Contents:

New:

James W. Hackett: "Haiku" and "Haiku Poetry"

H.F. Noyes: The Vanishing Act in Haiku

D. Anakiev: Unknown Mind in Haiku

John Martone: The Way of Poetry

===

Jim Kacian: Soft Cheese

Jim Kacian: State of the Art

David G Lanoue: Not Your Ordinary Saint

Interview with David Lanoue

Itô Yûki: New Rising Haiku

H. F. Noyes: The Haiku Moment

===

Geert Verbeke: Reflections

H. F. Noyes: Favourite Haiku

Margaret Chula: Poetry and Harmony in a Bowl of Tea

Lee Gurga: Juxtaposition

Mohammed Fakhruddin: Land and Sea...

Richard Powell: Still in the Stream

Richard Powell: Wabi What?

Lee Gurga: Toward an Aestetic...

Bruce Ross: Sincerity and the Future of Haiku

Interview with David Lanoue

Interview with Max Verhart

===

Aleksandar Ševo: Our Daily Haiku

Anita Virgil: A Prize Poem

Dragan J. Ristić: Haiku: East and West

Jim Kacian: Speech on Haiku in the Balkans

H. F. Noyes: Silence and Outreach in Haiku

H. F. Noyes: A Favourite Haiku

Susumu Takiguchi: Can the Spirit of Haiku be Translated?

Saša Važić: Roads and Side-Roads

Jim Kacian: What Do Editors Really Want?

Interview with an'ya

Interview with Dimitar Anakiev

Interview with Robert Wilson

 

Dimitar Anakiev (Slovenia) and Richard Gilbert (Japan)

 

YAKUSHIMA DECLARATION

Our basis for an international haiku genre

 

 

- The genre of international haiku is about crossing cultural borders.

- Friendship must be considered the foundation stone of international haiku.

- The genre of international haiku has the qualities of soto (‘outside’).

- Free form (organic form) is more essential for international haiku than any closed or specific form. 

- The Japanese poets of soto (jiyuritsu “free-rhythm”poets) are pioneers of the international haiku genre.

- Poets and translators are the two legs upon which the genre of international haiku stands.

- In the genre of international haiku, personal mythology may replace the role of collective stereotypes.

Dimitar Anakiev

September 2007, Radovljica-Kumamoto-Yakushima

 

 

INTERNATIONAL HAIKU: CORE TRANSLATION

 Centerpoint, and Resonance

 

 

 

its process may function at the core of international haiku. “Core” here implies a metaphorical centerpoint: as a stone thrown into a pond. Its furthest ripples reach the shores of international readers. At the center, likened to the stone itself, is the poem at the center of the translation process, which and rises and falls through the roots and depths of languages to become for a time languageless. All poetic experience itself evidently is such, in that reader experience (consciousness) itself lies at the heart of poetry. This type of reader/translation experience, of languages meeting contextual, cognitive and cultural being, will be familiar to those engaging in poetry translation (with its unique plural: languages), and is an indication of at least a beginning, arising in the first ring of the stone’s resonance—the translation group.

Generally speaking, haiku translation requires at least two translator-poets (one in the source and the target language), each successful in their native tongues, at least one person possessing bilingual ability, providing a path of continual communication and dialogue. While it is possible for a single translator to succeed, it is rare that any one individual has the expertise and cultural knowledge in both source and target languages. Co-translation has many advantages and has become a de facto standard for informed translation. Logistically, projects of book will length typically require 100’s of hours of work, so larger numbers of co-translators may become necessary.

Flowing Outward — Supporting Inward

Beyond the first ring of the core-translation group are succeeding rings of editing, followed by the publication process, each ring of resonance flowing outward from the translation project. Generally, the main aim of each successive ring is to support the preceding inner rings (rather than the other way around).

In terms of support, in the main, translation seems to have been viewed as but a link in a linear chain leading to publication, rather than as a central or core element. A necessary steppingstone only. Regarding international haiku, “translation as centerpoint” is a conceptual and psychological move which places the translation effort closest to the center—with the poems (and poets) themselves at the very center.

Collaborative Translation: Experiential Specifics

Below are described a few necessities involved in creating international/cross-cultural haiku book projects divined from previous successful translation projects of book length, and from discussions with several translators who have published major haiku works with a bilingual format.

1) The group needs a leader, who has final say and is able to organize, direct and interpret the project goals to all concerned.

2) There needs to be adequate funding (whatever project costs exist should be considered upfront, as cost usually relates directly to the final form of the project).

3) The scope, audience, design, and intention of the project all need to be clearly defined. (For instance, Internet/multimedia publication involves technologies, audiences and challenges that are quite different from print media.)

4) The translation goals (e.g. style, language issues, process) need to be clearly defined.

5) It is best not to set publication deadlines until the translation project is succeeding on a steady schedule. This issue has been the ruin of potentially good translation work. Alternatively, a date which is comfortable to the group can be planned with the understanding that it may not be met (the project may need to be reduced in scope to fit a publication deadline).

6) Organization can be refined to stages of completion (project phases).

7) Co-translators should be aware of a general weekly/monthly commitment of time, and the group in an ongoing, steady real-world schedule.

8) It is always best if the co-translators can meet face-to-face as much as possible. It is difficult to get good translations if the group never physically meets together, or is otherwise unable to have freewheeling discussions—this social aspect is often what makes translation both enjoyable and edifying.

