WHC Renku Seminar
Haikuforum Seminar on "Traditional" Renku in English
Q & A: 3a
Paul MacNeil
Cut haiku/Kiriji
A question was posed about the following the term cut verse or kiriji...
Answer:
...Let me circle 'round it a bit.
For the works of Basho, and a great deal of Japanese haiku, a cut haiku is haiku.
It is part of the defining form and philosophy of what is haiku (and, what is not). Basho taught that usually a cutting word (in Japanese the kireji sometimes translated as caesura) will be needed to separate the parts of the haiku (Basho referred to hokku). He pointed out that in a minority of occasions a haiku is cut by the grammar or the wording and a cutting word isn't needed. An even smaller fraction of verses are not cut even when a cutting sound was used. In these cases, I would conclude that such verses were straight and probably simple sentences that lacked the "things" or parts that a kireji both separated AND joined.
I put it to you that it is in the space between, that space created by the break or cut, that haiku are found.
In discussing renku, I was taking pains to indicate what is not haiku. The inner verses of this linked style are mostly not haiku, i.e. they are not cut. The hokku (first verse), by tradition, is.
Broaching discussions of: What is a haiku? What are the definitions of haiku? is beyond the scope here and is part, indeed, of what Susumu-san is doing with us all here at the haikuforum. That, and, I'm definitely not wearing enough armor! Ha!
I would add this:
Basho's pupil Kyoriku, writing four years after his master's death, quotes him directly:
Ultimately, you should think of the hokku as something that combines. Those who are good at combining or bringing together two topics are superior poets.
I refer you to the essays and discussions as below. They are all found at Mark Alan Osterhaus's Haiku Index which I showed in the first installment (1 Feb) of the Seminar.
See also other definitions there by the Russian haijin Alexei Andreyev, and the American, Paul David Mena -- and many others -- for definitions of haiku and indeed discussion of the cut and the structure of haiku.
And do read:
HOW-TO HAIKU
Another Definition of Haiku - Jane Reichhold
Fragment and Phrase Theory -Jane Reichhold
John Barlow, editor of the British Journal, Snapshots, points out ...
Japanese haiku are partly defined by their fragmentary nature, usually being composed of two parts of varying length. These two parts have distinct images which when juxtaposed create an emotional response from the reader. Many English language haiku are composed similarly, revolving around two images which often sharply contrast or complement each other. These two images are divided by a more or less natural caesura, usually at the end of the first or second line.
A.C. Missias is the editor of the USA journal, Acorn.
At the Perihelion magazine website she writes:
You have perhaps noted that haiku are generally broken into two asymmetrical parts, often corresponding to one and two of the (common) 3 lines. Indeed, good haiku are seldom written in a single sentence, but tend to take the form of either "setting and action" or a juxtaposition of two images. It is at the interface of these elements that resonances arise.
- Paul (MacNeil)
