Analysis of haiku matsuo basho. Lyrics of medieval Japan

Matsuo Basho. Engraving by Tsukioka Yoshitoshi from the series “101 Views of the Moon.” 1891 The Library of Congress

Genre haiku originated from another classical genre - pentaverse tank in 31 syllables, known since the 8th century. There was a caesura in the tanka, at this point it “broke” into two parts, resulting in a tercet of 17 syllables and a couplet of 14 syllables - a kind of dialogue, which was often composed by two authors. This original tercet was called haiku, which literally means "initial stanzas". Then, when the tercet received its own meaning and became a genre with its own complex laws, it began to be called haiku.

The Japanese genius finds himself in brevity. Haiku tercet is the most laconic genre of Japanese poetry: only 17 syllables of 5-7-5 mor. Mora- a unit of measurement for the number (longitude) of a foot. Mora is the time required to pronounce a short syllable. in line. There are only three or four significant words in a 17-syllable poem. In Japanese, a haiku is written in one line from top to bottom. In European languages, haiku is written in three lines. Japanese poetry does not know rhymes; by the 9th century, the phonetics of the Japanese language had developed, including only 5 vowels (a, i, u, e, o) and 10 consonants (except for voiced ones). With such phonetic poverty, no interesting rhyme is possible. Formally, the poem is based on the count of syllables.

Until the 17th century, haiku writing was viewed as a game. Hai-ku became a serious genre with the appearance of the poet Matsuo Basho on the literary scene. In 1681, he wrote the famous poem about the crow and completely changed the world of haiku:

On a dead branch
The raven turns black.
Autumn evening. Translation by Konstantin Balmont.

Let us note that the Russian symbolist of the older generation, Konstantin Balmont, in this translation replaced the “dry” branch with a “dead” one, excessively, according to the laws of Japanese versification, dramatizing this poem. The translation turns out to violate the rule of avoiding evaluative words and definitions in general, except for the most ordinary ones. "Words of Haiku" ( haigo) should be distinguished by deliberate, precisely calibrated simplicity, difficult to achieve, but clearly felt insipidity. Nevertheless, this translation correctly conveys the atmosphere created by Basho in this haiku, which has become a classic, the melancholy of loneliness, the universal sadness.

There is another translation of this poem:

Here the translator added the word “lonely,” which is not in the Japanese text, but its inclusion is nevertheless justified, since “sad loneliness on an autumn evening” is the main theme of this haiku. Both translations are rated very highly by critics.

However, it is obvious that the poem is even simpler than the translators presented. If you give its literal translation and place it in one line, as the Japanese write haiku, you will get the following extremely short statement:

枯れ枝にからすのとまりけるや秋の暮れ

On a dry branch / a raven sits / autumn twilight

As we can see, the word “black” is missing in the original, it is only implied. The image of a “chilled raven on a bare tree” is Chinese in origin. "Autumn Twilight" ( aki no kure) can be interpreted both as “late autumn” and as “autumn evening”. Monochrome is a quality highly valued in the art of haiku; depicts the time of day and year, erasing all colors.

Haiku is least of all a description. It is necessary not to describe, the classics said, but to name things (literally “to give names to things” - to the hole) in extremely simple words and as if you were calling them for the first time.

Raven on a winter branch. Engraving by Watanabe Seitei. Around 1900 ukiyo-e.org

Haiku are not miniatures, as they were long called in Europe. The greatest haiku poet of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, who died early from tuberculosis, Masaoka Shiki, wrote that haiku contains the whole world: the raging ocean, earthquakes, typhoons, the sky and stars - the whole earth with the highest peaks and the deepest sea depressions. The space of haiku is immense, infinite. In addition, haiku tends to be combined into cycles, into poetic diaries - and often life-long, so that the brevity of haiku can turn into its opposite: into long works - collections of poems (though of a discrete, intermittent nature ).

But the passage of time, past and future X does not depict aiku, haiku is a brief moment of the present - and nothing more. Here is an example of a haiku by Issa, perhaps the most beloved poet in Japan:

How the cherry blossomed!
She drove off her horse
And a proud prince.

Transience is an immanent property of life in the Japanese understanding; without it, life has no value or meaning. Fleetingness is both beautiful and sad because its nature is fickle and changeable.

An important place in haiku poetry is the connection with the four seasons - autumn, winter, spring and summer. The sages said: “He who has seen the seasons has seen everything.” That is, I saw birth, growing up, love, rebirth and death. Therefore, in classical haiku, a necessary element is the “seasonal word” ( kigo), which connects the poem with the season. Sometimes these words are difficult for foreigners to recognize, but the Japanese know them all. Detailed kigo databases, some of thousands of words, are now being searched on Japanese networks.

In the above haiku about the crow, the seasonal word is very simple - "autumn." The coloring of this poem is very dark, emphasized by the atmosphere of an autumn evening, literally “autumn twilight,” that is, black against the background of deepening twilight.

Look how gracefully Basho introduces the essential sign of the season into a poem about separation:

For a spike of barley
I grabbed, looking for support...
How difficult is the moment of separation!

“A spike of barley” directly indicates the end of summer.

Or in the tragic poem of the poetess Chiyo-ni on the death of her little son:

O my dragonfly catcher!
Where in an unknown country
Did you run in today?

"Dragonfly" is a seasonal word for summer.

Another “summer” poem by Basho:

Summer herbs!
Here they are, the fallen warriors
Dreams of glory...

Basho is called the poet of wanderings: he wandered a lot around Japan in search of true haiku, and, when setting off, he did not care about food, lodging, tramps, or the vicissitudes of the path in the remote mountains. On the way, he was accompanied by the fear of death. A sign of this fear was the image of “Bones Whitening in the Field” - this was the name of the first book of his poetic diary, written in the genre haibun(“prose in haiku style”):

Maybe my bones
The wind will whiten... It's in the heart
It breathed cold on me.

After Basho, the theme of “death on the way” became canonical. Here is his last poem, “The Dying Song”:

I got sick on the way,
And everything runs and circles my dream
Through scorched fields.

Imitating Basho, haiku poets always composed “last stanzas” before they died.

"True" ( Makoto-no) the poems of Basho, Buson, Issa are close to our contemporaries. The historical distance is, as it were, removed in them due to the immutability of the haiku language, its formulaic nature, which has been preserved throughout the history of the genre from the 15th century to the present day.

The main thing in the worldview of a haikaist is an acute personal interest in the form of things, their essence, and connections. Let us remember the words of Basho: “Learn from the pine tree what pine is, learn from bamboo what bamboo is.” Japanese poets cultivated meditative contemplation of nature, peering into the objects surrounding a person in the world, into the endless cycle of things in nature, into its bodily, sensual features. The poet's goal is to observe nature and intuitively discern its connections with the human world; haikaists rejected ugliness, pointlessness, utilitarianism, and abstraction.

Basho created not only haiku poetry and haibun prose, but also the image of a poet-wanderer - a noble man, outwardly ascetic, in a poor dress, far from everything worldly, but also aware of the sad involvement in everything happening in the world, preaching conscious “simplification”. The haiku poet is characterized by an obsession with wandering, the Zen Buddhist ability to embody the great in the small, awareness of the frailty of the world, the fragility and changeability of life, the loneliness of man in the universe, the tart bitterness of existence, a sense of the inseparability of nature and man, hypersensitivity to all natural phenomena and the change of seasons .

The ideal of such a person is poverty, simplicity, sincerity, a state of spiritual concentration necessary to comprehend things, but also lightness, transparency of verse, the ability to depict the eternal in the current.

At the end of these notes, we present two poems by Issa, a poet who treated with tenderness everything small, fragile, and defenseless:

Quietly, quietly crawl,
Snail, on the slope of Fuji,
Up to the very heights!

Hiding under the bridge,
Sleeping on a snowy winter night
Homeless child.

Municipal educational institution "Secondary school No. 1 of the city of Novouzensk, Saratov region"

Research work on the topic:

"Poetic discoveries - haiku"

Completed by: Daniil Siegert, student 3 “B” of Municipal Educational Institution Secondary School of Novouzensk, Saratov Region

Head: B .

Novouzensk

Plan

research work on the topic: “Poetic discoveries - haiku”

Introduction.

Theoretical part

1.National culture and traditions of Japan

2. Founders of haiku

3. What is a haiku poem?

4. Structure, genre characteristics, rules for writing haiku.

Practical part

1. Analysis of haiku content

2. Imitating haiku

3. Haiku in the modern world.

Research results

Conclusions.

