Haiku Blossoms (14)   

Haiku and Senryu

Dear Readers, we have explored haiku in the first 13 episodes of Haiku Blossoms. This week let us move to senryu, which is a short form of Japanese poetry similar to haiku having the same 3-line unrhymed structure of haiku. However, senryu tend to be about human foibles and emotions, while haiku are inspired by nature. Senryu are often witty, cynical, or darkly humorous, commenting on daily life, and the socio-political scene.

Alan Pizzarelli, former Senryu Editor, Simply Haiku defines: “Senryu is a short poetic genre which focuses on people. Men, women, husbands, wives, children and relatives. It portrays the characteristics of human beings and the psychology of the human mind. Even when senryu depicts living things such as animals, insects, and plant life, or when they depict inanimate objects, they are portrayed with the emphasis on their human attributes….”

To enlighten readers on senryu, I draw excerpts from Dr. Pravat Kumar Padhy’s essay “Senryu: The Literary Genre and Its Journey” with his kind permission. He elaborates:

“Structurally both haiku and senryu look similar in the format of 5-7-5 Japanese sound syllable counts (onji) and are written in English language as short/long/short style. Haiku is written with season word (kigo) or seasonal reference (kidai) with juxtaposition and is related to nature. However, senryu is more of human  element or behaviour  with satire, playful, wit, and sometimes nostalgic as well. Unlike haiku, kigo and kireji or verbal caesura (cutting words) are not mandatory in Senryu, though some do use seasonal references and kireji  as well. Senryu is also regarded as satirical haiku. Senryu is essentially one element or observation (though a few write in two-part format) unlike the fragment and phrase of haiku. Haiku is more profound, sublime and the poet immerses in the object whereas the senryu writer remains outside as an observer or expresser of the feeling of human-centric experience.

Karai Hachiemon (1718-1790), pen name Karai Senryu, composed short non-rhyming humorous verses in the form of 5-7-5 .This haikai- related genre was named after him as Senryu. In Japanese, the word senryū means river willow.

The following poem is believed to be Karai’s final senryu :

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Write me down
As one who loved senryu,
And loose women.

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The Japanese immigrants in the USA who arrived in Yakima Valley in the 1890s rejuvenated the art of senryu by reinventing the content of the poems by referring to their challenging life sketches, anxieties, and cultural aspects during the early twentieth century.The followings are some senryu personal in content and emotional in expression:

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Next morning,
all sobered up. Damn.
Sake brewed brawls.
-Shigetaka “Kentsuku” Kurokawa (1912)

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To the west I look,
twenty years, day after day.
(My) tears wet the sky.
-Kido (1934)

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In 1985, Shuho Ohno introduced the book, ‘Modern Senryu in English’ in the refined version of senryu, and subsequently, it yielded reasonable literarypopularity in the genre. (Gendai Senryu with the format of haiku).

R H Blyth published a translation volume (with illustrations) on ‘Senryu: Japanese Satirical Verses’ in 1949 (The Hokuseido Press). Blyth’s ‘Japanese Life and Character in Senryu’, 1960 and ‘Edo Satirical Verse Anthologies’, 1961,Tokyo:
Hokuseido Press are the landmarks in senryu literature. Michael McClintock edited ‘Seer Ox: American Senryu Magazine’ in the 1970s. ‘Fig Newtons:Senryū to Go’, the first anthology of English-language senryū, was published by Michael Dylan Welch in 1993.

Haruo Shirane writes: “The fundamental differences between modern haiku and senryu can be traced to their historical origins. Haiku was originally the opening verse (hokku) of a linked-verse sequence, and senryu was an offshoot of the added verse. Consequently, senryu does not require a seasonal word (kigo), which marks the occasion of the hokku’s composition and connects it to nature and to the larger poetic tradition. Unlike the hokku, senryu does not require a cutting word (kireji), which usually splits the verse into two syntactic parts….”

At times it becomes very difficult to distinguish between haiku and senryu as poets mix up the imageries of modern urban lifestyle and occasionally also with some reference to nature. The haiku Masters had written poems with a touch of humor and wit. Blyth, in translating the poems, exemplifies how some of the poems by Busan (1716-1783), Issa (1763-1827), and Shiki (1867-1902) have a close resemblance with senryu with irony, cynicism, witticism, and humor and also cited some of the haiku by Basho with a touch of parody:

The Rose of Sharon
By the road-side,
Was eaten by my horse.
-Basho

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A woman showing
A charcoal-seller his face,
In a mirror.
-Buson

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From bathtub
To bathtub, —
Stuff and nonsense!
-Issa

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Setting out
In a straw hat,—
He must be going to his native place!
-Shiki

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