 |
| https://shashin-haiku.org [added purple text] |
Some people begin with their text and then seek a photo that relates somehow to the verbal "snapshot," either closely fitting the haiku, or more loosely associated with the feelings carried in the words. Others will see something that catches their eye for some reason and then later they come up with a phrase or set of words that go with the photo.
The website declares that the rule is "no rules." That is to say, what fits together well need not be confined by tightly written rules about what to include in words or photos; what to exclude; what is required and what is optional. Movie directors and novelists point out that showing the audience the meaning can often be more powerful than using words spoken by characters, omniscient narrator, or analysis from an expert who supplies explanatory footnotes. In the case of Photo Haiku, then, a reader/viewer should sense some poetic light or composition or frozen moment in the picture, even without the aid of text. And then by reading the words, the same reader/viewer sharpens the focus of his or her visual feelings with added verbal clarity.
The website goes on to quote a Buddhist proverb (fusoku, furi: 不即不離) glossed as "neither attached, nor independent" to show the relationship of photo and haiku. Each is self-contained, but also has some bearing on the way the other is understood. Co-existing and in full acknowledgement of the other; that is another way to see this proverb and the way that photo and haiku sit side by side on the screen (or in print).
Expressing the interplay of picture and words, the website says that the Photo-haiku produces an effect that words alone or photo-only cannot make. Put another way, there is synergy when a reader/viewer perceives something from both the visual and verbal channels of perception. Some start by engaging with the photo to identify the subject and its significance based on their own stock of life experiences, places known, and events they recognize. Others may be drawn to the verbal composition being presented before looking carefully and closely at the photo; not as eye-candy or background decoration, but as a voice of its own with something to say. If the synergy is not kindled right away, then sometime later the two voices of words and photo may mingle in the person's mind to form something bigger than just words or just photo by itself.
From an artistic point of view there is a difference between haiku that uses description to pull what is visible (or implied) from the photo into the verbal moment, on the one hand, and haiku that uses a collage effect by layering word images on top of each other (not narrative, but composited), on the other hand. In the first style the picture and text have a close dialog, but in the second style the correspondence is much looser or possibly something like melody versus counter-melody so that one interplays with the other.
Another dimension of making photo-haiku is the learning curve that the person follows from rigid patterns (like counting syllables in English, rather than the duration of beats) to a more mature mastery of the sounds and images that is less constrained or forced. For example, a beginner is most likely to confine the text to 5-7-5 in three lines for English or 1 line in Japanese rather than to experiment with other configurations that, however, remain true to the haiku essence of keenly noticing or feeling such things as time's passage, the rare opportunity or impression, or a pang of mortality among living things, human or otherwise. During the time that one is starting out and the imagination for possibilities is still relatively narrow, then the words that first come to mind could often be descriptive ones pulled from the picture itself, rather than distilled from one's own emphasis in the reaction to the photo elements captured. Rather than soaring above or plunging deep within, it seems best to stick to the things visible in the photo. One sees the splash rather than the ripples that undulate afterward.
But advanced poets of the photo haiku gain familiarity with "pivot words" so that what appears at the end of one line (or phrase-image) reads one way in that instance, but immediately upon reading the next line, it seems to double its impact by fitting into the next line in a different sense or emphasis at the same time. In other words, the reader/viewer gets one meaning while savoring one line but when continuing to the next line suddenly turns that pivot word into a different meaning that puts the next line in a new light. Another sign of growing maturity is to carefully choose verbs that carry unexpected or useful connotations: they function on the surface level, but at the same time suggest additional impressions, too. For example, "waves murmur on the beach" is slightly different to "waves lap the beach" because 'murmur' has more of the onomatopoeia (repeating) dimension than 'lap' does. And murmur can poetically describe human communication as well as non-human sources of (musical) sound. Furthermore, season or place-specific words can carry a lot of extra meaning, beyond the denotative significance, too. Saying 'January' conjures different images and memories than 'winter', while 'blazing' is more vivid than 'hot'. Perhaps above all, it is the core themes of the haiku eye on the world that distinguishes a technically correct (photo)haiku from something that grips the reader/viewer and momentarily transports the person to the setting that originally produced the photo-haiku. Dominant facets of Japanese awareness of self and surroundings include the ephemeral (cherry blossoms; youthful moments; first snow) and fragile, the juxtaposition of change to unchanging (waves hitting cliff), pathos of brief life deeply lived (mono-no-aware, 物の哀れ), utter unpretentiousness (wabi/sabi, 侘び/寂び), and the sweet realization of a rare chance or experience (ichigo ichie, 一期一会). As one develops a taste for these deep and long-treasured themes, they may figure into photo haiku more and more.
In summary, whether the text comes first (in search of one or more possible photos, or video 'snapshot') or it is the photo that first stirs the poetic imagination, by putting them together the reader/viewer experience grows richer. Visual learners will take an interest, but so will the verbally-dominant lovers of poetry. The more that one sees photo-haiku or makes them, the more that the intense feelings and observations can be conveyed in a beautiful and effortless way so that the poet's mind also touches the reader/viewer in something of a likewise manner.
Comments
Post a Comment