Bibliography

Project defense (presentation)

Introduction. Selecting a research topic:

« Why are we so attracted by this immortal art of composing poems from several lines, which has come to us from the depths of centuries, this magic of laconicism: simplicity of words, concentration of thought, depth of imagination or your soul?

Juan Ramon Jimenez :

I really love to read. In 3rd grade, during literary reading lessons, we became acquainted with the works of Japanese poets. Their poems (haiku or haiku) are very unusual and imaginative. They are united by the poet’s ability to reveal the secrets of the world. Why did such a miniature genre as haiku originate in Japan? What are the rules of haiku formation? Is it possible to learn to imitate hockey in order to convey the poetic image of the “small homeland”, the uniqueness, and discreet beauty of our native nature? To answer these questions, I have to turn into a researcher and make some interesting discoveries on my own. The topic of my research work: “Poetic discoveries - haiku”

Relevance: Haiku is loved, known by heart and composed not only in Japan, but throughout the world. In different languages, many people convey their feelings using the seemingly simple, but at the same time deep and meaningful form of Japanese poetry - haiku.

Target: get acquainted with Japanese poems - haiku, their structure and genre features;

Tasks:

Get acquainted with the national culture and traditions of Japan; - find out what haiku is and why they are needed;
- find information about the life and work of Japanese poets;
- learn to see the author’s feelings, experiences, and moods behind the lines of poems;
- learn the basic principles of writing haiku;
Hypothesis: haiku teaches you to look for hidden beauty in the simple, inconspicuous, everyday.
Date and place of the study: Municipal educational institution Secondary School No. 1 of Novouzensk

Object of study: haiku poems

Subject of study: Japanese poetry

THEORETICAL PART.

1. National culture and traditions of Japan.

According to legend, Japan was formed from a string of drops that rolled down from the heroic spear of the god Izanagi, who separated the firmament of the earth from the abyss of the sea. The curved chain of islands really resembles frozen drops. The ancient history and exoticism of the country irresistibly attracts Europeans. But the closer they get to know Japan, the more they understand how unusual the perception of the world and people in this world is in the understanding of the Japanese.

The Japanese believe that you should always take care of the self-esteem of even a stranger; treat elders with special respect, even if they are wrong; be attentive to people and

surrounding nature. From childhood, any Japanese is taught in the midst of daily hustle and bustle, worries, and hustle and bustle to find moments to admire the sunset, the first flower, listen to the rustling of leaves and the drumming of raindrops. These moments are remembered in order to “look through” them in difficult moments of life, like old photographs in which we are always younger and happier. And then the strength appears to forget about adversity and live on. Probably, it is in such moments that poems are born:

First snow in the morning.

He barely bent down

Narcissus leaves.

These lyrical poems are called haiku or haiku.

….Why did this amazing type of poetry originate in Japan?

The Japanese love everything small: trees, stones, bouquets, poems. Maybe because the country is located on islands in the Pacific Ocean and the area of ​​residence is very small. Each person has only a few meters of land, which contributes to a careful attitude towards everything that surrounds the Japanese. Even by the way. An important part of life for the Japanese is the tea ceremony. This ritual has not changed over the past centuries. It is considered a refined pleasure to sit in a quiet tea room and listen to the sounds of water boiling in a brazier. The great teacher Sen Rikyu elevated tea drinking to an art. The tea room is a place where peace, trust and friendship reign. Today, like many centuries ago, tyanyu, as the tea ceremony is called, continues to be very popular among the Japanese. During tea drinking, wise speeches are made, poems are read, works of art are examined, haiku are played, which are discussed with the aim of learning truth and beauty.

2.Founders of haiku.

Matsuo Basho is a great haiku master who is considered the founder of the haiku poem. (Matsuo is the poet’s surname, Basho is his pseudonym.)

Matsuo Basho is a recognized Master of Japanese poetry. Basho's haiku are truly masterpieces among the haiku of other Japanese poets. Matsuo Basho is a great Japanese poet and theorist of verse. Basho was born in 1644 in the small castle town of Ueno, Iga Province (Honshu Island).
Don't imitate me too much!

Look, what's the point of such similarities?

Two halves of melon.

Matsuo Basho came from a family of poor samurai, the third child, who was given the name Jinsichiro at birth. His family belonged to the class of educated people who knew Japanese classics and taught calligraphy, because in peacetime there was no one to fight with, many samurai found themselves in this activity. During his fifty-year life, he changed many nicknames, but the last one replaced all the previous ones from the memory of his descendants. Despite his fame as a poet and being a teacher of poetry, Basho for a long time remained a poor wanderer who did not have his own home for a long time.

When one of the students persuaded his father to give the teacher a small hut - a guardhouse near a small pond, he planted a banana palm tree near it and took a pseudonym, roughly meaning “living in a banana hut”, and later began to sign as “base-an”, which meant banana tree.
Basho was very poor, but in his miserable existence he saw the meaning of his spiritual independence, so he always spoke about it with pride. Drawing in his works the ideal image of a free poet - a philosopher, glorifying spirituality and indifferent to the blessings of life. By the end of his life, he had many students all over Japan, but Basho’s school was not the usual school of a master and students listening to him at that time: Basho encouraged those who came to him to find their own path, each had their own handwriting, sometimes very different from the handwriting of the teacher. Basho's students were Korai, Ransetsu, Issho, Kikaku; Chiyo belongs to the Basho school, a talented poetess who, having become a widow at an early age and having lost a child, became a nun and devoted herself to poetry...

Russian language" href="/text/category/russkij_yazik/" rel="bookmark">Russian language The style of the text is rarely observed. Compliance with this rule is not important, remember that the Russian and Japanese languages ​​are different, Japanese and Russian have different pronunciation, rhythmic pattern of words, timbre, rhyme and rhythm, and therefore writing haiku in Russian will be very different from their writing in Japanese .

Basho's haiku was published in Russian in a translation by Vera Nikolaevna Markova. She was a great poet, translator and scholar of Japanese classical literature. The talented poet-translator Vera Markova brilliantly translated into Russian the masterpieces created by the genius of the Japanese people. The Japanese government highly appreciated Vera Markova's work in popularizing Japanese culture in Russia, awarding her the Order of the Noble Treasure.

Practical part

1. Analysis of haiku content.

In the course of studying this topic, it became clear to me that if we read these poems repeatedly, then usually the first line of haiku paints us the overall picture contemplated by the author. The second draws our attention to what attracted the attention of the poet himself. The third is the trace that the painting left in the artist’s soul, and to confirm this, let’s read a poem written by the artist Hiroshige himself.

The wild duck screams.

From the breath of the wind

The surface of the water becomes ripples.

What does the hero hear? (Wild duck screams)

What does it feel like? ? (Wind breath, i.e. wind blowing in the face)

What does he see? (He sees ripples appearing in the water)

What could we feel?

The poet managed to create an image that allows us to hear, feel and see a picture of nature. Through hearing, vision and sensation, we get the impression of the coming cold weather.

What can we all conclude from?, What

“All together – beauty is in the simple! If a person sees it and appreciates it, he is happy.”

You can give an example of another poem written by the Japanese poet Issho.

Seen everything in the world
My eyes are back
To you, white chrysanthemums.
Issho

Reading the poem, you can understand that the hero traveled a lot, visited different countries, was amazed at many beauties) Why did his eyes return to white chrysanthemums? Are they really the most beautiful in the world? Or does the hero just love them? (It is not only our sight that makes us observant, but also our heart. A loving eye allows a person to become observant.)

What if an indifferent gaze looked at chrysanthemums? (He wouldn't see their beauty)

I would like to inform you that the chrysanthemum is considered a symbol of Japan. She is depicted on the country's coat of arms, on coins and Japan's highest award, the Order of the Chrysanthemum. Nowhere in the world is there such a loving, attentive, even respectful attitude towards a flower as in Japan. What conclusions can be drawn from this? The poet loves his country. For him, there is nothing more valuable than Japan.

In one of his poems, the national poet, a peasant by birth, Issa asks the children:

Red Moon!

Who owns it, children?

Give me an answer!

And children will have to think about the fact that the moon in the sky, of course, is no one’s and at the same time common, because its beauty belongs to all people.

