The Generosity of Poetry - Mary

 Of all of the readings for this week, the keynote talk by Janine Beichman connecting the Haiku to the generosity of poetry was the most interesting to me. Let me start there.

Beichman speaks about Masoaka Shiki reviving the practice of Haiku, where Shiki describes sitting down for an examination and completely emptying his desk. "A seventeen syllable verse would emerge before I could write a page" (FYI -- all my quotes from Beichman will be rough since it was a recording), and Shiki would write the verse on the lampshade! I found this story absolutely enthralling. Beichman comments on it noting that he writes that he "failed the final examinations of 1892" but that she understands that poetry--specifically the seventeen syllable practice--became for Shiki "a particularly convenient way for him to write about his joy at being alive." Beichman goes on to elaborate the relationship between haiku and mindfulness practices, and how these poets came to understand the practice of creation as they were writing as one way they understood of found a kind of similar wisdom as a creator. She also connected it to the profound ability to write ten or twenty poems without moving from where you are, noting that Shiki (or maybe it was someone else!) would instruct students to stare at their feet once they felt they had exhausted all the environment around them. Finally, I felt her comparison of the two translations towards the end--one interpreting the poem as being written from his deathbed, adn the other translator interpreting it as a memory of friendship--as incredible. Beichman describes the poem as a fan and she writes that not only the creator but the translators--and, generally, we could apply this to all readers--use their associative imaginations when reading and in that way "possess the power of life and death over the poem." I loved this talk and will return to it and share it.

I also really enjoyed the podcast on Yosano Akiko, and was moved by all the readings of her poetry. I was a little perplexed at the juxtaposition of her writing as feminist and revolutionary, and yet Carpenter writes in her epilogue of her translation of Machi Tawara that the tanka "tended to become stale and conventional; this difficulty was compounded by poets' continued use of outmoded 'literary' language which made the poems hard to understand and kept them seemingly remote from daily experience." I suppose this confused me: what was the state of tanka when Akiko was writing? What happened between the two revolutionary women writers? Is it the turn at the end of Akiko's career that made her work less received?

I also (and I'm so sorry to say this) did not find the examples from Tawara very interesting. This could be thranslator? To discuss!

Val. Incomplete Notes from the Readings (01/28)

 

1. Basho -”the beggar, the old man, the outcast, and the traveler”…the Odysseys?   

2. Machi Tawara: Now I see where Rupi Kaur might have gotten her inspiration. Instead of old forms, she writes poetry about everyday, relatable emotions -small, easy-to-digest pieces of text broken into poetic lines (and achieved immediate success upon first publication - millions of copies sold).

3. Beichman: I found this quote from Masaoka Shiki to be very useful poetic advice - "You must not stop when you have managed to extract one or two poems from some broad view. Next you must look down at your feet and write about what you see there—the grass, the flowers in bloom. If you write about each, you will have ten or twenty poems without moving from where you are. Take your materials from what is around you—if you see a dandelion, write about that; if there is mist, write about the mist. The materials for poems are all about you in abundance".

Thoughts and Highlights for Class 01/28 – Maria Antonia Blandon

 

From the materials prepared for the class, I had some thoughts:

On haikai, the first part on its origin during the medieval era, meant to be an interaction between the vernacular and the classical language through the inversion of traditional images, made me remember Mikhail Bahktin’s observations about the carnivalesque. During this era, artistic representation portrayed a certain dynamic between classic, traditional, ‘high’ imagery and vernacular, popular, ‘lesser’ imagery, where we could see the interactions between them as a symbiotic relationship where one renews the other; something that can be also associated with hokku structure, by placing classic seasonal words in the first part, and then having more contemporary expressions in the second part, in order to “give new life” to this imagery.

On hokku, the description of its form brought the introduction of a syntactic break, or cutting word, used to break the hokku into two parts, interested me when it was mentioned that English translations usually mark this moment visually with a dash. I wondered whether that choice was made according to the Japanese (do they also mark visually this moment in hokku? Or is it meant to be interpreted by the reader?), or if that choice was made on grounds of interpretation aid for the reader: do the translators of this genre consider that readers might not be able to appreciate the break, the cutting, if not visually pointed out?

