedia defines haiku as follows:
“Haiku is a type of short form poetry originally from Japan. Traditional Japanese haiku consist of three phrases that contain a kireji, or “cutting word”, 17 on in a 5, 7, 5 pattern, and a kigo, or seasonal reference.”
I will now critically analyze this definition and use it as the skeleton for this article.
“Haiku is a Type of Short Form Poetry Originally from Japan”
Haiku originates from Japan and there, it is their oral form and usually in a sequence or linked verse form (called renga, renku or haikai no renga) up to 100 verses and more. The introductory verse to the sequence is the hokku which is now called haiku. It was Matsuo Bashō who began it as a stand-alone individual verse and it was Masaoka Shikki who renamed it as haiku.
“Traditional Japanese Haiku Consist of Three Phrases”
The three phrases in Japanese haiku use to be on a straight vertical line and not the three lines it is now being written in the English haiku. This is a matter of structure and it doesn’t go to the root of the aesthetic as some Modern Japanese Haiku (gendai) writers now present it in 3 lines.
“….That Contain a Kireji, or “Cutting Word””
A kireji is a Japanese term that is translated as “cutting word” or, best put “cut marker.” In any haiku, there must be a cut (kiru) indicating the point between the two images painted in a haiku.
This cut or pause or caesura is indicated by a marker which in English are the ellipsis (. . .) and the em dash (—).
It is called “cutting word” because in Japanese, it is represented with words such as “ya” (や) and “kana” (かな), but the close equivalent in English are the ellipsis and em dash or an implied cut.