Glossary

[Laura Sherman]

The purpose of this discussion is to create a glossary of basic terms for the newcomer to haiku. We would like to ask your help in developing simple definitions for the words we use in this forum.

Please do not provide links to articles or suggest articles a person could read to learn more about a topic.  We have a discussion in the Free Discussion Area called, “Learning About Haiku – Helpful Links,” which is the perfect spot to provide links for newcomers.

Let’s keep this relatively simple and uncomplicated.  

Remember what it was like when you were first starting your haiku adventure.  There were a number of terms that you needed to learn.  It helps to just get a simple, workable definition so that you can read articles and learn and improve.

We will regularly update this introductory post to include all the definitions that we create.

Any discussion that isn’t relevant to a particular definition of a word (or one that gets off on some debate as to the merit of having a glossary) will be deleted.

Here is a sample post that would be helpful:

Jim Kacian presents this definition in his book, How to Haiku:

“A brief poem which records an experience of a moment of revelation into the nature of the world in an effort to share it with others.”

Now it is worth noting that one’s personal definitions of these words will expand and grow as one learns more and more about haiku. However one must start somewhere.

It would also be very helpful to include a pronunciation of each term you discuss.

Note: This is not an official glossary of term of The Haiku Foundation, but a group created one designed to help newcomers to haiku to understand the lingo.

[Don Baird]

shasei:  Pronounced (very roughly)  "shaw - say - e"  (e as in glee) or just "shaw-say" ... the "e" drops somewhat in sound when spoken in English.

"Sketching from nature" is the general definition of shasei.  Shiki wrote: "If a shasei ku has good taste, it will make a remarkable effect."  

This sketching is an objective sketching without interjecting the poet's own bias into the image.  However, a bias, or subjectivity, may come from the choice of angle, where the poet stands, if he/she waits for a different time of day to write the haiku and so forth.  That's where the poet comes into play in terms of "bias".  However, once those subjective decisions have been made, the chosen scene is a shasei - a sketch from nature ... without word trickery/play and trying to "make it mean something profound".  It's nature:  it's already profound and so are the mysteries within.

just my two cents for the glossary ...

Don

[Laura Sherman]

How about saijiki?

Looking it up, I believe it is pronounced sigh-gee-key (thank you, Grace, for requesting this as I too need help in this area).

A saijiki is a dictionary of seasonal words.

Is this too simple a definition?

When I was researching this I was interested to learn this from an article written by Jane Reichhold:

"Within each of these categories the poems are listed in a prescribed order of appearance according to the natural world. In spring (and saijiki traditionally start with the first and best season) plum blossoms are listed before cherry blossoms because the plum blooms first; slush comes before new grass. In many cases there is a natural sequence; in others - as in animals -  it is very arbitrary."

[AlanSummers]

Haiku usually require the two k's:

Kireji: this is the Japanese cutting word which acts as both as types of punctuation and expresses subtle overtones to a Japanese haiku, and is a word not a symbol as Westerners would use such as the dash or ellipsis [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haiku#Kireji]  

Kireji Pronunciation Warning: Even if you get the pronunction moreorless right, it may appear to a Japanese person as if you are discussing their's or your own issue over hemorrhoids. So it is best to just keep the rough pronunciation to non-fluent Japanese speakers. ;-)
Kireji sounds like: kee-redge-eh  aka KEY REDGE as in HEDGE and EH aka A

As we don't have kireji, which the Japan in the Western alphabet-based language, we can only use our punctuation system which for haiku is mostly dashes or the use of an ellipsis.

Kigo is a hundreds of years old system of relating multiple race memory and emotional overtones relayed through a word for a season or seasonal activity, or a phrase denoting these aspects [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kigo]. Sounds like: KEE GO

Of course both these definitions is very simplifed and I suggest you obtain The Haiku Handbook by Bill Higginson or The New Haiku from Snapshot Press [temporary weblink: http://www.snapshotpress.co.uk/mailing_list_offers/offers.htm] or Lee Gurga's Haiku: A Poet's Guide [http://www.modernhaiku.org/mhbooks/gurgaHPG2003.html], or in my case all of the above! ;-)

Also see our helpful weblinks for places to further read up on these two key elements to haiku.

Keywords is the third k [more later]

[Don Baird]

haiku:   (pronounced something like:  "high-koo" in English and more like "ha - e - koo" in Japanese - vowel e such as in "eat")

Whiile haiku is strongly debated as to what it is as a function in the English language, it is more clear as to what the word itself means.

Haiku has three sound syllables in Japanese.  In English, it has just two syllables.  My understanding is that it means (without going into too much detail) "light verse".  It is a coined word, by Shiki, from haikai and hokku - the terms Basho would have been using during his life and the terms being used 400 years ahead of his time.  Hai would equate to "light" while "ku" would define as "verse". 

[AlanSummers]

Tensaku is basically where a Japanese haiku expert aka master edits her or his students' work; and whether slightly or drastically, it still remains the work of the student.

Sounds like: TEN SACK COO

[Don Baird]

ahhh... yes, that's a good one, Alan! 