On Janine Beichman’s lecture, I learned quickly that not only is haiku the shortest form of poetry in the world, but that it has had throughout history different associations in Japan; with her choice of examples, we can appreciate that some of the poems have a very surreal, symbolic quality to the images they portray, while others carry a very down-to-earth, simple tone to describe day-to-day life. As for the subject, haiku can be written about external imagery or stimuli, but they can also be autobiographical or auto-referential, to speak about oneself. With this distinction about subject, Beichman’s comment about Basho (through Shiki)’s relationship with haiku as a trance while being wholly present, calling it ‘mindfulness’, that produces a poem which is not completely done without the reader’s imagination.

Haiku is, then, an incomplete form that requires participation from the reader, and, also, the translator; an example of this is Janine’s reading of X. J. Kennedy’s translation on Basho’s haiku, where we see the translator’s imagination on choices like ‘moon-moth’ for butterfly. And it is in this incompleteness where Janine comments on the permissiveness or generosity of haiku, because it allows for multiple interpretations of the same poem, encouraging freedom through minimalism.

Jan 28 Reading Response - Meredith

The portion of the reading that most interested me this week was learning more about haiku's roots as a "commoner's" artform. While I had previously heard of the more classical renga, my knowledge of haiku came from a more contemporary place, where it has been canonized as one of Japan's most widely acknowledged and respected cultural achievements. It is also colloquially known as a serious and meditative poetic form. When reading the excerpts from Shirane on haiku, I was fascinated to learn that this was not always the case. Having only read translated haiku in the past, I was unaware of their focus on what I might describe as “puns” that blended the common and aristocratic languages. Now knowing this, it is less surprising to me that haiku became such a widely loved form. 

A similar effect occurred in the explosive popularity of Tawara’s Salad Anniversary. She took a traditional Japanese poetic form, widely unpopular due to its tight focus on conventional themes and literary language and turned it into something deeply relevant and impactful for the average reader through skilled blending of high-brow literary language with more modern, common phrases. This trend is not only found in Japan—Shakespeare was widely considered to be a populist playwright due to his works’ vulgar humor and accessible themes. Now, he is one of the most notable writers in human history.

There is an intrinsic, cyclical element of class in the study of literature and language. The tendency for the written word to be seen as old-fashioned or stuck in its ways lasts until an experimental writer attempts to reach out to the common person—as Basho did in his haiku about farmers and fishermen, or as Yosano Akiko did in her works which included feminist sexuality in tanka for the first time. The popularity of those works then prompts further study from critics, and in some (but not all) cases, those writings which had previously been considered revolutionary join the ranks of the studied, traditional literature that is espoused by the academic elite, removing the element of the personal and relatable that drew non-academics in at the start.

Jan 28th Readings - Lane

    Throughout all of these readings, I was struck by the notion of the haikai spirit. Though Tawara and Yosano wrote mostly tanka instead of haiku, I believe that many of the fundamentals that create the haikai spirit can be understood through their poetry. As Shirane writes, haiku “grew out of the interaction between the vernacular and the classical language” and “parodies… classical convention” through the introduction of tension between contemporary and classical, refined and vulgar. The “haikai spirit was also marked by a constant search for novelty and new perspectives.” This new approach to Japanese poetics and poetry and the tension inherent to said approach is what caused it to become so ingrained in Japanese poetic culture today. Although Yosano wrote tanka, which are mostly marked by their connection to poetic and classical conventions and not by this haikai spirit, I feel as though her approach to poetry can be connected to this haikai spirit. Her poetry discussed female sensuality and was openly anti-war, both topics that went considerably against the grain at the time and were unthinkable to write in classical poetry. She creates a tension between her classical form and her modern, progressive attitude in her poetry. Similarly, Tawara utilizes a “sophisticated mixture of old and new,” which mirrors the interaction between vernacular and classical that evokes the haikai spirit.

The “lightness” and “resonating aspects” or “stickiness” that Beichman and Shirane discuss, as well as Shiki’s concept of mindfulness and dedicated observation, also find themselves as a core part of Tawara’s poetry. She writes with a “cheerful, light tone” and “values the ordinary things in life,” turning simple observations like the sound and atmosphere of “Hotel California” and the lovely taste of a simple salad into something resonating, something “sticky.” Her use of classical aspects of form cause it to resonate as well, and the tension creates something unforgettable. Although these two authors write tanka, I believe that they have the haikai spirit to a degree. 

