Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,
Recently Carol Campbell of "WritersDream9" asked me if haibun is only a journal of a journey. I couldn't really gave the right answer so I asked Jane about it. This question resulted in the following episode of "Ask Jane ...".
Here is the question I formulated:
I know that
haibun is a diary about a journey in which prose and poetry are entwined, but
if I write a post and include haiku in it or a short story (not about a
journey) with haiku in it ... can i still call it haibun ?
And what follows is Jane's answer.
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
Dear Kristjaan,
I think you
can call it anything you want. If you add a haiku to a letter you can call it
"love" in my book. It all did start, as you said, by Japanese taking
trips and when making notes of what they saw or experienced and adding a TANKA
they had written on the spot. There was no special name for the practice
because it was so common. Then Basho adopted the idea for his travels but
because he felt his hokku were better than his tanka, he added them to his
travel journals and gave the works the name haibun, as you know it. It is
mostly English writers who have widened the concept of the prose part to
include letters and any prose writing. The Japanese do have a history of
combining TANKA with stories (as in their historical works) but again there was
no special Japanese word (that I know of) for this practice. It is just how it
was done. Thus we are stuck with using 'haibun' for prose works with haiku as
part of them but we have no term for prose works with tanka. Some of us are
pushing to use 'tanka stories' or 'tanka
tales' for prose with tanka to honor The Tale of Genji which contains over 930
tanka in the whole work.
 |
| Jane Reichhold |
XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX
Haibun ... I love writing them. I even created a special feature here at our Haiku Kai ... Kamishibai.
What are your thoughts about haibun? Share them with us here in the comment-field.
I love to thank Jane Reichhold for sharing her knowledge with us all here at our Haiku Kai.
Namaste,
Chèvrefeuille, your host
If we are talking purely about journeys, and recording the journey, then the classical Japanese travel diaries of Kikôbun might be the real theme. Kikôbun are (travel) journal entries, and traditionally have focused on nature, though Basho gave them a new style when he approached his journal entries. I personally like Kikôbun more because the theme is quite specific, though the style is the same as that of haibun. I agree with everything said, and find haibun an exciting way of writing - and a good haibun is a pleasure. To make a haibun very readable it sometimes is nice if it has an epiphany in it or some irony, not just appreciation, and I personally do not like a haiku to merely mirror or summarise the text. I have seen some discussion about the haiku in a haibun, and agree that some haiku can only survive within their haibun, so they are therefore slightly different than a haiku alone. I think one haiku per haibun prose is also enough. Now for the (mild) controversy. I do think "Narrow Road to the Deep North is actually a series of Kikôbun entries myself......!
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Jane and Kristjaan! Such simple poems are in truth, so profound and complex.
ReplyDeleteMuch to learn from the great questions and answers here! It's always good to know poetic forms and the history behind them. Writers often exercise some flexibility in taking a form and making it their own. I like the idea of "tanka tales".
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading Jane's response here as dVerse Poets recently started a prompt of writing Haibun each month and the more information we have the more authentic our writings can be. Thank you, Jane and Kristjaan.
ReplyDeleteGayle ~