[al fogel]

Hello: I've been asked by Laura Sherman (moderator) if I would furnish a definition of senryu. I can only say that after having read the passage below by the wonderful haiku/senryu poet Michael Dylan Welch I was so impressed that I began writing senryu based upon that definition--and I am pleased with the results. So I'm hoping the following definition is helpful for those starting out on their senryu journey.

senryu


A good senryu is not merely a knee-slapper, though it can be that. It's not just a showcase for puns or wit, although a good senryu can include cleverness or humour as part of a more resonant purpose. Rather, a senryu is a poem that wakes us up in a small way with its distilled, one-breath moment of heightened awareness focusing on human nature. It's a window into the human condition, freshly squeegeed. Senryu are, ultimately, poems of human self-awareness. They don't have to be funny, but often it is good to laugh at ourselves through senryu
                                   
         --Michael Dylan Welch


Here are a few examples:



Mattel-Hasbro merger
Barbie, Ken & G.I.Joe
in love triangle


lottery winner
family reunion
the largest ever


dentist chair
the hygienist removes
my bluetooth


moonlit evening
my wife and I
holding hand-helds


patches and holes
from garden pruning--
trendy jeans


car dashboard--
a plastic Jesus blessing
plastic flowers


Red Sox Tribute Day
9 Ted Williams 
in the front row


sidewalk book sale
a kid's lemonade
the best-seller


Bobblehead Day--
pigeons in the bleachers
pecking seeds

--Runner Up, Haiku Calendar Competition 2011


Old-Timers Game
Whitey Ford's fastball
clocked at 28 mph


     --al fogel

[Laura Sherman]

Thank you, Al!!

[Don Baird]

haijin   pronounced:  "high - jin"  While there are only two syllables in English, it appears to me that there are four in the Japanese language:  ha-i-ji-n (as I see it).  

This is a special term for a person who writes haiku - a haiku poet.  But, there seems to also be an indication that it isn't simply referencing just any haiku poet - it is referencing a very advanced one, a master, so to speak.



ps... I modified this post to reflect Gabi's advice.  I was trying to figure how to spell it and had high-jean (LOL) but JIN does reflect the sound much better.  Thanks again Gabi!!!

[Gabi Greve]

Oh, dear- does that mean haijin and hygiene sound the same?

NO
the JIN of haijin is very short... like pin.

Gabi

[Don Baird]

hahaha.. .thanks Gabi.  I say it the way you have written it and couldn't figure how to translate it in such a way an English speaking person could copy.  You have it.  At first I was going to use Gin... like gin and tonic, the drink.  That would have worked.  

"Pin" is perfect.  Thanks for weighing in.  Much appreciated.

Don

 

ps... I've adjusted my post as a result of your help!  Thanks.

[whitedove]

Hi everyone,  I'm a newbie who has been writing some form of haiku for many years, but only in the last year and a half have I attempted to follow the experts advice.  I have a few questions about glossary terms.  First, I've been prounouncing senryu as send-you or sen-rey you.  Is this correct?  As I've worked in the advanced mentoring section, I have twice gotten the criticism that my poems are guilty of authorial comment.  Could you describe this and give an example or two to help further clarify this for me.  Another commentor said the ku in my poem showed closeness.  I think I understand what she meant, but I've read four how-to books about haiku that never mentioned this.  Maybe a glossary definition would help others.  Thanks for your time.  Rebecca Drouilhet

[John McManus]

Hi Rebecca, here's a link that should help with the pronunciation of Senryu . . .

http://www.hsa-haiku.org/archives/HSA_Definitions_2004.html

Authorial comment is when you are actively telling the reader what emotion to feel, the beauty of haiku is that they are supposed to be somewhat objective, even if they are topically subjective. A good example would be Fay Aoyagi . . .

tadpoles with legs
I assure him there's no need
to leave his wife

Topically this a subjective poem, she is talking about her relationship and her thoughts, but it is expressed objectively. She leaves the reader wondering why she's assuring him. Is it that she knows it won't last long, or that she has no intention of telling his wife like some women would. Does that make sense?

Closeness is when there's not enough of a leap betwen the images or not enough distance in the juxtaposition.

warmest,
John

     

[Alan Summers]

Dear Rebecca,

Here are some of my quotes from exercises I've designed for students, which may help address your query about authorial comment:

Rebecca:
"I have twice gotten the criticism that my poems are guilty of authorial comment.  Could you describe this and give an example or two to help further clarify this for me."


How to let the reader be in haiku.

Suggestions lie in the text but are deliberately not spelt out to us as we are proficient and able enough to work something out for ourselves.  We all have to do these actions throughout our lives.

Avoid authorial direction, as haiku are not the single voice of the writer, but of the reader also.

There is enough to get our imagination and emotions activated... [and] it is left to the reader to complete the story as a co-author, as a partner of equal standing to the writer.

If the whole story is revealed and dictated to the reader, what is left is that we as readers are just merely bystanders, and not participants. 

On one level there may be a beginning, middle and end, but that end is ‘open’ so we can make our own conclusions, our own signature on it as a reader/co-author.

The trick with haiku is to turn the story into poem, and not any poem, but one that avoids dictating a definitive narrative onto the reader, leaving nothing else for them but to set aside their own interpretations, and obsequiously take a narrow route that the writer insists on for the reader.

We are not reading/telling/writing a story or tale for a child who is in their early development, where they require a logical narrative progression: We want to to trick the brain into learning and discovering new ways to grow and react.

How to let the reader be in haiku©Alan Summers 2012

Hi everyone,  I'm a newbie who has been writing some form of haiku for many years, but only in the last year and a half have I attempted to follow the experts advice.  I have a few questions about glossary terms.  First, I've been prounouncing senryu as send-you or sen-rey you.  Is this correct?  As I've worked in the advanced mentoring section, I have twice gotten the criticism that my poems are guilty of authorial comment.  Could you describe this and give an example or two to help further clarify this for me.  Another commentor said the ku in my poem showed closeness.  I think I understand what she meant, but I've read four how-to books about haiku that never mentioned this.  Maybe a glossary definition would help others.  Thanks for your time.  Rebecca Drouilhet

Alan's EDIT REASON: Additional line from comments made by me in my haiku workshops.