Bashō mentions the term “haibun” for the first time in
1690 as defining a new literary genre in the form of the traditional Japanese
diary, but which would borrow models from the Chinese poetic prose.
Judging the rustic and even the vulgar as being worthy
from a poetic point of view, Bashō creates haibun in an everyday language. A
certain nuance of the elliptic style can be referred to as a delicate sense of
decency. Supreme beauty cannot be put into words; its utmost expression is to
be found in the serenity of the mind.
One could classify them as short prose with an
autobiographical tone, often descriptive, the principal aims being nature and
introspection.
The West was introduced to haibun quite late, by the
1990s, following the emergence of translations made directly from Japanese,
first in the Anglophone countries, then the Francophone countries.
American poet Bruce Ross published the first American
haibun anthology in 1998, Journey to the Interior, American Versions of
Haibun (Călătorie spre interior, versiuni americane de haibun), and
together with Jim Kacian he edited the anthology Up Against the Window
(Privind pe fereastră) in 1999. These works make a brief account of
the genre, illustrated by texts differing in style, starting with earlier texts
and ending with contemporary ones.
The French approached haibun later, this form of poetry is
known only after magazines Ploc! or Gong published haibun in their pages. But
in recent years the haibun took momentum in France, especially after 2011 when
the Association of Francophone Haibun
Authors (A.F.A.H.) was founded by Danièle Duteil and Gérard Dumon,
especially to promote this kind of poem, in the electronic journal entitled L'Echo
de l'étroit chemin. Then, in 2014, it was promoted by issuing the Haibun
francophone Anthology entitled Cross-roads (Chemins croisés), edited by
PIPPA Publishing House in Paris.
Romanian haibun was influenced by the appearance of the
fran- cophone and anglophone haibun and it was first found in the pages of
Haiku Magazine, founded in 1990. The length of the Romanian haibun is variable.
Some are short, consisting of only a few sentences and a haiku, and others are
long, reaching more pages and several haikus, but the most common are short
haibun, under a page in length.
The idea of bringing together major authors of haibun of
Romania and the United States in an anthology was supported by the American
poet Bruce Ross. Therefore, in this book, we selected together 20 Romanian
poets and 20 American poets of haibun. Each poet has been selected with 1-5 poems.
The 20 Romanian poets present in this book different
subjects, resulting from personal experiences after visits or trips taken to
exotic places abroad or across the country, some focusing on the beauty of
nature, others exploring the twists and turns of the human soul.
Most haibun are
written using present tense, generally adopted also in the haiku poem. The
Romanian author’s haibun are short stories with autobiographical or descriptive
character, nature and introspection being the main features.
It can be seen that some Romanian haibun poems are
longer than those of the American poets,
perhaps because English is manifestedly more concise than Romanian, both in
prose and haiku.
In the selection of the title of the anthology, Călători
prin anotimpuri / Travelers through Seasons, we were inspired by Bashō’s
words: “The months, the days are eternal travelers; the years taking the place
of one another, are also travelers ... “ As well we, humans, we travel through
life, seasons and years completing them in
our short stay on this planet
which travels around the sun creating the
four seasons.
I believe that by the outstanding literary qualities and
by its diversity, the Romanian haibun and the American haibun are presented in
this book as an original and attractive literature, not only for those who love
Japanese poetry but also for classic literature readers. We invite you to read
it!
Valentin
Nicoliţov
President
of Romanian Haiku Society
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