Seferis' Haiku about the lake

Giorgos Seferis, a pioneer of haiku in Greece, includes in his collection Sixteen haiku the famous trident with the lake and the wine:

"Drop into the lake"

just a drop of wine

/ and the sun goes down".

The characteristics of haiku in Seferis

These are epigrams of 17 syllables divided into three lines (5, 7, 5 syllables).

They are concentrated expressions of existential anguish, memory and melancholy.

The image of the lake and the smallest drop functions as a symbol for the fragility of existence and the passage of time.

George Seferis: Sixteen Haikus – The Portal for the Greek Language

Just one drop of wine falls into the lake and the sun goes out. B. In the plain there is not a single four-leaf clover; who is to blame among the three?

What does the poet want to tell us?

Seferis's particular haiku works with the technique of instantaneous image, where a minimal act causes a cosmogenic change.

 

The interpretation of the poem

The fragility of the moment: Such a small movement (a drop of wine) is enough to disrupt the absolute balance of nature and "extinguish" the light of day.

Wine as a symbol: Wine symbolizes passion, intoxication, human intervention or even decay. When this invades the purity and serenity of the lake (which reflects the sun), harmony is lost.

Subjective perception: The sun doesn't really go out. Red wine spilled on the water blurs the reflection of the sun on the lake, just as a strong emotion or memory can suddenly darken a person's mind.

The passage of time: The image also alludes to the sunset. As the red color of the sunset stains the water, it is as if someone has dripped wine into the lake and extinguished the day.

 

Greater depth

A deeper analysis of this particular haiku reveals how George Seferis transfers the traditional Japanese form to the data of Greek modernism, creating a dense network of symbolism.

1. The Mechanics of Image (Optical Deception)

On a purely realistic level, the poet describes a natural phenomenon through a metaphor. When red wine dissolves in the water of a lake, it alters the clarity of its surface. The lake acts as a mirror. If the mirror becomes cloudy or stained red, the reflection of the sun disappears for the observer. Seferis uses this optical illusion to show how A slight change in perspective or environment can overturn our entire worldview..

2. The Butterfly Effect (Chaos and Fragility)

The poem functions as an early poetic definition of what in physics we call the "butterfly effect."

The cause: A simple, almost insignificant drop of wine.

The result: The extinction of the sun, that is, absolute darkness, the death of the day.

This huge disproportion between action and consequence highlights the extreme fragility of human happiness and existential peaceA single event, a word, a thought, is enough to destroy an entire inner world.

3. Dionysian vs. Apollonian Element

In philosophy, the Sun represents the Apollonian light (logic, order, purity, harmony). Wine represents the Dionysian element (passion, instinct, intoxication, ecstasy, but also decay).

The lake is in a state of Apollonian calm.

The invasion of the Dionysian element (wine) overturns the logical order.

The result is the prevalence of darkness (the extinction of the sun), showing that Passion and emotion have the power to blind reason..

4. Syllabic Structure and Rhythm

If we isolate the syllables, we see the faithful adherence to the 5-7-5 rule, which creates an internal musicality, forcing the reader to pause where the thought "deepens":

1. Stop at the lake. (5)
2. just a drop of wine (7)
3. and the sun goes down (5)

The word "wine" at the end of the second verse functions as the transliteration (the Japanese kireji or "word-cut"), which instantly changes the direction of the poem and leads to the dark finale of the third verse.

 

Sixteen haiku of Seferis

This mite...

MARCUS AURELIUS

A

Drop into the lake

just a drop of wine

and the sun goes out.

 

B

In the plain, none

four-leaf clover;

Who is to blame out of the three?

 

3rd

In the Museum Garden

Empty chairs

the statues turned

in another museum.

 

Fourth

Let it be the voice

of our dead friends

or phonograph?

 

E'

Her fingers

in the navy scarf

look: corals.

 

VI

Thoughtful

her chest is heavy

in the mirror.

 

Seventh

I wore it again.

the foliage of the tree

You're screaming too.

 

OR

Night, the wind

the separation spreads

and it waves.

 

IX

New Squadron

Naked woman

the pomegranate that broke was

full of stars.

 

10th

Now I'm getting up.

a dead butterfly

without any pretense.

 

XI'

Where to gather?

the thousand pieces

of every person.

 

12th

Barren Line

What's wrong with the house?

The boat is going in circles.

and not a single seagull

 

13th

Sick Erinyes

He has no eyes.

the snakes he was holding

I'm eating her hands.