These concepts are particularly interesting to think about in translation, as well—Carpenter notes that the classical form that Tawara uses, the same form that caused her book to become such a smash hit, cannot be effectively translated. The tension that allowed Tawara’s poems to resonate has to be explained, not consumed. How can classical form be translated effectively, if at all? English has many older poetic traditions, and the association of love with both sonnets and tanka could be considered a convincing reason to translate Tawara’s poems as if they were part of a sonnet, but that requires a level of domestication that I personally disagree with, as it completely recontextualizes a Japanese work, grounded in Japanese classical form, into something else entirely. Beichman also notes that the possibility for multiple interpretations of a poem is a large part of its existence, and one translation existing as one interpretation can potentially be a way to preserve that aspect of classical form. Could a book containing multiple translations of the same poem be the best approach? 

This has, of course, already been done with Basho’s frog poem—Ginsberg’s translation always resonated with me, as I feel like it translates the comedy inherent to the haikai spirit:

The old pond

A frog jumped in,

Kerplunk!

Even though this translation (interpretation?) conveys one aspect of the haiku (breaking of standard conventions by having a frog jump instead of sing; creating a tension between classical and contemporary) that makes it so “sticky,” a multitude of other translations at its side can aid in helping a reader understand the importance of form, and how haiku function.

Jan. 28 Reading Responses ー Kevin

 H. Shirane, Early Haikai Poetry and Poetics

I didn't realize how little I knew about haiku before reading this. I knew a little about haibun and linked sequences of haiku, and knew that the 5-7-5 structure was neither ubiquitous nor the only rule for writing a haiku, but I did not realize that haiku, haibun, and haiga are all considered part of the same tradition; I had never even heard the term haikai. The reading was both informative and daunting. There will be a lot to take into account when translating, including a vast pool of common references in both classical works and the contemporary culture of haikai artists. In order to appreciate the artful juxtapositions, we'll have to understand the elements being juxtaposed.

Janine Beichman, The Pleasures of Haiku: From Basho to Shiki and Beyond

The excerpts that Beichman presented from Masaoka Shiki's writings align with the ideas I typically have in mind when thinking about or attempting to write haiku: intense presence, curiosity about nature, and a micro-focus on one's surroundings. After reading about the more irreverent modes in early haikai, I wonder to what extent the Basho circle and Shiki departed from the norm. Were form and the combination of references to contemporary and older language the only connective thread between Basho and Shiki and their urban haikai contemporaries? It seems like their work was well-received during their own lives, so I imagine they didn't anything too radical, but it seems like there are stark differences in tone and material between something like the Sahohime piss/mist pun and Shiki's approach.

I'm also struck by how much of the interpretation of a haiku depends upon knowledge of the poet's life. How much research would have been involved for a contemporary reader of the cockscomb flowers haiku? Did people know its context at the time, or is a translator like Keith Vincent imposing life-context onto the poem retroactively?

"Yosano Akiko, Japan's First Feminist Poet"

What a fascinating figure, especially in how her poetry reflects the social changes going on in early 20th century Japan. I'd be curious to know more about the trajectory of tankas between her work and Tawara's. It seems like Akiko's poetry retained the high register of traditional tanka, but her subject matter was considered progressive. Does Tawara draw inspiration from her to do radical work? Or is it more accurate to think of Tawara and Akiko  as singular voices who happen to be working in the same tradition?

Machi Tawara, Salad Anniversary

By Juliet Winters Carpenter's description of Tawara's wide acclaim, it seems like her work is fresh in some of the same ways that early haikai works were. She fuses contemporary and classic references and styles, connecting with her readers on both a personal/mundane level, and a literary one where common references are understood. Being unfamiliar with the tanka tradition, I don't know how precedented or unprecedented Tawara's work is, but it sounds like she's that rare kind of poet whose mastery expresses itself in many modes.

Week 1 Reflections - Kelly Haddad

 

1. Salad Anniversary - I enjoyed this reflection, and it spoke so highly of the author’s poetry that I am motivated to read it for myself. This reading immediately reminded me of Emma Ramadan’s discussion of domestication, especially when Carpenter wrote about how the tension between classical and contemporary language is difficult – or “impossible” – to translate. I thought of how Clarice Lispector’s work lost so much of its uniqueness in translation, which emphasizes the importance of reflections such as these, to properly contextualize the work and preserve its cultural significance. The concept of blending old and new is paramount to Tawara’s work, and the translator has explained this in depth. 

