Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,
Welcome at a new episode of our CDHK Academy, today I have a nice lecture for you about the Renga, the chained poem, the "mother of renga".
This Carpe
Diem Lecture is about renga the 'mother of haiku' so to say. Haiku has
originated from the Renga. Renga was (is) a chain of poems in which several poets
took part. The most haiku by Basho for example are written for Renga. That
could be the 'hokku' or the starting verse or as one of the links of the chain.
There are
several different forms of Renga and in this lecture I will tell you more about
the so called 'Tan Renga', but that's later on. Let us first look at the
original renga. The original renga could have 100 linked verses. But there was
a strong form, called kasen renga that had 36 links. For this kasen renga there
were a few rules. In a kasen renga there had to be a reference to flowers twice
(mostly Cherry Blossom) and three times to the moon. These references are
called: hana no za 'the seat of flowers' and tsuku no za 'the seat of the
moon'. The first stanza was called 'hokku' and the final stanza was called
'ageku' and had to refer to the first stanza to 'close' the chain of poems.
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| Credits: Renga Session |
How to
write renga?
As a renga
is collaborative poetry, it is important that there be enough people to
participate. Although solo renga have always been and continue to be written,
three to four is considered the minimum number for a renga group, called an
ichiza, and upward of fourteen to fifteen may be possible under an experienced
sōshō ( "renga master"). For
online renga collaborations, the sōshō would be the one to select a verse from
among those posted or sent.
The essence
of renga is in the idea of "change" (henka?). Bashō described this as
"newness" (atarashimi), and as "refraining from stepping back".
The fun is in the change, the new, the different, and the interesting verses of
others.
In Japan a
renga starts with a hokku of 5-7-5 sound units by one of the guests - usually
the most honored or experienced. This is followed by the second verse of 7-7
sound units, called the waki ("side"), and then by the third verse of
5-7-5 sound units, called the daisan ("the third"). The next verse
will be 7-7 sound units, and this pattern is repeated until the desired length
is achieved. It is common in English to use forms that show the number of the
verse, how long it is to be, whether the moon or flowers should be mentioned,
when one author takes two links at once. Since the renga of different lengths
have different schemes for how many verses are given to each season and
non-seasonal verses, it is easiest to use one of the available forms so that
everyone understands and follows the same program.
The kasen
renga, favored by Bashō because it was easier to complete 36 verses in one
night than the normal 100-link renga, has three sections of development. The
beginning, called the jo should reflect the atmosphere of the beginning of a
social evening - everyone is very polite, restrained, cautious and referring to
the reason for the gathering. The middle part of the kasen renga (verses 7 -
29) are more loose, and will include themes not allowed in the beginning and
end such as love, religion, and laments. This reflects the conversation flow
during dinner when the wine has been consumed and the participants are feeling
free and friendly. The kyu is the rapid finish and involves the last six
verses. The speed in this section is much like the broken conversation of
people as they prepare to leave the party and people are quickly winding up
their conversations. This pattern of pacing the poem is taken from the
classical music. The ageku is the final verse. It is considered fine if the
final verse makes some reference or has a tie to the hokku or beginning verse.
Renga are often hard for Westerners to read and understand (and therefore to
write) because there is no narrative or chronological order. Even the links
that are written are not to be impressive or informative. The whole object of renga
is to show what happens between the links. A renga and its participants are
judged on how well each link relates to the previous one. There is a whole
study of the various techniques and methods of linkage. The most common one
used by beginning English writers is simple stream of consciousness. The
previous verse reminds the writer of something else and then adds that image to
the poem. The book by Earl Miner and Hiroko Odagiri, a translation of The
Monkey’s Straw Raincoat Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1981 is the
best book to study these subtle changes in this famous work done by Bashō and
his students. It is recommended to take turns (hizaokuri?) for a small ichiza
so that everyone participates equally. For larger ichiza, the dashigachi ("the
outgoing one wins") rule is recommended so the best verse would be
selected. The renga master, or person with the most experience with renga,
guides the participants, making sure the seasons and themes are correct and
will be responsible for the correction of errors.
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| Renga -- the chained poem |
As I said
earlier in this lecture I will look at the Tan Renga, it's a two stanza renga
and looks similar with the Tanka. A Tan Renga is always written by two poets,
but can also be written by a soloist.
Writing Tan
Renga is fun and it learns you to associate on the verse of another haiku poet
or on a haiku by yourself.
An example:
The first
stanza of this Tan Renga:
early
sunrise
pink cloud fingers sprouting
at the horizon
pink cloud fingers sprouting
at the horizon
To write
the second stanza of this Tan Renga you have to associate on the first stanza.
You can associate on e.g. sunrise, pink, cloud, fingers, sprouting and horizon.
The first stanza is built like a haiku 5-7-5 and the second stanza has to count
7-7 syllables.
OK let's
give it a try ...
For example
I will associate on sprouting.
blooming
cherry blossoms
finally winter has gone
finally winter has gone
Let's place
the both stanza together as one:
early
sunrise
pink cloud fingers sprouting
at the horizon
blooming cherry blossoms
finally winter has gone
pink cloud fingers sprouting
at the horizon
blooming cherry blossoms
finally winter has gone
It's a
beauty don't you think?
Another
one, now associated on horizon:
on the thin
line of the earth
the air shimmers above the sea
Let's place
the both stanza together as one:the air shimmers above the sea
early sunrise
pink cloud fingers sprouting
at the horizon
on the thin line of the earth
the air shimmers above the sea
at the horizon
on the thin line of the earth
the air shimmers above the sea
Well ...
what do you think? Tan Renga is fun and maybe you will write a Tan Renga
yourself. Be my guest and share your Tan Renga with us. I will enclose a
linking widget that will stay on 'till end of April 2017
Be
creative, be inspired and share your Tan Renga ....