 

XIV

This pillar

It has a hole, you see.

Persephone?

 

Fifteenth

The world is sinking.

Hold on, he will leave you.

only in the sun.

 

XVI

You write;

the ink ran out

the sea is rising.

 

The introduction of haiku to Greece

Η introduction of haiku to Greece took place during the first quarter of the 20th century, with interest in this Japanese form gradually developing from theoretical references to its establishment by the Generation of the 30s.

The historical course of its introduction includes the following stages:

1. The First Theoretical Reports (1900–1924)

Spyridon De Viazis (1904): The first written appearance of the concept of haiku in Greek reality was through a theoretical text by De Viazis, which was published in the magazine "Iris of Athens". 2. The First Experimental Attempts (1925)

George Stavropoulos (1925): Published in the magazine "Lycabettus" six short poems with the title "Sad Verses"It was accompanied by a note introducing the species and is considered the first chronological introducer.

Nikolaos Hayer-Boufides (1925): In the same year he published "5 hai-kai" in the magazine "New Art". 3. The Establishment by George Seferis

George Seferis (1930+): Although he was not the first chronologically, Seferis is considered the substantive rapporteur of haiku in Greece.

"Sixteen Haiku": He included them in his collection "Gymnastics Notebook (1928-1937)".

His contribution: Through his literary prestige, Seferis gave impetus to the form and experimented with the 17-syllable structure (5-7-5), Hellenizing the Japanese tradition and grafting it with the modernist consciousness. 4. The Later Spread

Educational system: Haiku has now been officially introduced in Greek schools (e.g. in the Music course in the 2nd year of high school or in the Modern Greek Literature course in the 3rd year of high school) as a tool for economy of speech and creative writing.

Modern presence: Today in Greece, haiku competitions, publications of poetry collections, as well as musical settings or art exhibitions inspired by this form are systematically held.

“The most sacred manifestation of man is poetry”, wrote our great poet Constantine Cavafy. Poetry is therefore the most sacred expression of life and existence. In today's article we will deal with poetry, but in a particular form, the “exotic” Japanese poetic form Haiku (俳句).

In searching for the roots of haiku poetry, we will go back many centuries, to the land of chrysanthemums, exotic Japan. The cultural history of the Land of the Rising Sun, has to show evidence of a people gifted with a rare perception of the subtle, the good, and the gentle. The haiku in brief, and before we expand a little more on its history, is a triptych with 17 syllables (5,7,5).

This limitation (of 5-7-5 syllables) is a requirement for a haiku poem to be classified.

It first appeared in Japan in the 16th century and was adopted in Europe and America in the early 20th century.

Haiku became extremely beloved and popular with the emergence of the charismatic thinker and poet Matsuo Basho (Ueno, 1644 – Osaka 1694).

Matsuo Basho was immersed in Zen Buddhism and created the Haiku school. And as Zen teaches that “in order to be filled, you must first be empty,” this significantly influenced the background of this exquisite poetic form.

The great Japanese thinker and poet, Matsuo Basho, became the father and renewer of haiku poetry in Japan.

Born in the 16th century to a Samurai family, he became known as a wandering poet, because he traveled a lot.

For fifty years he walked, learned, studied and wrote and was considered the Japanese “Francis of Assisi.” His poems, consisting of thousands of hai-kai, are full of love for nature and respect for the fraternal meaning of life.

Basho is considered the unrivaled master of the genre. The greatest haiku artist.

His poetics influenced later poets and writers, but also ordinary people: villagers, fishermen, farmers, courtiers who began to compose verses following his example.

So great was his importance to Japanese poetry that historian and poet Gone Noguchi described his birth as "the greatest event in the history of Japan."

Basho, with his haiku, gives the reader and scholar the opportunity to compare the world of the East with that of the West.

While in the West the artistic and scientific mind is organizational, analytical and inductive, the mind of the Oriental thinker is more abstract, total and subjective.

He accepts and loves life as it is and not as he would like or should be... That is why with haiku, in just a few words, something is not simply described but rather "painted", one might say, an emotion or an image.

Let's take a look at the roots of the haiku poetic form.

Its ancestral forms are Tanka (with a meter of 31 syllables in two groups of 5-7-5 and 7-7) and Renga (a chain of Tanka).

Initially, many poets composed Tankas at celebrations and gatherings, improvising together.

The first poet created the so-called Hokku (the initial stanza of the Tanka, 5-7-5 syllables) and the second the Matsuku (the next stanza, 7-7).