2. Yosano Akiko - I think it’s incredibly interesting to piece together different phases of someone’s life through their art; witnessing Akiko’s shift from erotic poetry, to anti-war, to pro-military is unexpected. The podcast focused mostly on her feats as a feminist poet in a Japan that was still relatively conservative. She personally portrays the idea that feminism is about personal agency, since she maintained her belief that women could have identities separate from motherhood while being a mother herself. 

3. Matsuo Basho (Shirane reading) - The idea of “mitate”, or “seeing by comparison” was central to this reading, and also encompasses all other materials from this week. This term refers to the integration of classical and modern elements in discussed forms of poetry, and elucidates the success of these poets. Although preserving the structural integrity of a poem is necessary, we must eventually use our creative freedom to shape the genre into a more relevant one. Making these edits allows us to continue to appreciate the antiquated versions, as opposed to forgetting them when they fall out of popularity. 

4. Janine Beichman - I enjoyed the way Beichman read these poems, and her discussion of the mindfulness the Basho experienced. Listening to this talk emphasized the way that poetry can reach all types of people. Merging classical and contemporary accommodates more people, and drawing upon Tawara’s poetry, we can see that a core element of these works is their universality. Regardless of style or language, being able to communicate a set of experiences that are common to the general audience gives a genre meaning. 

27/01 Reading Response - Sanjana Thakur

I have read Basho, Li Bo, and Du Fu previously, in a seminar on descriptive language in poetry, but had not realised that haikai originated as an irreverent sort of pushback to classical and more elitist forms of poetry in Japan. While I love Basho’s simple attention to the natural environment and daily life, I was delighted to read the haikai about Princess Saho in the Shirane reading, and how even within the confines of a strict poetic form, poets could achieve humour. It reminded me of the double dactyl poetic form, which similarly relies on a tight structure but usually has silly and funny content. I was also thinking about how Basho’s journey with haikai seems to follow what Emma Ramadan termed ‘foreignisation’ – a deep engagement with poets and cultural references outside of Japan. 

In the “Afterword” to Salad Anniversary, it seems as though Machi Tawara continued, and found great success in, Basho’s legacy of foreignization, breathing new life into traditional Japanese poetic forms by doing what might be considered risky: borrowing from English and using contemporary references and colloquialisms, while still staying true to the musicality of form and traditional poetic modifiers/pillow words. I do have to admit that I found it harder to appreciate some of her poems––or at least the translations of them. Something in me bristles at the statement that “the appeal of her poems rests on their universality”, at the idea that poems must appeal to the widest audience, and I wonder if part of my reaction might be because of the translator’s choice to prioritise brevity over sound/syllable count. I found myself more moved by the quality of sound hearing Tawara read her work aloud in the Japanese. 

I loved getting to see Masaoka Shiki’s approach to writing poetry in Beichman’s lecture and wrote down many of his quotes. He created his own poetics of lightness, writing on the lampshade, and as someone who is writing a lot of poems based in observations of the natural world right now, I found it so valuable to hear how he ‘extracts’ so many poems from a single moment in a single setting. 

Regarding the Yosano Akiko segment, I thought it was strange that they only offer the last seven or so minutes to the pendulum swing in Akiko’s personality and poetic practice. I also wondered, given how much emphasis this interview puts on the gender and sexuality aspect of Akiko’s poetry, on her being Japan’s ‘first feminist poet’ what might have been changed or gained or lost by a male translator, or this male translator in particular, who seems to have great stake in offering a particular view of Yosano Akiko, to “remember the finest aspects” of her. 

Lauren's response

 From this week’s reading, what “stuck” with me most was keynote speaker, Janine Beichman’s idea of “stickiness.” I appreciated her putting a word to a concept that is hard to pin down but seems important for working with translation. Certain phrases, images, and words have more staying power than others, but this feels especially relevant when working cross-culturally. I loved Beichman’s reflection of the octopus pot reminding her of a lobster pot, then creating a new layer of connection to her home. Beichman proposes that a good poem opens effortlessly to include our own experiences, a point furthered by the Afterword to Salad Anniversary. I thought this sentence was an absolute gut-punch: “It is ironic that (if we may believe her) Machi Tawara has no real lover; these real-sounding love poems spring largely from imagination, based (she says shyly) not on a particular longing for any one person so much as a general longing for human contact” (141). I don’t think there’s a way to more quickly endear me to a writer, but if there was, it would be telling me that they worked full-time in a thankless job like school teaching (although I’ve heard it’s less thankless in Japan). I found myself wanting to know more about Tawara and discovered on her Wikipedia page that there was a translation to Salad Anniversary published two years before Carpenter’s. I would love to know more about how two translations came to be published so close together. I appreciated the context on haiku and learning more about Bashō. I also was curious about Yosano Akiko’s superlative of being “Japan’s very first feminist poet” (what a strange and, I’d imagine, heavy crown). I was moved by her anti-war poem addressed to her brother.