The book of selected haiku contains the entire nature of Japan, its original way of life, customs and beliefs, the work and holidays of the Japanese people in their most characteristic, living details. That is why hockey is loved, known by heart and still composed to this day. What does haiku sound like in Japanese?

Matsuo Basho

かれ朶に烏のとまりけり秋の暮

kareeda ni karasu no tomarikeri aki no kure

A raven sits alone on a bare branch. / Autumn evening. (V. Markova)

Mukai Kyorai

かすみうごかぬ昼のねむたさ

Kasumi Ugokanu Hiru no Nemutasa

A light haze does not waver... / Sleep clouded my eyes (V. Markova)

Nishiyama Soin

ながむとて花にもいたし首の骨

nagamu to te hana ni mo itashi kubi no hone

I kept staring at them, / cherry blossoms, until / my neck cramped (D. Smirnov)

2. Imitation of hockey.

While researching this topic, I suggested to my classmates that they try to write an imitation of haiku. I have compiled a memo that contains the rules for writing haiku.

REMINDER (rules for composing haiku)

	Haiku should consist of three lines.	This rule cannot be broken
	There should be 17 syllables in three lines: 5+7+5	This rule can be broken
	The first two lines are a phrase, the third is a fragment, or the first line is a phrase, and the second is a phrase.	Haiku should not sound like a complete sentence. It is always a sentence and a fragment, a piece.
	Haiku have no rhyme and are based on one poetic image	Haiku should be the result of a momentary piercing vision of the world, some kind of blow to the heart.

Option: The first snow fell…..

The guys wrote haiku, applying all the rules for its composition, using the variant of the beginning of haiku.

I invite you to evaluate the creativity of my classmates:

The first snow fell

He's like cotton candy

But she's cold

(Prikhodko Denis)

The first snow fell

Fluffy snow-white

Winter tree branch.

(Kim Marina)

The first snow fell.
He is white and fluffy -
Poplar fluff

(Panin Dima)

While studying the presented topic, I tried to write my own imitation of hockey:

The rain has passed
The rainbow appeared.
Good for the soul!

Winter.
Dazzling white snow.
Nature sleeps peacefully

Poor little pigeon sitting
On the roof of my house.
And he has nowhere to go...

3. Haiku in the modern world.

The haiku genre is alive and well loved today. To this day, a traditional poetry competition is held in mid-January. Tens of thousands of poems on a given topic are submitted to this competition. This championship has been held annually since the 16th century. And in old Japan, during the heyday of this art, everyone wrote haiku. Give haiku as a thank you for hospitality; leave it on the door of the house when going on a trip; organize a competition with a group of people - poetry is everywhere. Today, haiku continues to be a popular genre of poetry. During the New Year celebrations in Japan, haiku are composed to attract good luck, dedicated to the first snow of the new year or the first dream. Educational television programs about haiku are very popular.

Research results:

Our journey into the world of Japanese poetry has come to an end.

This concludes my research work. What haiku secrets did I uncover? 1. Haiku - lyric poem. It mainly depicts the life of nature and the life of man in their fused indissoluble unity against the backdrop of the cycle of the seasons.
2. The haiku tercet originated in Japanese poetry. The creator of haiku poetry is the great Japanese poet Matsuo Basho
3. To say a lot with a small number of words and signs is the main principle of haiku poetry 4. The task of every haiku poet is to infect the reader with lyrical excitement, to awaken his imagination, and for this there is no need to paint a picture in all its details. 5. In three lines, the poets convey their admiration for nature, their careful admiration of it. Haiku teaches you to look for hidden beauty in the simple, inconspicuous, everyday. My hypothesis was confirmed.

6..There are rules for writing haiku: the first line must consist of five syllables, the second of seven, the third, like the first, of five. In total, haiku should consist of 17 syllables.

7.You can learn to imitate hockey. The creativity of my classmates confirms this.

Conclusion: We, the residents of Russia, are accustomed to scale in everything, to the eternal bustle and haste. And Japanese poetry does not tolerate haste and is designed for slow reading. In Japanese art, the human world and nature exist as one whole. Everyone may wonder: what is haiku for? Haiku develops extraordinary thinking, enriches vocabulary, teaches you to formulate the idea of ​​a work, and allows you to feel like a creator, even for a moment.

Conclusion:

I end my speech with a poem imitation of hockey:

Lion and snail.

We are all different on Earth -

We must give everyone a chance!

I thank the participants of the scientific and practical conference for their attention to my complex but very interesting research. I tried to make the most of my chance.

Bibliography:

Conrad literature. – M., 1974. – P. 57 – 61.

Museum of the East // Lyceum and gymnasium education. – 2003. - No. 8. - P.62-69.

PREFACE

The Japanese lyrical poem haiku (haiku) is distinguished by its extreme brevity and unique poetics.

People love and willingly create short songs - concise poetic formulas, where there is not a single extra word. From folk poetry, these songs move into literary poetry, continue to develop in it and give rise to new poetic forms.

This is how national poetic forms were born in Japan: tanka five-line and haiku three-line.

Tanka (literally “short song”) was originally a folk song and already in the seventh-eighth centuries, at the dawn of Japanese history, it became the trendsetter of literary poetry, pushing into the background, and then completely displacing the so-called long poems “nagauta” (presented in famous eighth-century poetry anthology by Man'yōshū). Epic and lyrical songs of varying lengths are preserved only in folklore. Haiku separated from tanki many centuries later, during the heyday of the urban culture of the “third estate.” Historically, it is the first stanza of the thangka and received from it a rich legacy of poetic images.

Ancient tanka and younger haiku have a centuries-old history, in which periods of prosperity alternated with periods of decline. More than once these forms were on the verge of extinction, but stood the test of time and continue to live and develop even today. This example of longevity is not the only one of its kind. The Greek epigram did not disappear even after the death of Hellenic culture, but was adopted by Roman poets and is still preserved in world poetry. The Tajik-Persian poet Omar Khayyam created wonderful quatrains (rubai) back in the eleventh-twelfth centuries, but even in our era, folk singers in Tajikistan compose rubai, putting new ideas and images into them.

Obviously, short poetic forms are an urgent need for poetry. Such poems can be composed quickly, under the influence of immediate feelings. You can aphoristically, concisely express your thought in them so that it is remembered and passed from mouth to mouth. They are easy to use for praise or, conversely, sarcastic ridicule.

It is interesting to note in passing that the desire for laconicism and love for small forms are generally inherent in Japanese national art, although it is excellent at creating monumental images.

Only haiku, an even shorter and more laconic poem that originated among ordinary townspeople who were alien to the traditions of old poetry, could supplant the tank and temporarily wrest its primacy from it. It was haiku that became the bearer of new ideological content and was best able to respond to the demands of the growing “third estate”.

Haiku is a lyric poem. It depicts the life of nature and the life of man in their fused, indissoluble unity against the backdrop of the cycle of the seasons.

Japanese poetry is syllabic, its rhythm is based on the alternation of a certain number of syllables. There is no rhyme, but the sound and rhythmic organization of the tercet is a subject of great concern to Japanese poets.

Haiku has a stable meter. Each verse has a certain number of syllables: five in the first, seven in the second and five in the third - a total of seventeen syllables. This does not exclude poetic license, especially among such bold and innovative poets as Matsuo Basho (1644–1694). He sometimes did not take into account the meter, striving to achieve the greatest poetic expressiveness.

The dimensions of haiku are so small that in comparison with it a European sonnet seems monumental. It contains only a few words, and yet its capacity is relatively large. The art of writing haiku is, first of all, the ability to say a lot in a few words. Brevity makes haiku similar to folk proverbs. Some tercets have gained currency in popular speech as proverbs, such as the poem by the poet Basho:

I'll say the word Lips freeze. Autumn whirlwind!

As a proverb, it means that “caution sometimes forces one to remain silent.”

But most often, haiku differs sharply from the proverb in its genre characteristics. This is not an edifying saying, a short parable or a well-aimed wit, but a poetic picture sketched in one or two strokes. The poet’s task is to infect the reader with lyrical excitement, to awaken his imagination, and for this it is not necessary to paint a picture in all its details.

Chekhov wrote in one of his letters to his brother Alexander: “...you will get a moonlit night if you write that on the mill dam a piece of glass from a broken bottle flashed like a bright star and the black shadow of a dog or wolf rolled in a ball...”

