Untitled -- Issa

Thanks to Raj Bandyopadhyay for suggesting today's poem

(Poem #1136) Untitled What good luck! Bitten by This year's mosquitoes too. -- Issa

        (trans. Robert Hass)

Today's wry little haiku should strike a responsive chord in anyone who's
ever lived in a mosquito-infested place (i.e., everyone). I read the tone as
being one of gently amused irony rather than acid sarcasm, reinforced by
finding another of Issa's haiku (trans. L. Stryk):

        Swarms of mosquitoes
        but without them
        it's a little lonely.

embedded in a fascinating essay on Issa as entomologist (see links).

Needless to say, I loved the poem - indeed, the more I read it, the more
impressed I am at how concise and expressive it manages to be (though haiku are
often like that - they tend to grow on me, especially if they make a good
initial impression).

Haiku translation raises a number of issues, some of which apply to any
translation effort (you *have* all read 'Le Ton Beau de Marot', have you
not?), but a few of which are unique to the ultracondensed form. One obvious
one is whether to follow the letter or the spirit of the seventeen syllable
constraint (and any serious writer of English haiku, I think, invariably
chooses the former - seventeen syllables are simply a very different
constraint in English and in Japanese). A less obvious decision (indeed,
something I'd never even thought of on my own) is the three-line format. But
why 'decision'? Surely, one would think, poetry translation should preserve
the line breaks of the original. Not so:

    the three-line rule is not really a classical rule (in the Japanese
    sense). It is merely a Western invention to accommodate seventeen
    syllables.
       -- [broken link] http://www.haikai.info/articles/swede.definition.html

Not to be confused with 'true' English haiku are senryu[1], haiku-like poems
which adhere to the literal structure of a haiku while ignoring the
(numerous) poetic guidelines of the form. Porter's "Japanese Jokes"
[Poem #188] remains the best example of the genre I've seen.

[1] yes, I know this is not a complete definition of the form. However,
'senryu' is still the most appropriate word I've found to describe the
vastly popular unconstrained 5/7/5 English poem.

martin

Links:

Biography:
  [broken link] http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Island/5022/issabio.html

A look at Issa's poetic development:
  [broken link] http://www.ahapoetry.com/haiku.htm#issa

Issa as entomologist:
  [broken link] http://www.eeb.uconn.edu/grads/rdunn/issa.htm

English Haiku:
  [broken link] http://www.haikai.info/articles/swede.definition.html