28 Jan Readings Response – Cheryl

From the influence of Tang-poets on Basho's haiku and American popular culture on Tawara Machi's tanka, it was interesting to me to see that Japanese poetry has never been written in a vacuum and that it has always reflected the cultural tastes and sensibilities of the day. 

It also seems salient to me that both of their poetry draws heavily on the experiences of the everyday: Basho wrote not about not of the "stylish men and women of the great urban centers' floating world" but of the "mundane, everyday lives of farmers and fishermen in the provinces." 

While Tawara Machi's work, therefore, may seem radical to those who hold classical Japanese literature aloft as sophisticated and transcendent, we might see that in some ways she follows in Basho's tradition in appealing to the mundane and pedestrian. Reading the afterword on her tanka collection, it surprised me at first that something as literary to me as the tanka could hold such widespread appeal, but on reflection, with short form personal writing as purveyed by social media gaining so much traction in recent decades, I can see how short form poetry could land squarely in the intersection of an appreciation for concision and the desire to feel seen in a lonely world. 

Meanwhile, Yosano Akiko broke ground with her sensual tanka in her day. It seems to me that there is much precedent for the tanka as a genre of creativity and exploration, all the while preserving a rich literary heritage as Tawara Machi does in incorporating classical Japanese into her very modern works.

Reading Responses from Jan 28th -- Lachlan Bowden

 Shirane, Haiku history and haiku by Basho

While reading the text on Basho, I found it particularly interesting the emphasis placed on juxtaposition when referring to the pairing of two images, and the tension that is derived from such. The example of the Princess Saho image with the added verse shito o su evokes a visceral and gritty discourse that comments on what precedes it. Knowing that the haikai “spirit” has the intention to recontextualise, subvert, and deconstruct to defamiliarise, is valuable in understanding when approaching a translation. I’d be interested in experimenting with harsh and terse shifts in phrasing (much like the Princess Saho) to see how this effect contextualizes the two disparate images. Something I appreciated when reading about Basho’s preferable subjects was his gravitation toward the “mundane, everyday lives of farmers and fisherman” (180). As this is a topic I enjoy writing about, having the opportunity to translate one of Basho’s haikais would be beneficial. I was specifically drawn to the lines labelled “on the road”,  and “composed while ill”.

Salad Anniversary

Considering the previous reading on Basho, the notion of contrast within Tawara’s poem is an interesting factor, one that would prove intriguing when dealing with a translation. “The emotions are genuine and deeply felt, but never bitter or overwhelming. The sadness of ending a relationship is balanced by relief…” (139). Upon reflection, maybe contrast isn’t the right word, but balance is more accurate. Applying the intention of balance to a translation is something I am looking forward to experimenting with, treating a piece of work like an ecosystem where if one thing is removed, something else, seemingly distant, may be affected.

Yosano Akiko - Japan's First Feminist Poet

The particular part of the ABC radio conversation that I found intriguing in regard to Akiko and Japanese society was the idea of repression. Pulvers states that, as it is well known, Japan “values decorum and prosperity and civility… but it’s not a prudish society”. The tanka recited from Disheveled Hair was full of longing and yearning, yet felt to have somewhat of a clandestine and hushed tone. It was also interesting to learn that the judgement received from this expression was transferred (with more vitriol) to her anti-war tanka. I found myself wondering how a translation of this type of work can maintain and communicate defiant core.

Keynote: The pleasures of haiku: From Basho to Shiki and beyond

I really appreciated Beichman’s reading of Basho’s haiku, Octopus Pots, and further her description of the calmness and tranquility of realising everyday things, and how the correct recognition and articulation of such provides an ethereal texture to the work. The reading of an excerpt from Shiki’s Drop of Ink was incredibly powerful. Specifically the detail of how a haiku is described as an organically occurring and somewhat unstoppable thing, the need to write it on a lampshade due to not having the appropriate materials at the ready. The urgency applied to such an art form begs the question of how this lore and philosophy may be translated. It seems to be a practice so full of sincerity and stripped of ego. Something else to be considered is Basho’s “mastery of tone of sublimity”, a tone that I associate with the capturing of power and grandeur of a natural place. If a translator working on such a text has not experienced these locations or natural phenomena specific to place, how does the truth transfer? 

