Writing Australian Haiku!
November 20th 2007 12:14
Writing Australian Haiku
The problem of seasonal words
As those of us who are devoted haijin (hainyo in my case?) know haiku purists insist it aint haiku unless there's a seasonal word the translation for the Jpanese term KI GO .
This along with the 5 - 7- 5 pattern is one of the prime features of haiku.
Now I'm not a total purist. Since I write in English a language with different rhthyms than Japanese I also use line sof 6 - 8 - 6 0r 6 - 9 - 6 or 6 - 10 - 5.
Seasonal words is a problem and not just for Australian writers of Haiku.
Flower that bloom at particular seasons are often kigo but how can Australians do this?
Jacaranda can bloom twice a year some years. Imported European and Asian flowers tend to bloom in September or at Easter, autmn or spirng, depending on how much rain there's been! Eucalypt ... well each "gum tree" species has a different time for flowering tho rain helps! Thunderstorms are not limited to one time of the year.
One could argue "Cerulean" is a season word given the particular quality of light of a clear summer sky? A note for northern hemisphere readers if you have ever wondered why some art books mention cerulean rather than cobalt or using cerulean when you're painting in the Mediterranean you need a warm blue for summer and cos the combination of ceruealn blue with certain earth colors comes closest to the color of eucalypt foliage.
So does anyone have a solution for the seasonal word problem?
Which words or phrases suggest both natural events and certain times of the year for Australians ?
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