tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6653661529565335527.post746364536171824579..comments2023-12-29T21:03:17.119-08:00Comments on Shaping Words: Transmission and DifferentiationJim714http://www.blogger.com/profile/06135451195351824085noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6653661529565335527.post-2858102185875878912012-06-19T11:21:03.608-07:002012-06-19T11:21:03.608-07:00Looking forward to the "More later". I f...Looking forward to the "More later". I find myself in great sympathy with your perspective.Brianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12945352610103167449noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6653661529565335527.post-7933169499126730742012-06-19T08:48:23.216-07:002012-06-19T08:48:23.216-07:00Good observations. Uzawa is one of the most milit...Good observations. Uzawa is one of the most militant of the free verse advocates, but is not alone. I have in mind another article about the Japanese language and why I think the differences between Japanese and English have been hugely (at times even comically) exaggerated. My view is that the Japanese language is completely ordinary, nothing special, and that we do not need any additional concepts (such as 'onji' or 'moira') to understand Japanese poetics. 'Syllable' works just fine. More later,<br /><br />JimJim714https://www.blogger.com/profile/06135451195351824085noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6653661529565335527.post-14083103457778436202012-06-19T08:39:31.101-07:002012-06-19T08:39:31.101-07:00A very interesting, even important essay, Jim.
On...A very interesting, even important essay, Jim.<br /><br />One of the problems involving the preferential advocacy for free verse haiku & tanka has to do with contemporary Japanese poets themselves. Often one hears the complaint from Japan that our English haiku and tanka are "too long". Indeed, tanka journals such as the one produced by the Tanka Poets Society of Japan translate all of their English poems in the free verse style. The journal "Gusts" out of Canada, edited by Japanese Kozue Uzawa, stipulates that acceptable tanka no more than approximately 21 English syllables are likely to be accepted.<br /><br />One must often learn to read English free verse haiku & tanka before "getting" them. Until one does, those accustomed to reading traditional English poetry will often be left scratching their heads wondering if there is any <i>their</i> there. I think learning this new linguistic skill alone goes some way towards giving greater weight to free verse poems.<br /><br />Another issue is the difficulty poets encounter when attempting to switch from one form to another. The syllabic and free verse poems sound very different and require different skill sets and a different "ear" to write. I personally find it very difficult to write a syllabic tanka or haiku without it coming across as forced, employing words only to fulfill the syllabic count. I suspect the remedy is reading broadly in the form and writing through one's failures.<br /><br />Crapsey was not alone in recognizing a need for syllabic short-form poems, the Japanese waka her template when creating the cinquain. Even Allen Ginsberg with his one line of 17 syllables "American Sentences" spoke to this need in English prosody.<br /><br />I like the idea of distinguishing between the free verse and syllabic schools of haiku & tanka. I also think the ascendant free verse school will take some convincing and many more poets opting for the syllabic approach before the form is acknowledged as legitimate rather than a unacceptably "retro".<br /><br />In any case, as with all poetry and schools of poetry, the final proof remains with the poem itself. A good poem will always win-out. If not now, then later.Brianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12945352610103167449noreply@blogger.com