Syllabics: 1

Good Friends:

I am starting a series of posts today under a common title which I’m calling “Syllabics”. The overall purpose of this series of posts will be to present the case for a syllabic approach to Japanese Poetry. One of the purposes of this series is to present the idea that English language poets can approach Japanese forms of poetry by mimicking the syllabic structure of Japanese forms of poetry. Basically, I am presenting the idea that just as the Sonnet was transmitted from Italy to France and England by mimicking the original syllable count as it appeared in Italian and then mimicking that syllable count in French and English, so also such forms as Haiku, Tanka, and Renga can be transmitted to the English language world through mimicking Japanese syllable count in English.

This is a minority view. Most poets currently writing in Japanese forms in English do not mimic the syllabic structure of Japanese poetry when they write in English or other non-Japanese languages. There are a number of reasons for this; the issue is complex. Accordingly, this series will have two major emphases. The first, and more important, is to present the positive case for such a syllabic approach. The second, is to present an alternative view regarding the idea that such a syllabic approach is misguided.

It has been my experience that discussions along these lines can become contentious. So I want to say here that my purpose is not to argue that people should only write poetry in a particular way, or that there is only one way to write Haiku, or Tanka; I am not trying to lay down universal rules for correct Renga. Rather I view this series as apologetic in the sense of a defense for syllabic mimicking as a valid approach to Japanese Poetry in English.

I originally set out to write something systematic. The influence of my philosophy background pushed me in that direction. As I attempted to do so, however, I found the approach yielded a heavy, complex, pedantic, overly repetitive, and overly argumentative document that even I found boring. So I decided to change my mode of presentation. Since this series deals primarily with Japanese Poetry, I decided to adopt a style sometimes known as the “flow of the brush”, or “pen”. This is to say letting the pen lead and not sticking to an outline or sequential presentation. This style is famously known in Kenko’s “Essays in Idleness”, but it has deep roots in East Asian culture. For example, the “Analects” of Confucius can be viewed as written in this mode. I refer to this mode of writing as the “collage” approach. The overall impact emerges from viewing the whole work and the interaction of the sections.

I hope that others will find this series on syllabics of some use. Comments are, as always, greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,

Jim