Haiku and Senryu: Difference Is Clear

We know that haiku is the cutest type of Japanese poetry with an thought recording the essence of a moment - a non-rhymed verse genre with seasonal theme which paints a mental image in the reader's thoughts. It contains 17 moras (not syllables, moras are Japanese sound unit), in 3 phrases or metrical units of five-7-five moras respectively. Japanese Master Masaoka Shiki (1867-1902) in 1892 named it haiku.

Haiku is written in present tense; it consists of a kigo and a kireji. Kigo (seasonal reference) indicates in which season (spring, winter, autumn or summer time.) it is set. Kireji (cutting word) divides the haiku into 2 independent components, with a particular imaginative distance among the 2 sections.

Traditionally, haiku are printed in one particular vertical line but in English, it typically seems in 3 lines. To make the cutting in English, either the very first or the second line ends generally with a colon, lengthy dash or ellipsis. Contemporary haiku contains fewer than 17 syllables and are written in one, 2, 3 and 4 lines. Haiku does not use metaphor, personification or simile; it stated basically and expresses the essence of a moment. It is left open-ended and does not inform feelings but shows it.

Haiku may perhaps be of 3 forms: Nature haiku with kigo, Human haiku (senryu- human nature, physical or psychological; or human artifacts) and Human plus nature haiku (fusion- human planet and kigo).

Senryu (river willow) is also a Japanese type of quick poetry related to haiku in building: 3 lines with 17 or fewer total moras. It tends to be about human nature and is normally pessimistic, darkly humorous or satiric. As opposed to haiku, senryu do not involve a kireji or kigo. In English, it is normally written in 3 lines of 17 syllables or significantly less. It is named just after Edo period haikai poet Senryu Karai (1718-1790) with his collection Haifuyanagidaru.

Now let us obtain out the similarities and dissimilarities of haiku and senryu:

1.0 Traditionally, each involve 17 moras (or syllables in English). Each are related in structure but tone is distinctive.

2.0 Kigo and kireji are mandatory for the haiku but not vital for the senryu.

three.0 Haiku consists of reference of nature on a really serious thought. Human nature in a humorous way is expressed in senryu.

four.0 Haiku is written in present tense without the need of metaphor or personification which may well not be followed in synryu composition.

In current days, it is generally observed that writers come to be extra interested to cut down the distance among haiku and senryu. As a outcome, we, the readers, endure from the taste, as properly as, from distinguishing the 2. Though modernizing the type or content material and avoiding grammar or meter is a form of improvement of poetry, but it hampers the beauty and fragrance thereof. Haiku and senryu should really left inside its original loveliness.

Author is a public servant, as properly as a poet of Bangladesh. He made use of to write poems in English and Bengali.