О СТРУКТУРЕ И ПОЭТИКЕ ПЕРСИДСКОГО ХАЙКУ

1. Introduction

The article is dedicated to the Persian haiku structure and semantics discussion. Such unusual style formation is connected with Iranian poet and musician Sohrab Sepehri’s visit to Japan. His main visit aim was the music study. But having appreciated the beauty of Japanese haiku he began to translate it into Persian. After returning to Iran Sepehri successfully composed haiku in Persian [1]. Later Ahmad Shamloo and Askar Pashai translated the book “History of Haiku” by R. H. Blyth into Persian [2]. Due to this book the Iranians got the possibility to read the masterpieces of Japanese poets e.g. Basho, Buson, Issa and many others. As observed [3], “The first translations of Japanese poetry into Persian appeared in literary magazines in the 1950s”. These translations became the unusual poems representation. In the 1990s haiku had been transformed to a new poetic form now called Persian haiku. In the 2000s the Persian haiku books composed by Kāva Gowharin [4] and Sayyed ‘Ali Şālehi were published. The new poetic genre is told about in the Iranian newspaper [5]. Many Persian haiku are collected by Massih Talebian [6]. This poetic form remains popular in the Internet sources.

2. Haiku in non-Japanese Languages

The first haiku appeared outside Japan were translations of the Japanese original. Despite their brevity the Japanese verses written in Japanese or translated into other languages are not so easy for understanding. One should get to know the language and culture of Japan. But some people enjoying the art of haiku don’t only read or discuss their meaning but also try to create similar verses. It should be also mentioned that the greater part of non-Japanese “haijins” (composers of haiku) don’t know the Japanese language relying upon only the translations.

The haiku composition has become a new page of versification in many countries. Most of such haiku are written in the national languages (very rarely in Japanese). All the verses tend to conserve the three-line structure and some of them follow the syllabic structure. As to the matter it depends on author’s view and creativity so that English haiku, French haiku, Russian haiku and so on now can be considered not as the Japanese haiku imitations but as the independent poetic forms. There exists the international journal of the modern haiku [7]. The American haiku are observed in [8]. The French association of haiku is very popular among the poetry lovers [9]. The haiku written in different languages including Persian may be considered as a part of haikuland whose area is unlimited. Some verses are connected with the national cultural or geographic space. For example one of modern haiku deals with the holiday of Halloween which is very far from both Japanese and Persian cultural traditions [10]:

Halloween night

Terrified

that I'm alone

Alissa Kanturek

3. Metrics and Rhyme

3.1. Metrics

The Japanese haiku is known to possess the three-line syllabic structure 5-7-5 though originally it’s written in one line. To precise Japanese syllable in haiku means a light syllable (called on, in Japanese音), but further we calculate the amount of syllables being light or long ones. The Persian haiku following this line composition has an arbitrary syllabic structure but the second line tends to be longer than the other ones. This property seems to be common for haiku composed in non-Japanese languages. The Persian haiku syllabic structure can look like as 9-1-8, 4-7-3, 6-6-10, 2-8-4, 4-3-6, 7-7-5 and so on. The deviation from the 5-7-5 model is obviously great but the statistical calculations based on 24 poems taken from [6] show us that the average line length m_i (where index i marks the line) doesn’t rather differ from the Japanese original: m₁ = m₃ = 5.4; m₂ = 6.4. Such results are to be compared with the experimental data analysing. In this case the obtained meanings deviated from the known average meaning follow the distribution close to the Gaussian form. The Persian haiku may even have more than three lines, 3-2-3-5-7 metrics is proposed by Kiārostami [11]:

When uniting the 1-2 rows and 3-4 rows one obtains the 5-8-7 metric far from the Japanese haiku metrics but the syllable sum becomes quite equal.

3.2. Rhyme

All the Japanese poetic forms including haiku aren’t rhymed. The translations of original haiku as well as haiku composed in non-Japanese language are known to follow this rule. Nevertheless the rhyme concerning two rows may appear as some poetic complement [12]:

No other sound

the church bell rings out

through the Milky Way.

Verhart

The traditional Persian versification system called aruz is usually rhymed. The classical Persian poetry remains the most favourable for the Persians. Some poems like “Shahnama” created by Firduasi are known all over the world. The modernization of the Persian poetry began in the XX century. Of course the main source of new ideas was the culture of West. The western verses translations inspired the Persians to create the new poetic forms. Nima Yushij was one of the first Persian modernist poets [13]. The modern Persian poetry including Persian haiku doesn’t keep the rhyme or the metrics. The free verse example can be met among the poems created by the modern Persian poet Ahmad Shamloo:

Besides the modern Persian poetry dealing with many important concepts (economical, ethic, historical and so on) of national life is rather vaster than the classical one.

4. The Concepts of Nature, Love and Buddhism

4.1. Kigo

The Japanese haiku are always connected with nature. The nature description is expressed by the “seasonal indicators” (words or expressions) named kigo (in Japanese 季語). The Matsuo Bashō’s haiku contains two kigo words (kiri “mist”, shigure “autumn rain”) [14]:

The most of the Persian haiku also follow this principle. So the Yarta Yaran’s haiku has kigo word gondamzār “wheat field” [6]:

Moreover some Persian haiku have “double kigo” that is two independent seasonal words or expressions. For example the Samaneh Hosseini’s haiku contains such construction expressed by the words bād “wind” and behār “spring” [6]:

The “double kigo” words found in the Abbas Hossein-Nejad’s haiku are deraxt “tree” and zemestān “winter” [6]:

This very long verse greatly differing from 5-7-5 syllable haiku has some animal words (asb “horse”, kabutar “pigeon”, kargas “vulture”) instead of the seasonal ones.