This method of depiction requires maximum activity from the reader, draws him into the creative process, and gives impetus to his thoughts. You cannot skim through a collection of haiku, flipping through page after page. If the reader is passive and not attentive enough, he will not perceive the impulse sent to him by the poet. Japanese poetics takes into account the counter-work of the reader's thoughts. Thus, the blow of the bow and the response of the string trembling together give birth to music.

Haiku is miniature in size, but this does not detract from the poetic or philosophical meaning that a poet can give to it, nor does it limit the scope of his thoughts. However, the port, of course, cannot give a multifaceted image and at length, to fully develop its idea within the confines of haiku. In every phenomenon he seeks only its culmination.

Some poets, and first of all Issa, whose poetry most fully reflected the people's worldview, lovingly depicted the small and weak, asserting their right to life. When Issa stands up for a firefly, a fly, a frog, it is not difficult to understand that by doing so he stands up for the defense of a small, disadvantaged person who could be wiped off the face of the earth by his feudal master.

Thus, the poet’s poems are filled with social sound.

The moon has come out And every small bush Invited to the holiday

says Issa, and we recognize in these words the dream of equality of people.

Giving preference to the small, haiku sometimes painted a picture of a large scale:

The sea is raging! Far away, to Sado Island, The Milky Way is spreading.

This poem by Basho is a kind of peephole. Leaning our eyes towards it, we will see a large space. The Sea of ​​Japan will open before us on a windy but clear autumn night: the sparkle of stars, white breakers, and in the distance, at the edge of the sky, the black silhouette of Sado Island.

Or take another Basho poem:

On a high embankment there are pine trees, And between them the cherries are visible, and the palace In the depths of flowering trees...

In three lines there are three perspective plans.

Haiku is akin to the art of painting. They were often painted on the subjects of paintings and, in turn, inspired artists; sometimes they turned into a component of the painting in the form of a calligraphic inscription on it. Sometimes poets resorted to methods of depiction akin to the art of painting. This is, for example, Buson’s tercet:

Crescent flowers around. The sun is going out in the west. The moon is rising in the east.

Wide fields are covered with yellow colza flowers, they seem especially bright in the sunset. The pale moon rising in the east contrasts with the fiery ball of the setting sun. The poet does not tell us in detail what kind of lighting effect is created, what colors are on his palette. He only offers a new look at the picture that everyone has seen, perhaps dozens of times... Grouping and selection of pictorial details is the main task of the poet. He has only two or three arrows in his quiver: not one should fly past.

This laconic manner is sometimes very reminiscent of the generalized method of depiction used by the masters of color engraving ukiyoe. Different types of art - haiku and color engraving - are marked by the features of the general style of the era of urban culture in Japan of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and this makes them similar to each other.

Spring rain is pouring! They talk along the way Umbrella and mino.

This Buson tercet is a genre scene in the spirit of ukiyoe engraving. Two passers-by are talking on the street under the net of spring rain. One is wearing a straw cloak - mino, the other is covered with a large paper umbrella. That's all! But the poem feels the breath of spring, it has subtle humor, close to the grotesque.

Often the poet creates not visual, but sound images. The howl of the wind, the chirping of cicadas, the cries of a pheasant, the singing of a nightingale and a lark, the voice of a cuckoo, each sound is filled with a special meaning, giving rise to certain moods and feelings.

A whole orchestra sounds in the forest. The lark leads the melody of the flute, the sharp cries of the pheasant are the percussion instrument.

The lark sings. With a resounding blow in the thicket The pheasant echoes him.

The Japanese poet does not unfold before the reader the entire panorama of possible ideas and associations that arise in connection with a given object or phenomenon. It only awakens the reader’s thought and gives it a certain direction.

On a bare branch Raven sits alone. Autumn evening.

The poem looks like a monochrome ink drawing. Nothing extra, everything is extremely simple. With the help of a few skillfully chosen details, a picture of late autumn is created. You can feel the absence of wind, nature seems frozen in sad stillness. The poetic image, it would seem, is slightly outlined, but it has great capacity and, bewitching, takes you along. It seems that you are looking into the waters of a river, the bottom of which is very deep. And at the same time, he is extremely specific. The poet depicted a real landscape near his hut and, through it, his state of mind. He is not talking about the raven's loneliness, but about his own.

Much scope is left to the reader's imagination. Together with the poet, he can experience a feeling of sadness inspired by autumn nature, or share with him the melancholy born of deeply personal experiences.

It’s no wonder that over the centuries of its existence, ancient haiku has acquired layers of commentary. The richer the subtext, the higher the poetic skill of haiku. It suggests rather than shows. Hint, hint, reticence become additional means of poetic expressiveness. Longing for his dead child, the poet Issa said:

Our life is a dewdrop. Let just a drop of dew Our life - and yet...

Dew is a common metaphor for the frailty of life, just like a flash of lightning, foam on water, or quickly falling cherry blossoms. Buddhism teaches that human life is short and ephemeral, and therefore has no special value. But it is not easy for a father to come to terms with the loss of his beloved child. Issa says “and yet...” and puts down the brush. But his very silence becomes more eloquent than words.

It is quite understandable that there is some misunderstanding in haiku. The poem consists of only three verses. Each verse is very short, in contrast to the hexameter of the Greek epigram. A five-syllable word already takes up an entire verse: for example, hototogisu - cuckoo, kirigirisu - cricket. Most often, a verse has two meaningful words, not counting formal elements and exclamatory particles. All excess is wrung out and eliminated; there is nothing left that serves only for decoration. Even the grammar in haiku is special: there are few grammatical forms, and each carries a maximum load, sometimes combining several meanings. The means of poetic speech are selected extremely sparingly: haiku avoids epithet or metaphor if it can do without them.

Sometimes the entire haiku is an extended metaphor, but its direct meaning is usually hidden in the subtext.

From the heart of a peony A bee slowly crawls out... Oh, with what reluctance!

Basho composed this poem while leaving the hospitable home of his friend.

It would be a mistake, however, to look for such a double meaning in every haiku. Most often, haiku is a concrete image of the real world that does not require or allow any other interpretation.

Haiku poetry was an innovative art. If over time, tanka, moving away from folk origins, became a favorite form of aristocratic poetry, then haiku became the property of the common people: merchants, artisans, peasants, monks, beggars... It brought with it common expressions and slang words. It introduces natural, conversational intonations into poetry.

The scene of action in haiku was not the gardens and palaces of the aristocratic capital, but the poor streets of the city, rice fields, highways, shops, taverns, inns...

An “ideal” landscape, freed from all roughness - this is how old classical poetry painted nature. In haiku, poetry regained its Sight. A man in haiku is not static, he is in motion: here is a street peddler wandering through a snowy whirlwind, and here is a worker turning a grinding mill. The gulf that already lay between literary poetry and folk song in the tenth century became less wide. A raven pecking a snail in a rice field with its nose is an image found in both haiku and folk songs.

The canonical images of the old tanks could no longer evoke that immediate feeling of amazement at the beauty of the living world that the poets of the “third estate” wanted to express. New images, new colors were needed. Poets, who for so long relied on only one literary tradition, are now turning to life, to the real world around them. The old ceremonial decorations have been removed. Haiku teaches you to look for hidden beauty in the simple, inconspicuous, everyday. Not only the famous, many times sung cherry flowers are beautiful, but also the modest, invisible at first glance flowers of cress, shepherd’s purse, and a stalk of wild asparagus...

Take a close look! Shepherd's purse flowers You will see under the fence.

Haiku also teaches us to appreciate the modest beauty of ordinary people. Here is a genre picture created by Basho:

Azaleas in a rough pot, And nearby there is crumbling dry cod A woman in their shadow.

This is probably a mistress or a maid somewhere in a poor tavern. The situation is the most miserable, but the brighter, the more unexpectedly the beauty of the flower and the beauty of the woman stand out. In another poem by Basho, the face of a fisherman at dawn resembles a blooming poppy, and both are equally beautiful. Beauty can strike like lightning:

I've barely gotten better Exhausted, until the night... And suddenly - wisteria flowers!

Beauty can be deeply hidden. In haiku poems we find a new, social rethinking of this truth - the affirmation of beauty in the unnoticed, the ordinary, and above all in the common man of the people. This is precisely the meaning of the poem by the poet Kikaku:

Cherries in spring blossom Not on distant mountain tops Only in our valleys.

