What is a haiku ?

Answer 1

Yes, indeed, the haiku (orig. hokku) is a classic Japanese mode of poetry. Its rough equivalent in English would have three lines with five, seven, and five syllables respectively. In Japanese these are phonetic elements roughly comparable to English syllables.

Equally important to the form, however, is the content. Each haiku consists of concrete images, usually drawn from nature; an indication of the season of the year; and a a juxtaposition of two distinct elements, complementary to one another or contrasting in some way. The images evoke a moment of insight, almost a mystic experience, which can become the basis for many interpretations, especially the old classic haiku.

Probably the most famous writer of the classic haiku was Basho. His most famous haiku of all times has been translated this way;

古池や蛙飛込む水の音　

Furu ike ya
kawazu tobikomu
mizu no oto

an old pond—
the sound of a frog jumping
into water

By the way, I understand that the ya at the end of the first line is a kind of phonetic punctuation mark, marking the division between the two elements int he poem: the pond (silent and motionless) and the frog (moving, making noise).

Here's a translation that attempts to reproduce the 5-7-5 form:

The old pond is still
a frog leaps right into it
splashing the water

Translated by Earl Miner & Hiroko Odagiri

Here are my favorite English translations. I suspect the first one is closer to the spirit of the Japanese original, but the second one is the better poem in English.

Old pond
and a frog-jump-in
water-sound

Translated by Harold G. Henderson

The old pond
A frog jumped in,
Kerplunk!

Translated by Allen Ginsberg

Here are two more that abandon the form as well as the succinctness of the Japanese original, attempting to capture the meaning in rhyming verse. I think the first one gives a good approximation of the sense of the poem for readers attuned to traditional English verse; the second one
is really a parody (in the form of a limerick).

A lonely pond in age-old stillness sleeps . . .
Apart, unstirred by sound or motion . . . till
Suddenly into it a lithe frog leaps.

Translated by Curtis Hidden Page

There once was a curious frog
Who sat by a pond on a log
And, to see what resulted,
In the pond catapulted
With a water-noise heard round the bog.

Translated by Alfred H. Marks

Every haiku reader/writer has to have a hand in "translating" the experience of this poem. Here's mine:

An age-old pond --
and a young frog jumping in,
Splash!

For twenty-six other translations and a fairly detailed commentary by Robert Aitkin, see the site listed below. Here's one quotation from the commentary that begins to help us see the subtlety of the classic haiku of Basho:

"'Old' is a cue word of another sort. For a poet such as Bashô, an evening beside a mossy pond evoked the ancient. Bashô presents his own mind as this timeless, endless pond, serene and potent — a condition familiar to mature Zen students.

"In one of his first talks in Hawai’i, Yamada Kôun Rôshi said: 'When your consciousness has become ripe in true zazen — pure like clear water, like a serene mountain lake, not moved by any wind — then anything may serve as a medium for realization.'"

I hope you find and enjoy many other haiku. I've been reading them for over forty years. Many people attempt to copy the form in modern English poems, but frankly I think it's almost impossible to achieve the subtlety of the originals.

Answer 2

Yep, that's 5-7-5 as classic haiku are. The browning of the leaves is a seasonal reference, there's a significant wreck and there's a suitable commentary previous the actual interior the 0.33 line. Qualifies as a haiku in English all day long. quite high quality. bear in ideas that eastern is amazingly diverse from English, so that's maximum confusing to realize the eastern standards for haiku in an English format. it is as solid a circulate at it as any.

Answer 3

A form of poetry that originated in Japan. It traditionally has 3 lines of a set amount of syllables and has a covert reference to a certain season of the year. It is meant to paint a picture in the reader's mind.

However, in the recent pass as time goes, haiku has developed into different forms - more freestyle.

Answer 4

It's a Japanese poem form. It has a rigid structure: 3 lines with a syllable count of 5/7/5.
Here's an example of haiku (one of my own).

Polished, waxed and buffed,
Monaco is like Chatham.
But further away.

Answer 5

It is the Japanese way of telling a story in two lines. Haiku or Hoku. Like in the Bond movie You Only Live Twice its there.
You only live twice, once when you are born. And once when you face death.

Answer 6

haiku: a poem
five seven five syllables
describing nature

Answer 7

A short observation on life.