The Soul of the Haiku E-Book

Giuseppe Viscusi

• Herausgeber: Youcanprint
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

The author, Pino Viscusi, witness of changes in culture and traditions of the 21st century, sees in haiku poems an important element for the integration and union among people. If art is universal in its nature, the exercise of writing haiku verses can affect the lives of all, from the youngest to the elderly, allowing us to rediscover the enchantment of nature and the love for small things.

Leseprobe

The front cover and other anime movie stills in this book have been digitally

edited to enhance the moods evoked by the artists: Wong Bai-Rong (page

10-11), Nomura Tatsutoshi (page 81), Yamamura Koji (page 82), Shimamura

Tatsuo (page 85), Ohi Fumio (pages 86-87), Yuri Norštein (pages 92-99), Kim

Ki-duk (page 107); Hayashi Seiichi (front and back cover).

The author, Pino Viscusi, witness of changes

in culture and traditions of the 21st century,

sees in haiku poems an important element for

the integration and union among people.

If art is universal in its nature, the exercise of

writing haiku verses can affect the lives of all,

from the youngest to the elderly, allowing us

to rediscover the enchantment of nature and

the love for small things.

Copyright © Pino Viscusi, 2016

All rights reserved. No part of these pages, either text or image

may be used for any purpose other than personal use.

Therefore, reproduction in any form or by any means, for reasons

other than personal use, is strictly prohibited without prior written

permission.

The author remains at disposal of potential copyright holders

for those images whereas it was not possible to trace the original

intellectual property.

Translation from Italian by Giada Garofalo

Original Title in Italian: Aria D’Oriente

By Pino Viscusi

ISBN 978-88-88590-97-4

Graphic design and layout by Pino Viscusi

ISBN: 9788892623668

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Preface by

Angelo M. Mapelli

Pino Viscusi

HAIKU IN THE ARTS AND ITS INFLUENCE

ON BERGAMO CULTURAL LIFE

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INDEX

Preface by Angelo Mapelli

FIRST PART: HAIKU, POETRY WITHOUT BORDERS

Poetry as “Trait d’Union” between East and West

Mario Chini discovers Haiku

Haiku: Original form of Japanese poetry

Zen Meditation

School: “Cradle for tomorrow knowledge”

Haiku by the students of Primary School “Najanova Samara” in Russia

The Haiku experience at lower secondary school “Mazzi”, of Bergamo

Graphic and poetic compositions by the students of course 2/A, academic year 2014-2015

Poetic and graphic compositions by the students of course 2/A, academic year 2015-2016

Water, purifying element

Integration and calligraphy

Educational project of Lyceum P. Secco Suardo: “Jewels among school desks”

Conclusions about the Haiku

SECOND PART: THE EAST IS CLOSE

Haiku: poetry across time

Eastern Art

Homage to Bashõ

Pasquale Emanuele, multifarious poet

From Sputnik to the Boson, chronicles of a life

Carvesazzi Library, 2010: “October, Japanese month in Bergamo”

Lella Buzzacchi Poet of the Fara Group

Exhibition “Line and Katana”

Fan Zeng’s Lectio Magistralis at Accademia Carrara

Luana Raffuzzi: polyhedral artist

Garofalo’s sculptures on the Acropolis of Palazzago

Poetic Encounters

Lee II-Ho’s Baemikkumi Park

Encounters with music

“Harmony Haiku”- New music trend

Rocco Carbone and Animation

THIRD PART: ANIMATION AND RENKU

Encounter between Poetry and Animation

“Fuyu No Hi” (Winter Days)

Yuri Norštein

Kawamoto Kihachiro

Nomura Tatsutoshi

Yamamura Koji

Shimamura Tastuo

Ohi Fumio

FOURTH PART: THE FOUR SEASONS OF THE ARTS – IN CONVERSATION WITH THE HAIKU

Yuri Norštein (Animation)

Kim Ki-Duk (Cinema)

Kazuyoshi Nomachi (Photography)

Pietro Garofalo (Sculpture)

Alessandro Ghidini (Graphics)

Pino Viscusi (Visual Poetry)

Pietro Mosca (Literature)

FIFTH PART: HAIKU: POETRY AND COLOUR

Relation between poetry and painting

BIBLIOGRAPHY

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1

PREFACE

By Angelo Maurizio Mapelli

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The Soul of the Haiku is a book of passions, of love for a

narrative silence, for an introspection led by words full of

spiritual life, for the images evoked in an attentive and poetic

heart by the syllables of haiku.

