WHAT ARE HAIKU?
Blog Posted:11/26/2011 1:23:00 AM
A question more often asked than answered!Two translators thereof said of them'little drops of poetic essence'(Sansom);'meditations...starting points of trains of thought'(Henderson).Taken together,these are perhaps 'the' essential guideline to this 'enigmatic'* form so clearly shown in this sad haiku by Chiyo (1703-75) the renown haiku poetess,married at 19,widowed at 26:
I sleep....I wake...
How wide
The bed with none beside
*many meanings from one thought