True to the truth of life, the poets could not help but see the tragic contrasts in feudal Japan. They felt the discord between the beauty of nature and the living conditions of the common man. Basho’s haiku speaks about this discord:

Next to the blooming bindweed The thresher is resting during the harvest. How sad it is, our world!

And like a sigh escapes Issa:

Sad world! Even when the cherry blossoms... Even then…

The anti-feudal sentiments of the townspeople found an echo in haiku. Seeing a samurai at the cherry blossom festival, Kyorai says:

How is this, friends? A man looks at the cherry blossoms And on his belt is a long sword!

The people's poet, a peasant by birth, Issa asks the children:

Red Moon! Who owns it, children? Give me an answer!

And children will have to think about the fact that the moon in the sky, of course, is no one’s and at the same time common, because its beauty belongs to all people.

The book of selected haiku contains the entire nature of Japan, its original way of life, customs and beliefs, the work and holidays of the Japanese people in their most characteristic, living details.

That is why hockey is loved, known by heart and still composed to this day.

Some features of haiku can only be understood by becoming familiar with its history.

Over time, the tanka (five-line) began to be clearly divided into two stanzas: a tercet and a couplet. It happened that one poet composed the first stanza, the second - the subsequent one. Later, in the twelfth century, chain verses appeared, consisting of alternating tercets and couplets. This form was called "renga" (literally "strung stanzas"); The first tercet was called the "initial stanza", or haiku in Japanese. The renga poem did not have a thematic unity, but its motifs and images were most often associated with a description of nature, with an obligatory indication of the season.

Renga reached its greatest flowering in the fourteenth century. For it, precise boundaries of the seasons were developed and the seasonality of one or another natural phenomenon was clearly defined. Even standard “seasonal words” appeared, which conventionally denoted always the same season of the year and were no longer used in poems describing other seasons. It was enough, for example, to mention the word “haze”, and everyone understood that we were talking about the foggy time of early spring. The number of such seasonal words reached three to four thousand. Thus, words and combinations of words: plum blossoms, nightingale, cobweb, cherry and peach flowers, lark, butterfly, digging up a field with a hoe and others - indicated that the action takes place in the spring. Summer was designated by the words: downpour, cuckoo, planting rice seedlings, flowering paulownia, peony, weeding rice, heat, coolness, midday rest, mosquito canopy, fireflies and others. The words indicating autumn were: moon, stars, dew, the cry of cicadas, harvesting, Bon holiday, red maple leaves, flowering hagi bush, chrysanthemums. Winter words are drizzling rain, snow, frost, ice, cold, warm clothes on cotton wool, hearth, brazier, end of the year.

"Long day" meant a spring day because it seems especially long after the short days of winter. “Moon” is an autumn word, because in autumn the air is especially clear and the moon shines brighter than at other times of the year.

Sometimes the season was still called for clarity: “spring wind”, “autumn wind”, “summer moon”, “winter sun” and so on.

The opening stanza (haiku) was often the best stanza in the rengi. Separate collections of exemplary haiku began to appear. This form became a new popular variety of literary poetry, inheriting many of the features of renga: strict timing of the year and seasonal words. From comic renga, haiku borrowed its wide vocabulary, puns, and simplicity of tone. But for a long time it was not yet distinguished by any particular ideological depth and artistic expressiveness.

The tercet was firmly established in Japanese poetry and acquired its true capacity in the second half of the seventeenth century. It was raised to unsurpassed artistic heights by the great Japanese poet Matsuo Basho, the creator of not only haiku poetry, but also an entire aesthetic school of Japanese poetics. Even now, after three centuries, every cultured Japanese knows Basho’s poems by heart. A huge research literature has been created about them, testifying to the close attention of the people to the work of their national poet.

Basho revolutionized haiku poetry. He breathed into her the truth of life, clearing her of the superficial comedy and gimmickry of comic renga. Seasonal words, which were a formal, lifeless device in the ranks, became poetic images for him, full of deep meaning.

Basho's lyrics reveal to us the world of his poetic soul, his feelings and experiences, but there is no intimacy or isolation in his poems. The lyrical hero of Basho's poetry has specific characteristics. This is a poet and philosopher, in love with the nature of his native country, and at the same time - a poor man from the outskirts of a big city. And he is inseparable from his era and people. In every little haiku of Basho one can feel the breath of a vast world. These are sparks from a big fire.

To understand Basho's poetry, familiarity with his era is necessary. The best period of his work was during the Genroku years (late seventeenth century). The Genroku period is considered the "golden age" of Japanese literature. At this time, Basho created his poetry, the wonderful novelist Ihara Saikaku wrote his stories, and the playwright Chikamatsu Monzaemon wrote his plays. All these writers, to one degree or another, were exponents of the ideas and feelings of the “third estate.” Their creativity is realistic, full-blooded and amazingly specific. They depict the life of their time in its colorful details, but do not descend into everyday life.

The Genroku years were, in general, favorable for literary creativity. By this time, Japanese feudalism had entered the last phase of its development. After the bloody civil strife that tore Japan apart in the Middle Ages, relative peace came. The Tokugawa dynasty (1603–1868) unified the country and established strict order. Relations between classes were precisely regulated. At the top step of the feudal ladder there was a military class: large feudal lords - princes and small feudal lords - samurai. Merchants were officially politically powerless, but in fact they represented a great force due to the growth of commodity-money relations, and often princes, borrowing money from moneylenders, became dependent on them. Rich merchants competed in luxury with feudal lords.

Large trading cities - Edo (Tokyo), Osaka, Kyoto became centers of culture. Crafts have reached a high level of development. The invention of printing from a wooden board (woodcut) made books cheaper, many illustrations appeared in them, and such a democratic art form as color engraving became widespread. Even poor people could now buy books and prints.

Government policies contributed to the growth of education. Many schools were established for young samurai, in which Chinese philosophy, history, and literature were mainly studied. Educated people from the military class joined the ranks of the urban intelligentsia. Many of them put their talents at the service of the “third estate”. Ordinary people also began to get involved in literature: merchants, artisans, sometimes even peasants.

This was the external side of the era. But she also had her own dark side.

The "pacification" of feudal Japan was bought at a high price. In the first half of the seventeenth century, Japan was "closed" to foreigners, and cultural ties with the outside world almost ceased. The peasantry literally suffocated in the grip of merciless feudal oppression and often raised matting banners as a sign of rebellion, despite the most severe punitive measures from the government. A system of police surveillance and investigation was introduced, which was restrictive for all classes.

In the “fun quarters” of big cities, silver and gold rained down, and hungry people robbed the roads; crowds of beggars roamed everywhere. Many parents were forced to abandon their young children, whom they could not feed, to their fate.

Basho witnessed such terrible scenes more than once. The poetic arsenal of that time was replete with many conventional literary motifs. From Chinese classical poetry comes the motif of autumn sadness, inspired by the cry of monkeys in the forest. Basho addresses the poets, urging them to descend from the transcendental heights of poetry and look into the eyes of the truth of life:

You feel sad listening to the cry of monkeys. Do you know how a child cries? Abandoned in the autumn wind?

Basho knew well the life of ordinary people in Japan. The son of a minor samurai, a calligraphy teacher, from childhood he became a playmate of the prince's son, a great lover of poetry. Basho himself began to write poetry. After the early death of his young master, he went to the city and took monastic vows, thereby freeing himself from serving his feudal lord. However, Basho did not become a real monk. He lived in a small house in the poor suburb of Fukagawa, near the city of Edo. This hut with all the modest landscape surrounding it - banana trees and a small pond in the yard - is described in his poems. Basho had a lover. He dedicated a laconic elegy to her memory:

Oh don't think you're one of those people Who left no trace in the world! Remembrance day...

Basho followed a difficult path of creative quest. His early poems were still written in a traditional manner. In search of a new creative method, Basho carefully studies the work of Chinese classical poets Li Bo and Du Fu, turns to the philosophy of the Chinese thinker Chuang Tzu and the teachings of the Buddhist sect Zen, trying to give his poetry philosophical depth.

Basho based the poetics he created on the aesthetic principle of “sabi”. This word cannot be literally translated. Its original meaning is "sadness of loneliness." Sabi, as a special concept of beauty, determined the entire style of Japanese art in the Middle Ages. Beauty, according to this principle, had to express complex content in simple, strict forms that were conducive to contemplation. Peace, muted colors, elegiac sadness, harmony achieved with meager means - this is the art of sabi, which called for concentrated contemplation, for detachment from everyday vanity.

