Renga, the Mother of Haiku
This Carpe Diem Lecture is about renga the 'mother of haiku' so to say. Haiku has originated from the Renga. Renga was a chain of poems in which several poets took part. The most haiku by Basho for example are written for Renga. That could be the 'hokku' or the starting verse or as one of the links of the chain.
There are several different forms of Renga and in this lecture I will tell you more about the so called 'Tan Renga', but that's later on. Let us first look at the original renga. The original renga could have 100 linked verses. But there was a strong form, called kasen renga that had 36 links. For this kasen renga there were a few rules. In a kasen renga there had to be a reference to flowers twice (mostly Cherry Blossom) and three times to the moon. These references are called: hana no za 'the seat of flowers' and tsuku no za 'the seat of the moon'. The first stanza was called 'hokku' and the final stanza was called 'ageku' and had to refer to the first stanza to 'close' the chain of poems.
Credits: image@Alan Summers, Renga Session |
How to write renga?
As a renga
is collaborative poetry, it is important that there be enough people to
participate. Although solo renga have always been and continue to be written,
three to four is considered the minimum number for a renga group, called an
ichiza, and upward of fourteen to fifteen may be possible under an experienced
sōshō ( "renga master"). For
online renga collaborations, the sōshō would be the one to select a verse from
among those posted or sent.
The essence
of renga is in the idea of "change" (henka?). Bashō described this as
"newness (atarashimi?), and as "refraining from stepping back".
The fun is in the change, the new, the different, and the interesting verses of
others.
In Japan a
renga starts with a hokku of 5-7-5 sound units by one of the guests - usually
the most honored or experienced. This is followed by the second verse of 7-7
sound units, called the waki ("side"), and then by the third verse of
5-7-5 sound units, called the daisan ("the third"). The next verse
will be 7-7 sound units, and this pattern is repeated until the desired length
is achieved. It is common in English to use forms that show the number of the
verse, how long it is to be, whether the moon or flowers should be mentioned,
when one author takes two links at once. Since the renga of different lengths
have different schemes for how many verses are given to each season and
non-seasonal verses, it is easiest to use one of the available forms so that
everyone understands and follows the same program.
The kasen
renga, favored by Bashō because it was easier to complete 36 verses in one
night than the normal 100-link renga, has three sections of development. The
beginning, called the jo should reflect the atmosphere of the beginning of a
social evening - everyone is very polite, restrained, cautious and referring to
the reason for the gathering. The middle part of the kasen renga (verses 7 -
29) are more loose, and will include themes not allowed in the beginning and
end such as love, religion, and laments. This reflects the conversation flow
during dinner when the wine has been consumed and the participants are feeling
free and friendly. The kyu is the rapid finish and involves the last six
verses. The speed in this section is much like the broken conversation of
people as they prepare to leave the party and people are quickly winding up
their conversations. This pattern of pacing the poem is taken from the
classical music. The ageku is the final verse. It is considered fine if the
final verse makes some reference or has a tie to the hokku or beginning verse.
Renga are often hard for Westerners to read and understand (and therefore to
write) because there is no narrative or chronological order. Even the links
that are written are not to be impressive or informative. The whole object of
renga is to show what happens between the links. A renga and its participants
are judged on how well each link relates to the previous one. There is a whole
study of the various techniques and methods of linkage. The most common one
used by beginning English writers is simple stream of consciousness. The
previous verse reminds the writer of something else and then adds that image to
the poem. The book by Earl Miner and Hiroko Odagiri, a translation of The
Monkey’s Straw Raincoat Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1981 is the
best book to study these subtle changes in this famous work done by Bashō and
his students. It is recommended to take turns (hizaokuri?) for a small ichiza
so that everyone participates equally. For larger ichiza, the dashigachi ("the
outgoing one wins") rule is recommended so the best verse would be
selected. The renga master, or person with the most experience with renga,
guides the participants, making sure the seasons and themes are correct and
will be responsible for the correction of errors.Credits: renga session |
As I said earlier in this lecture I will look at the Tan Renga, it's a two stanza renga and looks similar with the Tanka. A Tan Renga is always written by two poets, but can also be written by a soloist.
Writing Tan Renga is fun and it learns you to associate on the verse of another haiku poet or on a haiku by yourself.
An example:
The first stanza of this Tan Renga:
early sunrise
pink cloud fingers sprouting
at the horizon
To write the second stanza of this Tan Renga you have to associate on the first stanza. You can associate on e.g. sunrise, pink, cloud, fingers, sprouting and horizon. The first stanza is build like a haiku 5-7-5 and the second stanza has to count 7-7 syllables.
OK let's give it a try ...
For example I will associate on sprouting.
blooming cherry blossoms
finally winter has gone
Let's place the both stanza together as one:
early sunrise
pink cloud fingers sprouting
at the horizon
blooming cherry blossoms
finally winter has gone
It's a beauty don't you think?
Another one, now associated on horizon:
on the thin line of the earth
the air shimmers above the sea
Let's place the both stanza together as one:
early sunrise
pink cloud fingers sprouting
at the horizon
on the thin line of the earth
the air shimmers above the sea
Well ... what do you think? Tan Renga is fun and maybe you will write a Tan Renga yourself. Be my guest and share your Tan Renga with us. I will enclose a linking widget for this Carpe Diem Lecture that will stay on 'till end of year.
Be creative, be inspired and share your Tan Renga ....
More about Tan Renga you can find HERE
Kris,
ReplyDeleteI was referring you blog to some writers...many of them beginners at elfje who were discussing haiku. I found this lecture and lesson one. Thanks for the posts...I never had noticed them before and find them both interesting.
Thank you,
Peace,
Siggi
Kris
ReplyDeletejust found this post and lecture number one while referring some beginning and experienced elfje writers that were interested in learning about haiku.
Both posts look to be very helpful.
Thanks,
Peace
Siggi
I am glad that these lecture could be of help.
ReplyDeleteAgain, another wonderful lecture that will be so useful -- I can't believe I didn't see them until now. Thank you for the work in putting these lectures together!
ReplyDeleteThey weren't visible for a while.
ReplyDeleteDear Kristjaan,
ReplyDeleteThe image inside a bookshop of my renga students is my copyright. Could you at least acknowledge this please using: image©Alan Summers
Here's my blog page where the photo was taken:
http://area17.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/renga-splicing-spontaneity-into-your.html
kind regards,
Alan
Good day Alan, I will change it, but the link beneath the photo is already going to your weblog, so I don't really understand the problem.
DeleteHello Kristjaan
DeleteThank you for correcting the copyright information. I'm a freelance poet and it's important that With Words work is credited. The Bath Japan Festival was mostly funded by myself and my co-founder (based in Tokyo) and was a work of love which cost us dearly on a personal financial basis.
I wish I could afford to create a two-city multi-event and genre festival over such a long time scale again! :-)
kind regards,
Alan
Very informative lecture. thanks for enlightening us,
ReplyDelete