HAIKU DIASPORA
Showcasing the first Western poetry written in the Hokku tradition
This series of books presents new or first translations of Haikus from 5 languages and 20 countries, as well as gathering together the output of poets not previously anthologised. The brevity of the Haiku makes it the perfect reading matter for the modern fractured lifestyle with its intermittent and immediate demands on the readers' time. The books have been designed to fit into pocket or purse, so they can be taken out and read anywhere.
It's hard to appreciate a century on just how radical the Haiku was when it first appeared in Europe. The notion of the minuscule poem meant that many conventions of rhythm and rhyme could be jettisoned. The rhymeless yet traditional nature meant that the advantages of modernism could be exploited without the need to accept its revolutionary underpinnings, as the concentrated form still required great discipline to cram into 17 syllables what might otherwise be expressed in a sonnet or ballade.
The jewel-like quality of the haiku enabled the creation of dazzling pictures of the natural and human world. On the other hand, the new form could be adapted to describe the savageries of war (Vocance) or the injustices of slum life (Peixoto, Alexander, Guillen) or even the fervency of belief (Ortiz Guerrero).
As often happens in cultural history, there is more than one origin story for the Western Haiku. The Haiku Diaspora project showcases the different paths the form took to near-ubiquity. The presence of diplomats and scholars from Europe and the Americas in Japan at the close of the 19th century led to an increasing awareness of the native Japanese cultural artefacts, especially the woodblock print and the short Japanese poetic forms. Visits to Japan by writers such as Couchoud and Tablada, encounters with Japanese expatriates on the part of Lowell, Chini and Peixoto, and lectures on Japanese culture by Hall Chamberlain and Hearn, all meant exposure in particular to the Hokku form, which in turn led to the first explorations of the "Occidental Haiku" by practicing poets.
Please see the Haiku Diaspora catalogue page for more information on the title in the series.