The creative principle of sabi did not allow depicting the living beauty of the world in its entirety. Such a great artist as Basho was bound to feel this. The search for the hidden essence of each individual phenomenon became monotonously tedious. In addition, the philosophical lyrics of nature, according to the principle of sabi, assigned man the role of only a passive contemplator.

In the last years of his life, Basho proclaimed a new guiding principle of poetics - “karumi” (lightness). He told his disciples: “From now on, I strive for poems that are as shallow as the Sunagawa River (Sand River).”

The poet’s words should not be taken too literally; rather, they sound like a challenge to imitators who, blindly following ready-made models, began to compose poems in abundance with pretensions to profundity. Basho's late poems are by no means petty; they are distinguished by their high simplicity, because they talk about simple human affairs and feelings. Poems become light, transparent, fluid. They show subtle, kind humor, warm sympathy for people who have seen a lot and experienced a lot. The great humanist poet could not isolate himself in the conventional world of sublime poetry of nature. Here is a picture from peasant life:

Boy perched On the saddle, and the horse is waiting. Collect radishes.

But the city is preparing for the New Year holiday:

Sweep away the soot. For myself this time The carpenter gets along well.

The subtext of these poems is a sympathetic smile, and not mockery, as was the case with other poets. Basho does not allow himself any grotesqueries that distort the image.

Basho walked along the roads of Japan as an ambassador of poetry itself, igniting in people a love for it and introducing them to true art. He knew how to find and awaken the creative gift even in a professional beggar. Basho sometimes penetrated into the very depths of the mountains, where “no one will pick up a fallen wild chestnut fruit from the ground,” but, valuing solitude, he was never a hermit. In his travels, he did not run away from people, but became close to them. A long line of peasants working in the fields, horse drivers, fishermen, and tea leaf pickers pass through his poems.

Basho captured their sensitive love for beauty. The peasant straightens his back for a moment to admire the full moon or listen to the cry of the cuckoo, so beloved in Japan.

Images of nature in Basho's poetry very often have a secondary meaning, allegorically speaking about man and his life. A scarlet pepper pod, a green chestnut shell in autumn, a plum tree in winter are symbols of the invincibility of the human spirit. An octopus in a trap, a sleeping cicada on a leaf, carried away by a stream of water - in these images the poet expressed his feeling of the fragility of existence, his thoughts about the tragedy of human fate.

As Basho's fame grew, students of all ranks began to flock to him. Basho passed on his teachings about poetry to them. From his school came such wonderful poets as Boncho, Kyorai, Kikaku, Joso, who adopted a new poetic style (Basho style).

In 1682, Basho's hut burned down in a great fire. From that time on, he began his many years of wandering around the country, the idea of ​​which had been in his mind for a long time. Following the poetic tradition of China and Japan, Basho visits places famous for their beauty and gets acquainted with the life of the Japanese people. The poet left several lyrical travel diaries. During one of his travels, Basho died. Before his death, he created the "Death Song":

I got sick on the way And everything runs and circles my dream Through scorched meadows.

Basho's poetry is distinguished by a sublime system of feelings and at the same time amazing simplicity and truth of life. There were no base things for him. Poverty, hard work, the life of Japan with its bazaars, taverns on the roads and beggars - all this was reflected in his poems. But the world remains beautiful for him.

There may be a wise man hidden in every beggar. The poet looks at the world with loving eyes, but the beauty of the world appears before his gaze shrouded in sadness.

For Basho, poetry was not a game, not amusement, not a means of subsistence, as for many contemporary poets, but a high calling throughout his life. He said that poetry elevates and ennobles a person.

Among Basho's students there were a variety of poetic personalities.

Kikaku, an Edo townsman and happy-go-lucky reveler, sang the praises of the streets and rich shops of his hometown:

With a crash the silks are torn At Echigoya's shop... Summer time has arrived!

The poets Boncho, Joso, each with their own special creative style, and many others belonged to the Basho school. Kyorai from Nagasaki, together with Boncho, compiled the famous haiku anthology "The Monkey's Straw Cloak" ("Saru-mino"). It was published in 1690.

At the beginning of the eighteenth century, the poetic genre of haiku fell into decline. Buson, a wonderful poet and landscape artist, breathed new life into it. During his lifetime, the poet was almost unknown; his poems became popular only in the nineteenth century.

Buson's poetry is romantic. Often in three lines of a poem he could tell an entire story. So, in the poem “Changing clothes with the onset of summer” he writes:

They hid from the master's sword... Oh, how happy the young spouses are A light winter dress to change from!

According to feudal orders, the master could punish his servants with death for “sinful love.” But the lovers managed to escape. The seasonal words “a change of warm clothes” well convey the joyful feeling of liberation on the threshold of a new life.

In Buson’s poems the world of fairy tales and legends comes to life:

As a young nobleman The fox turned around... Spring wind.

Foggy evening in spring. The moon shines dimly through the haze, cherry trees are blooming, and in the semi-darkness fairy-tale creatures appear among people. Buson only draws the outlines of the picture, but the reader is confronted with a romantic image of a handsome young man in an ancient court attire.

Buson often resurrected images of antiquity in poetry:

Hall for overseas guests It smells like mascara... White plums in bloom.

This haiku takes us deep into history, into the eighth century. Special buildings were then built to receive “overseas guests.” One can imagine a poetry tournament in a beautiful old pavilion. Guests arriving from China write Chinese poems with fragrant ink, and Japanese poets compete with them in their native language. It is as if a scroll with an ancient picture is unfolding before the reader’s eyes.

Buson is a poet of wide range. He willingly draws the unusual: a whale in the sea, a castle on a mountain, a robber at the turn of a highway, but he also knows how to warmly draw a picture of a child’s intimate world. Here is the tercet “At the Doll Festival”:

Short-nosed doll... That's right, as a child her mother I was pulling my nose a little!

But in addition to “literary poems”, rich in reminiscences, allusions to antiquity, and romantic images, Buson knew how to create poems of amazing lyrical power using the simplest means:

They are gone, the days of spring, When distant sounds sounded Nightingale voices.

Issa, the most popular and democratic of all the poets of feudal Japan, created his poems at the end of the eighteenth - beginning of the nineteenth century, at the dawn of modern times. Issa came from a village. He spent most of his life among the urban poor, but retained his love for his native places and peasant labor, from which he was cut off:

With all my heart I honor Resting in the midday heat, People in the fields.

In these words, Issa expressed both his reverent attitude towards the peasant’s work and his shame at his forced idleness.

Issa's biography is tragic. All his life he struggled with poverty. His beloved child died. The poet spoke about his fate in verses full of aching emotional pain, but a stream of folk humor also breaks through them. Issa was a man of a big heart: his poetry speaks of love for people, and not only for people, but for all small creatures, helpless and offended. Watching a funny fight between frogs, he exclaims:

Hey, don't give in Skinny frog! Issa for you.

But at times the poet knew how to be harsh and merciless: he was disgusted by any injustice, and he created caustic, prickly epigrams.

Issa was the last major poet of feudal Japan. Haiku lost its importance for many decades. The revival of this form at the end of the nineteenth century already belongs to the history of modern poetry. The poet Masaoka Shiki (1867–1902), who wrote many interesting works on the history and theory of haiku (or in his terminology now accepted in Japan - haiku), and his talented students Takahama Kyoshi and Kawahigashi Hekigodo revived the art of haiku on a new, realistic basis .

Nowadays, the popularity of tercets has increased even more. At one time after the Second World War, a controversy broke out in literature about tanka and haiku. Some critics considered them to be secondary, outdated forms of old art no longer needed by the people. Life has proven the injustice of these statements. The increased literary activity of the masses after the war was also reflected in the fact that an increasing number of ordinary people were composing tanks and haiku on the most pressing, modern topics.

Haiku are constantly published on the pages of magazines and newspapers. Such poems are living responses to the events of the day. They contain the voice of the Japanese people.

This collection includes only haiku from the late Middle Ages: from Basho to Issa.

The translator faced great difficulties. Ancient haiku is not always understandable without commentary, even to a Japanese reader who is well acquainted with the nature and life of his native country. Brevity and reticence are at the very core of haiku poetics.

