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Frogpond 43.1 • 2020

Museum of Haiku
Literature Award

Haiku & Senryu

Essay 1 - "Haiku Reflections"

Essay 2 - "Sociality
in Haiku"

Haibun

Haiga

Renku

Book Reviews

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English-Language Haiku Poets Are Missing Out on All the Fun: Sociality in Haiku

by Riochard Tice

"English-Language Haiku Poets Are Missing Out on All the Fun:
Sociality in Haiku" (complete PDF version)

Here is a sample excerpt from the opening page of this interview:

This is how Kagami Shikō, a disciple of Matsuo Bashō, described the circumstances surrounding the composition of his master’s most famous poem, published in 1686. Bashō

was spending the spring in seclusion in his house, the Bashō-an, though he was as usual accompanied by many of his disciples.

One day...the rain was gently falling, the cooing of the pigeons was deep-throated, and the cherry blossoms were slowly falling in the soft wind. It was just the kind of day when one most regrets the passing of the third month. The sound of frogs leaping into the water could frequently be heard, and the Master, moved by this remarkable beauty, wrote the second and third lines of a poem about the scene: “A frog jumps in,/ The sound of the water” [kawazu tobikomu mizu no oto]. Kikaku, who was with him, suggested for the first line “The yellow roses” [yamabuki ya], but the Master settled on “The ancient pond” [furuike ya]. (Keene, World 88-89; Japanese phrases added)

If Shikō’s account can be trusted, Bashō did not initially compose the first line but was open for suggestions.

[feature continues for several more pages] . . .

Richard Tice. "English-Language Haiku Poets Are Missing Out on All the Fun: Sociality in Haiku." Frogpond 43.1 , Winter 2020, 116-127.

This excerpt inclues the first page of the feature: page 116. The complete feature includes pages 116-127. To read the complete feature, click on the link to the PDF version:

"English-Language Haiku Poets Are Missing Out on All the Fun:
Sociality in Haiku" (complete PDF version)

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