In fast-paced times there is an invite to slow down this futile

hasty vanity that makes us prisoners of the void and sadness.

The love for the East and the arts that this has generated is

– for Pino Viscusi – an impulse of the soul, strictly linked to his

personality, to his path as a scholar, professional and man of

culture.

Viscusi is a visionary rebel, a pioneer and a poet at heart; and

The Soul of the Haiku is a brave book that astonishes for the

thorough study of Eastern influences on the territory of

Bergamo, and for that air of the exotic that so much

fascinated the French painters of the 1800s, and more in

general the European intellectuals who looked up to the

golden retreat of the existence, away from industrialisation,

as a primary source for inspiration.

Viscusi is passionate and presents himself without tricks,

without literary artefacts, with the manifest intent of simply

narrating, telling the stories of others not himself, marvelling

at the delicate artistic matter present in modern times, and at

the incisive relationship that exists between words and visual

arts.

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Viscusi, as always in his numerous publications, tells of the

relation between words and images, words and light, words

and colour, words and spirituality, words and metaphysics,

between words and real beauty.

It is like if Viscusi is almost amazed by the countless and rich

expressions of Eastern culture: a trait d’union between people,

a source of respect for different cultures and a stimulus for a

meditative confrontation that succeeds in shaping rich and

sensitive personalities.

The haiku dominates the first part of the book, seen as essen-

tial legacy of Japanese culture for Europe. It is perceived as a

powerful meditation tool for the new generations to reach the

Essential: it is enlightenment that uses contemplation to

unveil the complex simplicity of reality.

Contemplation, reflexion, meditation: words essential to the

modern age.

Of notice are in the book the lyrics written by the young

primary and secondary school students living in Bergamo,

for their metric accuracy, but especially for the incisive

representation of the matter and its spiritual beauty.

It is thanks to Japanese poetry that the East becomes close,

familiar: suffice it to read the many tributes paid to it across

time, and to notice its growing fame, which season after

season continuously instigates an artistic confrontation

with different forms of expression: painting, sculpture,

photography, graphics, animation and music.

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The Haiku paradox is that a per-se anti-descriptive form of

expression has such a strong evocative power; it suggests

images, it transforms words into a cinematographic sequence

of detailed stills, becoming a vehement machine of emotional

creativity.

It describes reality diluting a single word into countless

meanings, into gestures. Natural phenomena, briefly

mentioned as a flutter (snow, sun, sea, wind, etc.) allude to

nature, described into its infinite splendour.

The Soul of the Haiku is a book that sums up Pino Viscusi’s

artistic experience and tells of a growing historical respect for

haiku and renku, a collaboration, verse after verse, of more

poets to the same poem.

This is a volume rich of words and images. Full of references

to artistic collaborations, emotions turned into films,

paintings, symphonies, photographic sculptures, in the world

as well as the small, provincial territory of Bergamo, thanks to

Viscusi’s dear friends: the Fara Group of Poetry, the Acropolis

of sculptor Pietro Garofalo, and the rich number of mentioned

artists who have accompanied Pino in his journey of love.

Slow down world/may life be told/by your silence.

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FIRST

PART

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Italy met the haiku for the first time thanks to the literary magazine “L’Eco della Cultura”

(founded in 1914), which published Japanese poems across several years, edited by Vincenzo

Siniscalchi.

Between 1920 and 1921 the University of Naples published a magazine entitled “Sakura”, which

focused on Japanese culture, in collaboration with Harukichi Shimoi, a Japanese literate,

friend of poet Gabriele D’Annunzio. D’Annunzio was one of the main divulgers of the “Rising

Sun” culture in Italy, a role acknowledged by Japan that even remembered him with public

celebrations in Tokyo and Kyoto for the 150th anniversary of his birth (1863).

However, till the first half of the 19th century, Italy counted a limited number of essays on

Eastern culture, if compared to other countries like France and the Anglo-Saxon world.