The translator tried to preserve the laconicism of haiku and at the same time make them understandable. We must, however, remember that Japanese tercet necessarily requires the reader to work with imagination and participate in the creative work of the poet. This is the main feature of haiku. To explain everything to the end means not only to sin against Japanese poetry, but also to deprive the reader of the great joy of growing flowers from a handful of seeds generously scattered by Japanese poets.

1. Introduce students to Japanese culture.
2. Give the concept of haiku in the unity of form and content.
3. Prepare students to do creative homework (create their own haiku).

Epigraph. (Presentation. Slide No. 3).

How good
When unfolded on the table
Rare scroll,
Devote your soul to reading
And contemplating the pictures.
Tachibana Akemi. From the series “My Little Joys”

During the classes.

1. The teacher's word.

Nowadays, when the interpenetration and mutual influence of cultures of different nations is very strongly felt, a person can choose for himself those beacons that will show him the right path in life.

Society seems to be divided into several groups, one of which gravitates towards culture and lifestyle according to the Western model, the other is looking for something attractive for itself in the culture of the East. Attention and interest in Eastern philosophy intensified; There is a passion for martial arts, which are not limited solely to physical training, but involve a change in the entire lifestyle and even a person’s worldview.

What do you know about Japanese culture? (Slides No. 4-5).

Notebook entry:

The most popular types of Japanese art:

Ikebana;

Origami;

Literary miniature (haiku, tanka);

A synthetic art form – haiga.

The Japanese strive for laconicism in everything, to fill the minimal form with maximum content. It belongs to them the art of growing dwarf trees - bonsai.

BONSAI (Japanese bonsai, from bon - flat tray and sai - to grow), the Japanese art of growing miniature trees, as well as these trees themselves.

Pine - the most popular bonsai tree - reaches 20 m in height in natural conditions, and in bonsai it can be reduced by 30 times (about 70 cm)

With proper care, a bonsai can live for several hundred years, passing from one generation to the next. One of the most famous bonsai is the pine tree, which belonged to the military ruler of Japan in the 18th century. (Slide No. 6).

The Japanese have worked out the ability to create narrative bouquets in which each flower carries a certain meaning – ikebana. In ikebana, great importance is attached to the beauty of lines. Straight branches are almost never used; preference is given to irregular, curved forms. The Japanese believe that this makes the composition more dynamic and conveys a certain emotional mood. Each plant or flower in ikebana has a symbolic meaning. Thus, willow and pine mean longevity and endurance, bamboo - vitality, a flowering plum branch - courage and energy, iris - honor. Pine and rose symbolize eternal youth, pine and sakura - devotion and chivalry, plum and peony - youth and prosperity, peony and bamboo - prosperity and peace. (Slides No. 7 - 8).

Many people are interested in making figurines and even entire compositions from paper folded in a certain way - origami. (Slide No. 9).

Among writers and artists, a fascination began with the art of China and Japan, especially the haiga genre, which combines poetry, calligraphy and painting or photography into a single whole. (Slides No. 10 - 11).

Many people travel to Japan just to admire the Rock Garden.

In the Rock Garden you will not see any trees, grass or water. Actually, the whole garden is fifteen stones scattered on fine white gravel, seemingly in complete disorder. However, this place invariably attracts tourists and pilgrims from all over the world, who claim that contemplation of the simple stone landscape has a calming effect on them. Why? A special secret is hidden in the location of the stones. No matter where you look at them on the veranda, there will always be fourteen stones - the last, fifteenth stone remains “hidden”. For a philosopher, the Rock Garden is a metaphor for science: no matter how much a person comprehends the world and its laws, there is always something unknown. (Slide No. 12).

So, the basis of Japanese art is brevity and laconism. The same is true of Japanese poetry.

Much of Japan's early literature was written by women, as men wrote using Chinese characters, while women were prohibited from education and learning foreign languages, so most manuscripts were written in the original Japanese. Later works were mainly written by men (Slide No. 13).

2. Explanation of something new.

Notebook entry: Tanka (short song) is the oldest genre of Japanese poetry (the first entries are in the 8th century). Unrhymed five-line verses of 31 syllables (5+7+5+7+7). Expresses a fleeting mood, full of understatement, distinguished by poetic grace, often complex associativity, and verbal play.

Reading of the tank by the teacher. (Slides No. 14 - 15).

SARUMARU-DAYU (years of life unknown).

Far in the mountains
Along the red leaves of maples
A deer steps.
I heard him scream
Autumn is coming so sadly.

ONO NO KOMACHI (early 9th century)

The colors have faded
Summer flowers, here I come
I peer into life
I only see mine
Autumn has long rains.

Today in the lesson we will get acquainted with one of the genres of Japanese poetry, as laconic and succinct as all the art of this mysterious country.

The name of these pearls is haiku. The small masterpieces of Japanese poets are fascinating. They are translated into different languages, admired, imitated.

What is the mystery of these mysterious three-line verses that have captivated the minds of philosophers and writers?

Teacher reading haiku (Slides No. 17-19).

Did you like these works? How are they unusual?

Is it easy to explain the meaning of these lines?

haiku, or haiku(initial verses), - a genre of Japanese poetry: an unrhymed tercet of 17 syllables (5+7+5). (Slide No. 16).

The art of writing haiku is, first of all, the ability to say a lot in a few words.

Haiku can be understood in different ways, but it always contains a deep philosophical thought. This is not just a poetic form, but a certain way of thinking, seeing the world.

Let's get acquainted with the haiku of the Japanese poet Kobayashi Issa. All of them are associated with the blossoming of sakura - Japanese cherry (Slide No. 20).

The sakura branch is a symbol of Japan. When it blooms, everyone, young and old, whole families gather in the parks to admire the delicate pink and white flowers. Cherry blossoms have been celebrated for centuries. This holiday is called hanami and occupies an important position in Japanese culture. Hanami literally means "contemplation of flowers". Hanami may be just a walk in the park, but traditionally the Japanese picnic under the flowering trees. The popular cherry orchards are filled with crowds of Japanese during the holiday, and there is sometimes a fight for the best picnic spot. It's common to reserve your favorite spot even before flowering begins. Some even spend the night to get the best vantage point. Businessmen take up space with blue picnic rugs and a sign with their business name, or leave their man under the shade of the trees all day until the rest of the staff arrives after work. The Japanese celebrate hanami twice: with work colleagues and with family. (Slide No. 21).

3. Recording and analysis of haiku content (Slide No. 22)

There are no strangers between us!
We are all each other's brothers
Under the cherry blossoms.

The thought of universal unity; admiring the beauty of nature and observing traditions brings people closer, without dividing into rich and poor, enmity is forgotten.

There is harmony and peace in nature. People, with their shouting and bustle, break the silence and go against nature.

“Cherry trees, cherry blossoms!” -
And about these old trees
Once upon a time they sang.

Nothing is eternal in life, everything changes, the old is replaced by the new. But what has become obsolete is not forgotten, but is stored in memory.

In my native country
Cherry blossoms
And there is grass in the fields.

The beauty of the homeland is in everything: in every blade of grass, stone, leaf. In the homeland, everything is expensive, worthy of admiration and love.

Haiku is always an understatement, a hint. Therefore, they are designed for an intelligent and thoughtful reader. The author hopes that he will be understood without annoying interpretation, that the subtext and understatement will encourage the reader to an active thought process and build an associative series.

Try to explain the meaning of the following haiku (Slide No. 23):

Nightingales are singing everywhere:
There - behind the bamboo grove,
Here - in front of the river willow.

Look, nightingale
Sings the same song
And in the face of the gentlemen.

4. Analysis of haiku form and composition.

We have already said that Japanese haiku is a 17-syllable tercet with a strict division of syllables into lines: five in the first, seven in the second, five in the third. But this applies specifically to the Japanese language. Such clarity may disappear during translation (Slide No. 24).

Original.

Furuike I 5
Kawakazu Tobikomu 7
Minzu no oto. 5

Old pond. 3
The frog is jumping. 6
Splash of water. 3

Determine the poetic meter:

Nightingales are singing everywhere:
There, behind the bamboo grove,
Here - in front of the river willow.

/- -/ - -/ 1, 4, 7
/ (/) - / - - /- 1, (2), 4, 7
/ (/)- /- -/ 1, (2), 4, 7 Dactyl

There are no strangers between us!
We are all each other's brothers
Under the cherry blossoms.

