Lecture by Prof. Tokun on The World of Haiku-深圳大学外国语学院

>HOME >Research >Conferences and Seminars >

Conferences and Seminars

Lecture by Prof. Tokun on The World of Haiku

writer:admin

On April 28th, Professor Tokun (佟君) from Sun Yat-sen University came to our college and gave a lecture entitled The World of Haiku at H5-303, Wenke Building.

Professor Tokun received a warm welcome after a brief self-introduction and an overview of Japanese haiku. He points out that haiku can be traced to China’s humorous-ci in the Sui and Tang Dynasties, and had experienced the evolution process of humorous-ci→ heading sentences → a line of sentence → haiku poem after having been introduced into Japan. Haiku is composed of three sentences, of which the first sentence contains 5 sounds, the second 7 sounds and the third 7 sounds, altogether 17 sounds, therefore is known as the shortest formally-fixed poem in the world.

Professor Tokun also introduced four most representative haiku poets. The first one is Matsuobashiyo （松尾芭蕉）, who to a great extent enhanced the artistry of haiku poem. He advocates the Chinese poets Du Fu, Li Bai, Su Shi, etc., and pursues the philosophy of Lao Zhuang. He believes that "unpopularity", "sincerity out of elegance", and "maintain a lofty state of mind while living a mundane life" should be the principles of the poems, so his humorous-ci is permeated with the charm of Zen. The most prominent artistic feature of his humorous-ci is its nobility, grace and tranquility.

The second poet, Yosabuson (與謝蕪村), is another one who committed to the prospering of humorous-ciin Japan after Matsuobashiyo. He admires Chinese poet Wang Wei, therefore his humorous-ci is often characterized by "paintings within poems", a glimpse of which can be found in his 16 pieces of "Songs of Spring Breezes in Ma Di", which also reflects the author's deep feeling of nostalgia.

The third was Masaoka Shiki (正崗子規), who officially renamed humorous-ci as Haiku. He advocated the creation of realistic, painterly and impressionistic haiku poem, so that it is able to adapt to the form of spirit of the new era of literature and regain artistic life. He highly admires the Japanese waka collection "Manyo Collection", and had contributed to the reviving of public’s interest in the haiku poet, Yosabuson, with his writings.

The fourth is Kobayashi Yicha (小林一茶), who had experienced a rough life. He was poor and sick for most of his life. He also experienced bereavement several times. Therefore, his writing is mainly characterized by sympathy for the weak and resistance against the powerful. Moreover, he is a homesick poet, and his haiku poems concerned only about his own life without romantic elements. There were colloquial language, dialect and onomatopoetic words everywhere in the haiku poems he wrote, which makes them easy to read.

At the end, Professor Tokun summed up the characteristics of haiku poems, namely, "season's word", "season’s title", "kileji" and "aftertaste". Generally, haiku is a kind of poetry which is rich in rhythm, and charm, so that it is able to express the sounds, images and one’s thoughts in just seventeen characters. Professor Tokun also shared the works of the four poets, relevant books and poems and put forward his own unique opinions.

Through this lecture, students gained a deep understanding of the development process of Japanese haiku and the unique writing styles of the four haiku poets and their status and role in the history of haiku poems. This lecture will behelpful for students in reading more books concerning Japanese haiku and creating their own haiku poems.

导航