One of the first translations of Japanese

poetry in Italy dates back to 1915, as part of

the book “Note di Samisen” (Samisen

Notes) by Mario Chini (1876-1959). Historian

and literature professor, he was the first to

write Haiku poems, in the intimacy of his

study; poems that were published

posthumous by his wife in the book “Attimi”

in 1961. Going against tradition, Mario

Chini gave titles to his haiku, in an attempt

to underline the diverse states of mind that

had inspired his poems, such as:

Of Silence (Sabi): “All rest, in the same

inertia: / light and shadows”.

Of the Unexpected (Wabi):

“Three crickets suffice / to make great a

night / of midsummer”.

Of Nostalgia (Aware): “Dry leaf / that

lays, crying, /over a tombstone”.

Of Mystery (Yugen): “Mysterious / fai-

ries, flaunt tapestries / of bougainvillea...”.

Of Lightness (Karumi): “On flowering

branches / birds in the wind / cradle their

songs”.

Of Refinement (Hosomi): “Live oaks /

kneeling to the wind... / Eternity passes

through”.

Significant poems dedicated to haiku:

Haikai

In three verses

A whole poem, and, maybe

A whole life

Confession

I have run the world

To catch three notes

Of poetry

Courage

Don’t cry; sing

When you sing,

The sky and the heart lighten

POETRY AS TRAIT

D’UNION BETWEEN EAST AND WEST

MARIO CHINI DISCOVERS HAIKU

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During the years haiku poems have inspired many illustrators to transform the synthetic sensations of the

poets into refined drawings, rich of invention, like those of Japanese Wong Bai-Rong, fashioned in 2003

to illustrate Bashõ’s verses in the film “Fuyi No-Hi” (further analysed in the third part of this book). Here

used to illustrate haikus: “Musica Notturna” (Nocturnal Music) and “Preghiera” (Prayer) by Mario Chini

MUSICA NOTTURNA: “A guitar/ Let the evening drop / A splash...of notes”

(Illustrations by Wong Bai-Rong)

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PREGHIERA: "Let me stare / The stars with my soul... / Don’t speak”

(Illustrations by Wong Bai-Rong)

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During a conference held at the Caversazzi

Library of Bergamo in October 2010, Lella

Buzzacchi addressed this subject with

rigour, starting from the etymology of the

word haiku: “deriving from HAI (humour,

play) and KU or KAI (playing with

verses)”.

In classical haiku poems, the poet must try

to express himself in the most placid and

impersonal way, with lightness and grace,

not talking about themselves but about

simple things, events mainly linked to

Nature. To achieve this, the poet uses

Kigo, or “season words” such as bloom,

heat, yellow leaves, snow, etc.

In fact, usually, haiku writers organise their

poems over one year span, following the

succession of the seasons, always keeping

their eyes open to what surrounds them.

It is like having a parallel life, an additional

dimension that makes you see what others

do not see.

The practicing poets used to dedicate

themselves to studying haiku techniques for

decades (more than a technique it was a

way of life, like many eastern disciplines),

through meditation, exercise and the

observation of nature.

In the end, the poet should no longer

“observe” a stone but “feel” a stone.

Compared to this, the approach of Eastern

man is very different from ours.

Whilst we follow the maxima: “you man will

dominate all creatures”, Eastern civilisations

feel part of a wider coral song, involving all

creatures, living and inanimate, equally.

Haiku does not describe, does

not explain: its fragile essence is an

appearance, in which the poet must

interfere as little as possible. Intimately

linked to Zen Buddhism, it reminds of

the illumination, which should not be

contaminated by emotions; a detachment

necessary to leave space for the event,

transcribed with lightness, swiftness and

parsimony of words”.

Today, haiku are freer in their form, but

originally this poetry was very rich of rules

(many of which today remain): a haiku

should not include any idea of “action”,

nor adverbs; personal and possessive

pronouns had to be avoided; abstract

words were not expected, because haiku is

a simple poetry, of recurring words, easily

recognisable.

The first Chinese poems “Tanka” date

back to the 4th century and consisted of

five verses, the first and the third of five

syllables, the second, fourth and fifth verse

of seven syllables. This short poem reaches

Japan in the 8th century circa; it was usually

practiced by court poets and Samurai.

Towards the 12th century “Tanka” are

replaced by “Renku”, a chain composition

in which one poet writes the first verse, as a

general guide for the poem, a second poet

writes the second verse relevant to the first

one and so on, in a display of skills.

HAIKU: ORIGINAL FORM OF JAPANESE POETRY