Italian Newspaper "Vita Nuova", 10 Ocotober 2008
Pure Poetry
Ban’ya Natsuishi, artist of haiku
A reader who is accustomed to read the great traditional European poetry might be puzzled and somewhat confused at reading a collection of haiku, the typical Japanese lyric form, consisting of three verses, of respectively 5-7-5 syllables. Even if the great international lyric does not lack examples of brief and pregnant poems, it is rather uncommon for a poem to be able to completely hide its philosophical and cultural contents. In haiku, simplicity and serendipity are absolute, the most common things become part of literature and intellectualism is strictly banned. Withering or blossoming flowers, birds flying or resting on a branch, a man passing-by with sandals full of dust or a woman collecting rice on a sunny day: three very short verses and the view is clear-cut and elementary, like a child’s smile. Haiku is today still very appreciated by the Japanese, as is witnessed by the literary production of Ban’ya Natsuishi, one of the most well-known contemporary Japanese poets, who some weeks ago has been a guest at the Antico Café San Marco, in a meeting devoted to haiku and organised by the cultural association “Friedrich Schiller”. Natsuishi, who has also take profit of the event to introduce his new collection of haikus “Earthy Pilgrimage”, is a Professor at Meji University, Tokio and a member of PEN Club International. We could interview him and so we became aware of all the sobriety and neatness of this kind of writing poems, being able to handle words and things as concretely as a craftsman with the spiritual wisdom of illumination.
What will understand somebody who does not know anything of Japanese spirit about the artistic and spiritual tradition of your country reading a haiku?
First we must differentiate between classical and modern haiku. Surely, reading a classical haiku, this person will imagine that at that time people were happy with a peaceful life and that it really loved plants and animals. It can also happen, that one imagines that ancient poets loved ordinary things and that Japanese are mysterious people veiled by a special aura, with some notes of Zen and Buddhism.
Modern haiku, on the other hand, reflects a completely different way of facing the word?
Too much has changed in Japan from the 19th century up to now, for allowing haiku to remain unchanged. Our country underwent a heavy industrialisation and became closer to western countries. Everywhere one can see highly modern technical applications and such nice things like plants and cranes have disappeared. And is not conceivable, today that a Japanese poet would speak only about the pure beauty of water and, more in general, of nature. I myself, as a modern poet, try to express in haiku the co-existence of modernity and of the primigenious innocence of nature.
Where lies the true frontier between European and Japanese poetry?
First I would like to draw your attention on an aspect, which is of paramount importance to Japanese, but is not regarded as that relevant by Europeans. When we speak about plants and birds, we are very precise and use their exact names, unlike European poets, who just say, “plant” or “bird” (note of the redaction: this observation reveals the punctual attention Japanese have for the blossoming of the existing creatures in their most handsome and spontaneous form). Besides that, Europeans often speak of their own philosophy of life; devote huge spaces to personal emotions, using images, which are not always that clear and bright.
As Europeans, we believe that haiku is the expression of a well-defined philosophical and religious background. Is this an impression of ours, or is it true?
In all European countries I visited I have been requested to speak about the relationship between Zen, Buddhism and haiku. The Europeans wrongly assume that haiku is the expression of Zen and that Zen is the heart of Japanese culture. On the contrary, it is possible to write excellent haiku even without knowing anything of Zen. This fact does not out roll that some elements of Zen have been essential for building up the Japanese culture. Here I mean especially a peculiar understanding of interior freedom and the advice to detach from human wishes. The relationship is indeed of a more complex and subtle nature and cannot be reduced to a mere mechanical correspondence of cause and effect. Maybe the real soul of haiku and of Japanese is reflected in this way of considering things encompassing putting the essence of things into schemes defined by logical needs.
Alessandra Scarino
English translation by Julius Franzot
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