Jan 28th Reading Responses- Claire Kapitan

 

1. 

While I was reading about Matsuo Bashō in these two chapters, I was thinking a lot about Emma Ramadan's lecture. Bashō invented the idea of haikai spirit, which was concerned with the interaction of diverse languages and subcultures, the friction between new popular culture and poetic traditions. Haikai spirit was interested in defamiliarization or dislocating habitual, conventionalized perceptions of poetic language or topics and recasting them into contemporary culture. His methodology involves playful, lively dialogue between poetic forms, both the old and new, to form a kind of communal art. This is in conversation with what Ramadan said about interesting moments of friction in translated literature---how two languages interacting through translation form interesting moments that should be appreciated instead of wiped away. There is suspicion of the strange or foreign in translation---the effects of an effort to preserve our "American" literary landscape, but just as Bashō explored the fusion of different poetic traditions, there is strength and beauty in these playful interactions, in the constant "borrowing" of words, images, and ideas. I also noted that the poetic technique of "borrowing" has a name: toru. 

2. 

Listening to Beichman talk about the minimalism and stickiness of the haiku was particularly impactful because I had experienced the same sensations---each of Bashō's haikus is a singular, tactile image or moment, and yet they hold so much in so few words. Each image stays with your mind and body. In the haiku about the octopus traps, which I had written down from our first reading because I found it so vivid and beautiful, we have a kino, or seasonal word that carries its our poetic associations ("summer moon". In this case, it could be the temporality of both summer and life, impermanence at large. That was another element of this lecture that struck me: the generosity of the haiku for diverse interpretations/meanings. 

3. 

Akiko struck me as an interesting figure because her tankas were able to hold her life and the way she grew within that life: from writing about women enjoying sex and reclaiming the erotic, to urging her brother not to go to war, to then supporting Japanese imperialism. Although short and direct, these tankas communicate the various moments that made up her life and their immense complexity. 

4. 

Tawara's tankas seem to have reached a wide audience because they embrace both the history of the form and modern contexts, just as Bashō articulated in his ideas of haikai spirit. She doesn't shy away from words that communicate modernity and popular culture: McDonald's, "Hotel California," etc, yet she is still able to preserve the musicality and evocativeness of the poetic tradition. I also loved the image of "salad" being genuine and deeply felt, while never bitter or overwhelming. I thought it was a new and interesting way to interpret the conciseness of the form. 

Ellie Wells Reading Response Jan. 28th

I liked reading Basho's hokku, but as I was reading them, I noticed a pattern, that there are two lines within them that are related, and then the third line seems to come out of nowhere, whether it be at the beginning or the end. For example, the poem "Octopus traps- / fleeting dreams / under the summer moon." I was so confused as to why the line about the octopus trap was in there. Perhaps this is because I am not well versed in poetry or haiku, and therefore do not know its traditions. However, seeing his different methods of writing and drawing backed up by his backstory were illuminating. I wondered while reading how long he would stay in one place, and if his writers' spirit was what propelled him to wander Japan and never settle in one specific place. The reading said that for the last 10 years of his life he was going on trips with his students around Japan, and I wondered how they would fund that lifestyle, as well as how heavily it influenced Basho's poetry. Reading his early works, compared to the works from this time period would be very interesting.  

--

I really liked the poetry performed on the radio broadcast, written by Yosano Akiko. In particular, I liked the poem called "Oh My Little Brother" which discussed her opinions about war and her feelings toward her younger brother. I thought that it was interesting and surprising how the speakers indicated that she had upheld a pacifistic tradition while writing this, at odds with the government and the pro-war sentiment. But this perspective makes sense for a feminist poet to have, as often, feminists are also against war. Although, she ended up pivoting her perspective and becoming pro-war later in her life. 

I also thought that the point the speaker brought up about how she was anti-forcing women into motherhood, and yet she herself have 13 children was very interesting. Though I did not agree with the implications of that statement, I think that it is an interesting point to discuss. She did indeed oppose women's identity being synonymous with motherhood, and yet she had her own children. This strikes me as similar to the modern argument concerning birth control, as it is every women's choice for themselves. Perhaps Yosano Akiko felt that she herself was meant for motherhood, and yet she did not want other women to be forced into that decision, she wanted women to have their own choices, no matter what her own personal opinion was. I was, however, shocked by how feminist leaning she was, fr it being so long ago that she lived and wrote. The speaker mentioned that she was pro-abortion as well, which surprised me. 