4.2. Shasei

The style shasei (in Japanese 写生) had come to Japan from China. Firstly it meant the painting style but then entered the literature. It looks like a nature sketch composed in verses: “The whole of life is in each moment, not in the past, not in the future – and thus a true haiku is vitally important because it is a moment of total and genuine awareness of the reality of the Now” [15]. The Japanese haiku created by Seishi Yamaguchi describes the moment of swimming off:

The Reza Arabi’s haiku dedicated to the mountain twilight view rather corresponds to shasei [6]:

 4.3. Concept of Love

The Persian poetry is famous by its great love poems. One of these poems, “Leila and Majnun”, is the dramatic epic story of two beloved persons belonging to the two hostile families. The great Persian poet Rudaki tells us about a beloved person without grudging words for her describing [16]:

But the Japanese verses keep the woman’s beauty as a hidden category. The beloved person is rather hinted but not evidently mentioned within a poem. The words like “woman”, “beauty”, “love”, “kiss” and so on are not typical for the Japanese haiku or tanka. The example of tanka by Motoyoshi Shinnō included to the anthology “Hyakunin Isshu” (百人一首) tells about the sorrow but even in the case of death the female image remains unexpressed:

Only few Persian haiku are dedicated to the love topic. But Ehsan Porsa’s haiku excites us by the feelings range [6]:

So one may conclude that the Persian haiku are closer to the classical Persian poetry but not to the Japanese haiku relatively to the concept of love.

4.4. Concept of Buddhism

The Japanese culture is known to be influenced by Zen Buddhism. It may be also observed in the Japanese poetry. The classical and modern Persian poetry belongs to the cultural sphere of Islam. As to the Persian haiku they tend to save some important features of the Japanese originals. Among all the Persian haiku I could find there is only one connected with Buddha. But Reza Ashofteh’s haiku looking like shasei is worth to be mentioned. The Buddha’s statue is a symbol of the interior light demonstrating the concept of satori [6]:

5. The Japanese Poetics Principles

5.1. Mono-no Aware

The concept of mono-no aware (in Japanese 物の哀れ) means sensitivity, hidden beauty not to be told clearly. Matsuo Bashō’s haiku describes the standard situation when one hears the sound of geta (Japanese shoes) in the night but it is full of unseen charm, aware [14]:

Sirus Nozari regards the moon through a pine allowing to a reader to enjoy the nature view [6]:

5.2. Sabi

Sabi (in Japanese 寂) is one of the main Japanese poetry principles. It means loneliness or sadness of the surrounding world. It presents in many Japanese verses. So Kiyosuke Ason regarding the fallen leaves thinks about his passed youth:

The Mr. Ghodsi Ghazi-noor’s haiku telling about his far situated beloved person expresses the feeling of sabi [6]:

5.3. Hosomi

Hosomi (in Japanese 細身) means compassion to all creatures who are inhabitant on our Earth. Matsuo Bashō in his haiku sympathizes with birds and fish left by spring [14]:

In the Persian haiku created by Majid Jamshidi an ant becomes the object of pity [6]:

The subject of Sirus Rumi is a suffering woman, bānu [6]:

5.4. Futomi

Futomi (in Japanese 太美) appears as the principle opposite to hosomi. It describes the richness of poetic perception. The Japanese example may be presented by Kobayashi Issa:

Rezanejad Shirazi in his Persian haiku admires the sunrise and the sunset [6]:

6. Repetitions

Alliteration can be found in Japanese haiku though it’s unlikely to be called one of its main properties. But the alliteration use in Western haiku can be compared with that of “cutting words” kireji [17, p. 203]:

Table 1. The Japanese and English haiku comparison.

The Persian haiku seems to follow the Western one in this matter. The alliteration isn’t frequent but one can find some examples in haiku of Ghodsi Ghazi-noor [3]:

Čun āb o māh, če dur

Če dar ham.

The haiku written by Yarta Yaran has an onomatopoeia reduplication zār zār “sounds of cry” (cf. Japanese shiku shiku). Analogically Majid Jamshidi uses nam nam “sounds of rain” (cf. Japanese potsu potsu, za za).

The Persian haiku composed by Mohammad Hoghughi is unique in his repetitions variety: it has anaphora and epistrophe in three lines [6]:

7. Conclusion

The Persian haiku may be clearly considered as an independent genre of the modern Persian poetry. The metrics of the Persian haiku greatly differs from the Japanese one. The free verse form of the Persian haiku contradicts the quantitative syllabic classical Persian poetry. The Persian haiku follows some features of the Japanese ones. Thus the most of them contains the seasonal indicators called kigo. The concept of love approaches the Persian haiku to the traditional Persian poetry. The Japanese poetical principles such as mono-no aware, satori, hosomi, sabi, futomi and some others can also be observed in the Persian haiku. The new poetical style verses contain several types of repetitions. The Persian haiku obviously needs the further investigation. These verses are to be compared not only with Japanese haiku but also with Western ones. This article may be regarded as an introduction to the area being for the most of people like terra incognita – the Persian haikuland!