Furu ike ya

I. About Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia composed of four main islands and over six thousand smaller islands. Though Japan is slightly smaller than the state of California, it has a population of over 127 million people.

Japan’s name in kanji (Japanese characters) translates to “sun origin,” and so Japan is known as the “Land of the Rising Sun.”

Japan’s capital city, Tokyo, is the world’s largest metropolitan area, with about 9.1 million people, as well as the world’s largest urban economy.

II. About the Japanese Language

Japanese is spoken by about 125 million people, primarily in Japan. Historians are unsure of the language’s origins, though it does share similarities to Korean. Chinese documents from the third century recorded a few Japanese words, but substantial texts did not appear until the eighth century.

The Japanese language can express different levels in social status determined by a variety of factors, including profession, age, experience, and/or class.

Modern Japanese writing uses two main kinds of characters: kanji and kana. Kanji are Chinese characters that are blocky and squarish in form. They have the same meaning in Japanese as in Chinese, but are pronounced differently. Kana are roundish in form, like English cursive, and are used phonetically to sound out the long Japanese words.

Rōmaji, the Japanese word for roman letters, is the Latin script transcribed from Japanese characters so that non-Japanese speakers can read and pronounce the Japanese words. It is a tool, though at times imperfect, to bridge the gap between the Japanese and non-Japanese worlds.

III. About Haiku

Haiku is a Japanese poem traditionally comprised of three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables that create a single, memorable image. For many, haiku is more than poetry; it is a way of life. Deceptively simple, in three short lines it sets a scene and then delivers a surprise. This surprise is usually an insight, image, or comment that casts a new light on the previous lines.

Essential to the structure of haiku is the “cutting word,” or kireji, which divides the poem in two. It acts as a disruption and implies a relationship between what comes before it and what comes after, oftentimes juxtaposing the two. Ya (や) is one of seven common kireji used in Japanese haiku. Ya (や) is derived from a Chinese character meaning “this.”

The roots of haiku can be traced as far back as the Heian period (794–1185) when nobles at court played at creating long-linked poems, or renga, in a group. A single poet began a “link” with a particular theme, and others improvised responses, one by one, in short verses that altered and expanded upon the theme. In the courts of the day, there was an acute fascination with verse that was concise in description, full of understatement rich with suggestion, and composed by more than one poet. Typical topics included love, youth, life, vanished summers, and explorations of nature. Haiku came about as poets began to compose the opening verses of renga as stand-alone poems.

Writing haiku involves acute attention to the rhythm and sound of poetry, and requires a vast store of synonyms in order to be as concise and precise as possible. The translation and composition of this form teaches students to manipulate words and syntax, moving beyond basic sentences to more sophisticated, thoughtful, and succinct modes of expression.

I. About this poem

Furu ike ya ia a haiku, composed by Basho, who was the inventor and first great master of the haiku form as an independent type of poetry. It is written in seventeen syllables, in lines of 5-7-5. This haiku occurs in a few seconds of real time by the banks of a pond as a frog jumps into the water. Line 1: the stillness of an old (古 furu) pond (池 ike) is brought into focus by the nearly untranslatable particle や ya that sets the scene and directs our attention. Line 2: live action! a frog (蛙 kawazu) leaps (飛び込む tobikomu). Line 3: all that remains after the action is the sound (音oto) of (のno) water (水 mizu).

Haiku usually take place in the present moment, because there is no room for narrative in such a short poem.

Just a glimpse. A snapshot. A selfie. The best haiku give a suggestion of the vastness of what is left out. “A true haiku, in its brevity, does not allow for any hesitation, any plot or argument, because it has no narration and is not involved with the passage of time. This is the closest we can get to the instantaneous, to the spark of the moment: lightning illuminates the dark ocean and for a moment we know where we are; the darkness returns us to the silence out of which the haiku emerged.” —Alberto Blanco

Something always happens in a haiku. The essence of haiku is said to be the action of cutting (kiru). や Ya is one of seven common kireji,  “cutting words,” commonly used in Japanese haiku. や Ya is derived from a Chinese character meaning “this.” や Ya throws attention on what comes immediately before it (the old pond) and divides the poem in two, implying an equation or likeness between the two parts.

II. Suggested activities

Read the haiku out loud in Japanese, using the romaji (our alphabet) transcription. Instructor reads first, then call-and-response, then student volunteers try a line, then memorize the haiku and say it aloud without the page.

Count the syllables in each line. Use your fingers! Do they add up to 5-7-5?

Identify which written characters in Basho’s poem are kanji and which are kana. (kanji: line 1, characters 1 and 2; line 2, characters 1 and 2; line 3, characters 1 and 3)

Brainstorm, in groups, everything that this poem seems to invite you to sense beyond what is stated (the wind in the reeds by the banks of the pond…. birds singing… coolness of the water… colors on the back of the frog…)

After students complete their phrase-by-phrase translation, compare and discuss what how they chose to deal with や Ya.

After students complete their make-it-flow translations, read and discuss the 15 Translations of furu ike ya and encourage wilder and more daring inventiveness in a third round of translation.

Draw a picture of the haiku. Illustrate your picture with Japanese characters.

III. Original Haiku

Haiku are best written outdoors. A nearby park, an environmental garden, a courtyard with bushes, even a sidewalk strip invite birds, grass, insects, wind, clouds and traffic to enter student haiku.

If 5-7-5 syllabics are developmentally frustrating and laborious for younger students, consider assigning Looons instead. Looons (developed by Jack Collom at Teachers & Writers Collaborative) are three-line poems of 3-5-3 words.

Write a haiku thus: line 1: setting, line 2: action, line 3: aftermath.

Write a haiku that happens in real time. Write a haiku with a real animal in it.