--

The afterword about "Salad Anniversary" was a very interesting read, and made me want to read the whole work to experience the poems they were talking about. I think that it is very touching that her poems were able to move so many people, and I think that it is beautiful that she was able to meld old and new styles seamlessly in this captivating way that drew people in. I don't agree with the translator's decision to translate for brevity and not try to mimic the style or the syllables in the poems, as I think it probably loses some of its beauty and overall impact, but perhaps it is actually better to spend less time on formatting and more time on getting the poems published in another language so they can become more widespread. I like this style of poetry, because it is not too long and the messages in this author's poems seem to be succinct and easily understandable. This kind of poetry appeals to a broader audience, because more people can understand the messages and relate, and that is perhaps why it became so popular and sparked so many people into a writing frenzy.

1.28 Reading Responses - Leah Smolin

Shirane and Beichman

Three misconceptions seemed familiar to me about haiku’s history: the tone and content were “solely” about the beauty of nature, it was standalone, and it was always poetically “serious.” Fascinating to learn from Janine Beichman that it was often about pain and death, it was originally part of prose or a longer chain of verse, and (from Early Haikai and Poetics) that it could also be irreverent, satirical, crass. It amused my inner sixth-grader to read “Princess Saho / with the coming of spring / stands pissing.” Parody is often inherently limited, maybe because it isn’t as open to interpretation and it relies on a desire for contradiction, an unchallenged status quo. Then once the status quo has been challenged, well, what next? It makes sense that haikai would be going stale when Bashō revolutionized it.

Bashō’s “haikai spirit” which “interaction of diverse languages and subcultures” reminded me of Emma Ramadan’s talk. Was the poem about the octopus pots, if in the shadow of a massacre, really “intended to be humorous and sad at the same time”? It seems entirely sad to me. Maybe humorous in a cosmically absurd way? Like we all crawl into our own traps/toward our own death? (I align with Beichman's reading that we are the octopus.)

Yosano Akiko

It’s striking that the Yosano Akiko translator so desperately wants to “forget” that she became pro-war later in life. Akiko seems interesting—a little unhinged. Doesn’t really surprise me that she flipped on her principles. So many famous writers, as the (annoying and interrupty) host points out, have followed the same pattern.

Machi Tawara

I enjoyed reading about Salad Anniversary and what a smash hit it was. Anyone else reminded of Rupi Kaur's first book? Not necessarily the content, but the popularity. I don't think they've made a musical of Kaur's book, however.

I wanted to read more of Carpenter's translations of the poems in Salad Anniversary and found this one:

“Oh yeah?!” the new catchphrase– 

in the classroom, student conversations

get by on just “Oh yeah?” “Oh yeah!”

Here are a few more if anyone is curious

https://bookopencom.wordpress.com/2018/02/10/salad-anniversary-by-machi-tawara/

1.28 Reading Respond__YideCai

I found the readings on haiku fascinating, especially in how the sources approached the form from multiple perspectives about its historical origins and its present-day developments. I was surprised to learn that, much like Catullus in his own context, haiku was once considered a relatively new or contemporary poetic form, and that it was associated with a more common, accessible class rather than elite literary culture. This reframing challenged my prior assumption of haiku as something already fully “classic” and canonized. It reminded me of the relationship between Noh drama and Kabuki.

I was also struck by the formal detail that although haiku is often presented as three lines in translation, it is written vertically as a single line in Japanese. As a Chinese reader, this made me crave seeing what these poems actually look like in their original script rather than only encountering them through romanization or translated line breaks.

Finally, I was drawn to the stories of the two poets discussed. One poet’s shift from pacifism to supporting Japan’s war in China unsettled me, especially since the podcast host seemed to brush past this ideological transformation rather quickly and insisted that she was this "first feminist" poet of Japan. The other poet’s rise through writing haiku as a teacher rooted in contemporary settings felt forward-looking. This tension made me reflect on Chinese literature today: I often find myself longing for a similar sense of continuity and reinvention. Contemporary writers rarely compose classical Chinese poetry in a genuinely creative way, and when they do, the work often feels constrained by inherited vocabulary and subject matter.