From the 13th century onwards, the first documented Hokku appear as a distinct lyrical form and evolved as original, humorous or playful poems that were very popular with the Samurai and courtiers.

Gradually, however, the Hokku form evolved into what is today called classical Haiku, which was created in the 16th century, at the beginning of the Edo Period, with the now well-known and established form of seventeen syllables, into self-contained, three-line poems that were written or recited while maintaining various other rules, e.g. correct syntax of the key words of the three-line, etc.

The Haiku therefore became a self-contained, epigrammatic triptych of 5/7/5 (and sometimes of 7/5/5 or 5/5/7 syllables) that constituted a regularity and thus made it a distinct type of Japanese form that captured or described in a rich and lyrical way an image of nature (and was no longer a playful pun as was customary at the beginning of its appearance), giving information about the time of year, often through seasonal words, the so-called Kigo.

Here, let us clarify that in traditional haiku, there is essentially an attempt to capture a moment of nature that the poet observes and preserve it in eternity with a few words... However, since words are not enough to describe the entirety of such a momentary experience, the haiku poet attempts to convey what he feels or observes and then let the reader complete it with his own personal perception.

Haiku largely bears witness to the influence of Zen philosophy, as mentioned above.

The disciplined spontaneity that Zen philosophy imposes on haiku takes on another dimension and another meaning in the density of speech and gives it a shine within a lyrical reflection.

Haiku as a form of poetry bears witness to this dual nature: Of philosophical reflection with lyrical outbursts.

Haiku could be seen as a spiritual exercise, a mental and emotional challenge and "exploration" of the mind with a metered, if I may say so, poetic and lyrical mood.

The uniqueness and magic of Haiku lies in the fact that someone attempts to convey a mental and verbal contemplation by capturing all of this, with only seventeen syllables, and three lines of 5-7-5 syllables, as a philosophical, laconic, spiritual and poetic work.

It was only in the mid-20th century that Haiku began to spread in the Western world.

Initially from North America, they spread throughout the English-speaking world and later to all countries, and their subject matter is no longer focused on descriptions of nature alone.

In Greece, this genre first appeared in 1925, when G. Stavropoulos published six short poems in the magazine Lycabettus under the title “Tristicha”, accompanied by a short note introducing this new poetic genre.

Very interesting is the fact that the first appearance of Haiku in the Western World was by a Greek-Irish man, Lefkadius Cherno, who introduced (in English translation) haiku poetry to the West.

In Greece, the one who made Haiku poetry more widely known, due to prestige, but not without criticism, was our Nobel Prize-winning poet G. Seferis, who in 1940 wrote the “Sixteen Haiku” in his Gymnasmata notebook.

However, as I mentioned before, one of the first recognized attempts at composing haiku in Greece was recorded in 1925, when G. Stavropoulos published six short poems in the magazine Lycabettus under the title "Tristicha".

Other great representatives of Haiku poetry in Greek were - to name just a few - Zisimos Lorentzatos, Dimitris Antoniou, Zoe Savina, Anestis Evangelou, Argyris Chionis and others.

In modern times, haiku has even been described as the Twitter of poetry...

Of course, as I analyzed above, Haiku is a spontaneous reflection with lyrical exuberance.

From a technical point of view alone and due to its character limitation, one could then compare haiku to a twitter!

Beyond that, however, there doesn't seem to be any other connection, and perhaps this modern analogy is misguided, because haiku is not just a few words.

A haiku encompasses the capture of a moment, the fleeting emotion or emotion, which the poet attempts, within the momentary contemplation of the mind, to capture and ultimately preserve in eternity with a defined syntax, within just three lines of seventeen syllables.

Haiku poetry is constantly gaining ground, with more and more poetry collections appearing in European bookstores and on the internet. One could say that this is perhaps a result of modern aesthetic perceptions of poetry, which prefer it to be stripped of aesthetic elements and ornaments, and to be filled with condensed and rich meanings, virtues that are abundant in the simple, disciplined and laconic haiku poems.

 

 

 

Πηγές

Seferis' Haiku about the lake - Text by Dimitris Symeonidis JP

George Seferis-Poems. Ikaros Publications. Athens, 1967

poihsh-palh.blogspot.com/2021/03/blog-post_13.html

grjpn-association.gr/i-poiisi-tou-chaikou-stin-ellada/

 

 

photo suju-foto, https://pixabay.com