An Introduction to Haiku – An Anthology of Poems and Poets from Basho to Shiki with translations and commentary By Harold G Henderson

 

 

Clouds come from time to time

And bring to men a chance to rest

From looking at the moon

                                           Matsuo Basho

(Translated by Harold Henderson)

Good translations of poetry are particularly difficult because the translator needs to be not only a master of the two languages involved but also a poet of serious ability. Reading Harold Henderson’s translations of some of the major Japanese Haiku poets of the 17^th and 18^th centuries confirms that he meets both criteria. From 1927 to 1929 he worked as the Assistant to the Curator of Far Eastern Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. He then went to Japan for three years and returned to teach Japanese at the University of Columbia, New York. Professor Henderson thus meets the academic criterion very easily. And when you read his translations of some of the greatest Haiku ever written, you will agree that he has, in addition, poetic sensibility of a very high order indeed.

The book has two chapters that introduce the reader to the main characteristics of this poetic form and tell us a little about the early developments of this genre. And then begins the poetry, and that is seriously powerful stuff.

It can be argued that the ‘classic’ introduction to Haiku in English are the four volumes titled Haiku by RH Blyth, scholar of Japanese culture and, apparently, a contemporary and friend of Harold Henderson. The four substantial volumes  certainly have a great deal more content than Henderson’s one slim volume-more haiku and many references to haiku equivalents in English poetry etc etc. However, Henderson fans will argue, in turn, that Henderson’s translations have more poetic value, if that means anything at all.

Just for a bit of fun, I shall offer translations of a few major haiku by both scholars, and readers can decide which versions they like best.

 Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) (Poet and Zen Buddhist monk of Samurai blood)

Context is often crucial in understanding haiku. On one of his many travels Basho writes that he climbed up to Takadate, the site of a famous castle and of the final battle of Japan’s most famous warrior hero, Yoshitsune, ‘thinking of bygone glories’. On reaching the site Basho found just ‘a wilderness of grass’, and he sat down and wept.

 

 

He then composed the following haiku

Summer grass:                                                                  

Of stalwart warriors’ splendid dreams                       

The aftermath                                                                                                       

(Henderson’s translation)    

 

Ah summer grasses!

All that remains

Of the warriors’ dreams

(Blyth’s translation)

 

One summer night Basho went for a boat ride in the Bay of Akashi. On the shallow sea floor fishermen had laid out earthenware pots which functioned as traps -- an octopus would, in the dark, enter the pot thinking it to be a crevice in the rocks and then it would be unable to come out.

Basho composed the following haiku:

Octopus traps; how soon                                                                                         

They are to have an end-these dreams                       

Beneath the summer moon (Henderson’s translation)                                                  

 

 

 

 

The octopus trap

fleeting dreams.

Under the summer moon

(Blyth’s translation)

When it was evident that he was dying, Basho’s friends asked him for his ‘death poem’. Basho initially refused saying that all his poems of the last ten years were death poems but the next morning he presented the following haiku:

On a journey, ill,

And over fields all withered, dreams

go wandering still.

(Henderson’s translation)

 

In Henderson’s words “Surely as lovely a farewell as any poet ever gave to the world.”

Henderson’s book is available on Amazon and the Kindle edition is cheap-- INR 333.39! The paperback edition is ridiculously expensive. Blyth’s Haiku in four volumes does not appear to be available at present.

Happy reading!