9) Objective reading: All final draft translations should be submitted to an objective editor, skilled in the target genre, for comment. Final say on the translation project is however up to the director, not the editor, or publisher (though the editor/publisher may decide not to publish, etc.). Publication involves all the normal processes — what is emphasized here is the point that translation remains the core aspect, and publication, though likewise important, is secondary to the translation team's concepts and goals, ethics and such. In any case, a thorough and expert translation project should result in high quality work, so conflict is not the norm. There may however be issues of audience, markets, translation style and target language style — and there may be cross-cultural issues which are sensitive to all concerned. This is why an objective reader/editor/publisher is important, and likewise a project director. If publication deadlines overwhelm project goals, the resulting work may be lacking.

The overall goal in the specifics mentioned above is to produce the highest quality work: texts that will stand the test of time, by being of value to both poets and academics (especially budding academics, e.g., international MA students). None of this seems possible without haiku achieving poetic power in their target language(s). This issue is complex, as there are numerous considerations beyond the poem itself. While a specific translation of a specific poem may obtain only modest success, contextual commentaries when provided (cultural, historical, biographical, anthropological, literary, etc.) may inspire imagination, curiosity and creativity on the part of the reader.

From the poem itself arise issues of language, culture and context, so poetic translation is rarely a simple matter. This inherent complexity is also a joy (the poet Paul Muldoon comments, “I translate mostly to be able to understand a poem, translation being the closest form of reading we have”). As translation team‑members mention,: the experience of co-translation often provides unique avenues to the heart of poems and the nature of language itself as a vehicle of expression.

Richard Gilbert

September 2007, Kumamoto-Yakushima

Reference

Paul Muldoon. The Minnesota Daily (29 November 2007 interview), University of Minnesota.

 

JAPANESE GARDEN

51 haiku by Dimitar Anakiev (September, 2007)

 

in the pure land Japanese garden grasshoppers

 

following a grasshopper
through the Japanese garden

 

by the monument to Soseki
I touch my first bamboo

 

over a wet stone
a small snail enters
the Japanese garden

 

pissing in the bamboo forest I become bamboo

 

on Mount Kimpo
I met Soseki,
Santoka and Shibata

 

rain-wet
nude in the night of
the Japanese garden

 

from the tatami
i wipe
my wet foot-prints

 

the night too short
for cicadas and me
in the Japanese garden

 

before dawn
lightning
in the Japanese garden

 

mosquito and me
alone
in the tatami room

 

to Alma Anakiev

ferry to Yakushima
a girl's hand stretched
to catch a rainbow

 

coming to the island
the Yakushima rain

 

appears
and disappears
in haze Kuchierabu-jima

 

finally a dragon-fly lands on the pine
in the Japanese garden

 

smoking
i meditate
in the Japanese garden

 

stopping for a while
a grasshopper leaves
the Japanese garden

 

a Japanese cat
steps into
the Japanese garden

 

enjoying every bite
of the mosquito

 

drinking sake all night
in the Japanese garden

 

on the day i spoke
with Hoshinaga-sensei
the moon cut by katana

 

over the edge of a roof
moonshine comes
into the Japanese garden

 

shadows from a neon light
also come into the Japanese garden

 

Keiko –
the silent kami
of the house

 

stepping in the ant's path
in the Japanese garden –
chaos

 

As a flying-fish
i penetrate
an unknown mind

 

Kagoshima –
the impossibility of communication
by words

 

a big wave of the ocean
is dropping me out
at Inakahama
  
listening to the ocean
listening to my friends
listening to the ocean

 

above Japanese roofs
an Islamic moon

 

to Ito Yuki

Hoshinaga-Ito,
Dimitar-Ito, Jim-Ito,
Richard-Ito, Ito

 

to Jim Kacian

in the foam of broken Pacific waves
thoughts on rebellion

 

a hundred times konichiwa
going through the land of Yakusugi

 

a swarm of dragon-flies
above the place
where Oko-no-taki pours

 

resisting the big waves
at Inakahama

 

to Richard Gilbert

a garbage man
at Inakahama
enthralled by the ocean

 

from a pole
the crow stares
at the ocean

 

through the tunnel
we go out into the night –
the road to Hinagumachi

 

coming back
from Santoka's bath
smiles of yakuza

 

to Judy and Masa

coming back
from Ikkenya
gentle rain

 

a rainbow
over the rainbow
in Kumamoto

 

to Al Gore

at the railroad crossing
a car stopped
by the bamboo-barrier

 

Shimabara still in haze
of rebellion

 

facing the limits of life
a grasshopper lit by sunshine

 

to Izumi and Jeff

breathing
smoking
mountain Aso

 

at Minamiaso
the Strong Boss
saloon

 

Fukuoka –
walking the Street of Sad People
i'm coming back home

 

visiting Japan
for two cuttings
of my nails

 

the first sun –
a small cloud departs
Fukuoka

 

on the sunny side of the Alps
i plant a bamboo
from Mount Kimpo

 

by sunrise
the coldness of the Alps
more visible

 

As stated just above, “Poets and translators are the two legs upon which the genre of international haiku stands.” Within international haiku, translation naturally follows from poets and poetry, as cross-cultural and multiple language communication of haiku is at the heart of this genre expression. The following offers some specific thoughts on how a translation group and
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