-/ (/) / - / 2, (3), 4, 6
(/) / (/) /- /- (1), 2, (3), 4 , 6
(/) /- - -/ (1), 2, 6 Iambics (+ spondee and pyrrhic).

Hoku composition.

Haiku can be constructed in one of the following two ways (Slide No. 25):

First there is a general plan, a generalized thought, and then a sharply highlighted detail.

The miniature begins with a specific object, a detail, followed by a certain conclusion, a generalization.

Let’s compare the composition of two haiku (Slides No. 26 – 27).

Even on the rider's horse
If you look around, the road is so deserted.
And the morning is so snowy!
(Basho)

How is this, friends?
A man looks at the cherry blossoms
And on your belt is a long sword?
(Mukai Keray)

Any detail, in this case the rider, catches the eye and pleases the eye. Why is this happening? (The deserted snow-covered road is too monotonous, there is nothing for the eye to “catch onto”, and it notices the slightest movement).

Conclusion: thus, the basis of the internal logic of haiku, and therefore its composition, can be either synthesis (from particular to general) or analysis (from general to particular). But the main thing is precisely the movement, the development of thought, the internal dynamics.

5. Summing up.

Recording conclusions from the lesson (Slide No. 28).

The Japanese strive for laconicism in everything, to fill the minimal form with maximum content.

Japanese poetry is based on the alternation of a certain number of syllables. There is no rhyme, but much attention is paid to the sound and rhythmic organization of the poem.

Haiku is a special form of three-syllable lyrical miniature without rhyme with a strictly defined number of syllables per line (5-7-5), characterized by expressiveness and laconicism.

The internal logic of haiku, and therefore its composition, can be based on either synthesis (from particular to general) or analysis (from general to particular). But the main thing is precisely the movement, the development of thought, the internal dynamics.

Do you think it’s difficult to write haiku? Why?

Writer Ihara Saikou wrote 20,000 haiku in one day.

Basho worked on one of his miniatures for several years, and at the same time consulted with his students.

I would like to end the lesson with the words of Ilya Ehrenburg: “Almost every educated Japanese has composed several haiku in his life. Of course, it does not follow from this that there are millions of poets in Japan... often this is just a tribute to custom; but even mechanical gestures leave their mark on a person. You can get drunk out of boredom, you can read a detective novel, you can write haiku... the author, if he did not exalt himself by writing it, then, in any case, did not diminish his human image” (Slide No. 29).

Homework: try to create your own haiku based on the miniatures analyzed in class.

MATSUO BASHO

(1644—1694)

Banana Shack Wanderer

The most famous representative of Japanese poetry of the late Middle Ages is Matsuo Basho. The poet was born in the city of Ueno on the island of Honshu. He was the third child in the family of the poor samurai 1 Matsuo Yozaemon.

From a young age, Matsuo fell in love with poetry. In 1662, his literary debut took place: two poems by Matsuo were published in the anthology of poetry “Mount Sayo no Naka-yama”.

In 1672, Matsuo went to Edo (the old name of Tokyo). By this time he had already gained some fame as a poet. Gradually, Matsuo gained a reputation as a good teacher of poetry, he had students, and then he headed a school called “Genuine” (“Shofu”). One of his students, the son of a rich merchant, gave him a hut on the banks of the Sumida River. A banana tree, or basho in Japanese, was planted near the house. In 1682, the poet took the name of the plant as a pseudonym. “Basho” displaced from the memory of descendants all other names and nicknames of the poet, of which he had many.

At the end of 1682, a fire occurred in Edo, during which Basho's modest hut burned down. In 1684, the home was restored, but the poet decided to become a wanderer. For ten years, Basho traveled, observing life in different parts of Japan. His travel impressions were reflected in his books.

Basho's last journey was a trip to the city of Osaka. There he fell ill and died on October 12, 1694, surrounded by his students.

Concept of haiku. Features of Basho's haiku

Basho created poems in the traditional Japanese poetic form - haiku (in literary studies the name "hoku" is also used).

Japanese haiku has 17 syllables. Write the haiku in one column of hieroglyphs. At the beginning of the twentieth century. Haiku began to be translated into Western languages ​​and written down as tercets. Almost all translations of haiku into Russian and Ukrainian are made in this form of recording.

The poet wrote about two thousand haiku. Basho's poems are simple and laconic in form, but very capacious in content. To convey a mood, thought, feeling in an extremely brief form, a lot of effort was required from the poet. He spent a long time selecting each word and honing the lines. For example, in 1680, Basho created the initial version of the most famous poem in the history of Japanese poetry, “Autumn Evening,” and then returned to work on the text for several years until he received the final version:

A raven sits alone on a bare branch.

Autumn evening.

(Translation by V. Markova)

The poem, with the help of several skillfully chosen details, not only depicts a picture of late autumn, when nature seems to have frozen in sad stillness, but also reflects the poet’s state of mind: loneliness, sadness and sad tranquility.

The laconic form of haiku allowed Basho to awaken the reader’s creative imagination and associative thinking. According to the Japanese canons of versification, a lot of space should be left for the thoughts and fantasies of the reader so that a person discovers the deep meaning encrypted in the work or puts his own into it. For example, after reading the haiku “Autumn Evening”, some readers will remember

pictures of the withering of nature, others - moments of life when they were lonely, like a crow on a bare branch; for others, familiar poetic lines about autumn by other authors will emerge in their memory. Amazing with the precision of artistic details, Basho’s haiku invite co-creation, sharpen inner vision, and open up an endless perspective.

Making sense of what we read

1. What do you know about Basho? What fact of his biography and why made a special impression on you?

2. Define the concept of “haiku”.

3. Why are poems in the haiku genre called “poetry of silence”?

4. List the features of Basho’s haiku. How do they differ from the poems you know?

5. In your opinion, is it difficult to translate haiku? Justify your answer.

A bee slowly crawls out of the peony's core...

O, with what reluctance!

In response to a request to compose poems of Cherry in spring blossom.

But I - oh woe! — powerless to open the Bag where the songs are hidden.

Frost covered him,

The wind makes his bed.

An abandoned child.

Everything in the world is fleeting!

Smoke runs away from the candle,

The tattered canopy.

A jug for storing grain That's all I'm rich with!

Easy, like my life,

Gourd pumpkin.

Trees were planted in the garden.

Quietly, quietly, to encourage them,

Autumn rain whispers.

The lark sings.

The pheasant echoes him with a ringing blow in the thicket.

A sick goose landed on a field on a cold night.

A lonely dream on the way.

(Translation by V. Markova)

Reflecting on the texts of works of art

1. Which poem did you like best? Why? What did it make you think about?

2. Using one of the tercets as an example, illustrate such features of haiku as brevity and philosophical depth.

3. The figurative and expressive means of language in haiku are extremely sparing; the author does not use epithets and metaphors. How are images created in Basho's haiku?

4. What is called an artistic detail? Explain the role of this artistic device using the example of the tercet “Jug for storing grain” and “The lark sings...”.

5. As in the poem “The sick goose went down.” Are human feelings connected with the picture of nature?

6. Identify the ideas of the poems you read.

We read expressively

7. Recite 2-3 haiku by Basho. What intonation is appropriate for reading the poet's works?

We invite you to discussion

8. Researcher N. Feldman noted: “The task of haiku is not to show or tell, but only to hint; not to express as fully as possible, but, on the contrary, to say as little as possible; to give only a detail that stimulates the full development of the theme—an image, a thought, a scene—in the reader’s imagination.” Do you agree with this opinion? Substantiate or refute it using Basho's texts.

Learning to compare

9. Compare the Ukrainian and Russian translations of the haiku about the cuckoo. What do they have in common? What semantic and artistic differences between them did you notice?

(The fourth month is the beginning of the month.)

Where are you, Zozule?

You know that the plum blossomed on the first of the month!

(Translation by G. Turkov)

Where are you, cuckoo?

Say hello to spring,

The plum trees have blossomed.

(Translation by V. Sokolov)

Developing creativity

10. Carefully read the verse about the bee. Basho composed this poem while leaving the hospitable home of his friend. Come up with your own image that conveys the feelings of a person leaving a cozy haven. Try to compose a haiku based on this image.

11. In Japan, Basho’s haiku often became captions for drawings. Imagine that you need to caption your drawing with one of the tercets. What subject for the drawing do you prefer? What technique (black and white ink drawing, watercolor, pencil drawing) do you use? Justify your choice.

This is textbook material