Liam Clancy Reading Takeaways for Class on January 28th

 Haikai:

• Haikai originated as a popular, playful alternative to elite classical poetry, using vernacular language and everyday subjects.
• The hokku (5–7–5) functioned as the opening verse of linked poetry and relied on a kigo (seasonal word) and kireji (cutting word) to create tension and resonance.
• Bashō redefined haikai by blending classical literary allusion with ordinary, contemporary imagery.
• His poetry emphasizes travel, solitude, impermanence, and marginal figures, reflecting both physical journeys and spiritual searching.
• Bashō rejected excessive wit and parody, aiming instead for depth, restraint, and emotional resonance.
• Through Bashō, haikai became a serious artistic and cultural form, paving the way for modern haiku.

Possible Discussion Topics:

• High versus low culture: How Bashō negotiates the boundary between elite classical tradition and popular culture.
• Translation challenges: Whether the effects of kireji, seasonal reference, or layered allusion can survive in English.
• Travel as poetics: Why physical movement is so central to Bashō’s aesthetic and philosophical outlook.
• Minimalism and meaning: How Bashō creates emotional depth through highly compressed language.
• Haiku as cultural memory: How Bashō uses classical references to preserve literary tradition in new poetic forms.
• Seriousness versus play: At what point haikai moves from humorous parody into “serious” poetry.

Keynote Speech:

• The keynote speaker argues that the central pleasure of haiku comes from its ability to heighten attention to the present moment while inviting imaginative and emotional engagement from the reader.
• She emphasizes that haiku does not deliver a single fixed meaning but instead creates space for readers to participate in making meaning through perception, memory, and interpretation.
• The talk suggests that haiku’s openness and generosity help explain why the form has endured historically and spread globally across languages and cultures.

Discussion Topics:

• How haiku cultivates mindfulness and careful observation, and whether this distinguishes it from other poetic forms.
• The role of the reader in completing the poem, particularly how haiku depends on suggestion rather than explanation.
• Haiku’s international reach, and why such a brief and culturally rooted form continues to resonate worldwide.

Japan's First Feminist Poet:

• The ABC Late Night Live segment explains that Yosano Akiko was a groundbreaking, prolific, and controversial Japanese poet known as Japan’s first feminist poet because her early poetry openly depicted female desire and passion in ways that defied conventions of her time.
• Her work reflects the major social changes happening in Japan as it moved from a feudal empire toward a modern, industrialized nation, and she wrote not only poetry but also political and social criticism that pushed against traditional gender roles.
• Throughout her life she published many volumes of poetry and prose, and her ideas ranged from strong pacifism in earlier years to a more complicated stance on Japan’s wars later in life, showing how her thinking evolved with the times.

Discussion Topics:

• How Yosano’s frank and sensual depictions of women’s feelings and bodies challenged the expectations of female writers in early 20th-century Japan and helped shape modern feminist literary voices.
• How her work shows the tensions between individual expression and national pressures during periods of social change, especially in relation to war and nationalism.
• The role of Yosano Akiko not just as a poet but as a cultural figure who also wrote essays, started a school, and translated classical literature into modern Japanese, showing how her influence extended beyond poetry. 

J Carpenter:

• Tawara’s Salad Anniversary is presented as a landmark modern tanka collection that revitalized a classical poetic form by using fresh, contemporary language and everyday subject matter while still maintaining traditional concision and musicality.
• The afterword emphasizes that Tawara’s success comes from her ability to blend old and new, combining classical diction, pillow words, and literary allusion with modern references, conversational tone, and even borrowed English words.
• From a translation perspective, the text highlights the difficulty of rendering tanka into English, particularly the impossibility of preserving syllable counts, line structure, and cultural resonance, which leads the translator to prioritize brevity, clarity, and emotional effect over formal equivalence.

Discussion Topics:

• How translators should balance fidelity to traditional form versus readability and emotional impact when translating tanka or haiku into English.
• The challenge of translating cultural references and linguistic hybridity, such as Tawara’s use of modern icons, English loanwords, and classical Japanese diction within the same poem.
• Whether Tawara’s work demonstrates that translation can help classical poetic forms remain alive and relevant in modern global contexts rather than freezing them as purely historical artifacts.

Welcome to the class blog!

Welcome to the class blog!

We are looking forward to reading your thoughts about the assigned readings. Please post short comments about each reading (at least 200 words total).

Anna Elliott and Christopher Maurer