The Art of Haiku: An Interview with bilingual haikuist Gabriel Rosenstock (Part 1)
Gabriel Rosenstock, a writer who has published over 400 books, is almost certainly the most prolific haiku writer and translator in Ireland. He writes in and translates into Irish, and also works in English as well as bilingual/multilingual formats. In more recent years he has brought his unique energy and artistry to the haiku genre in Irish and English and has been a driving force in experimentation with regard to both haiku and tanka —including the visual/audio interplay of haiga, photo-haiku etc.
A haiku is a traditional Japanese poetic form consisting of three lines with a 5–7–5 syllable pattern, in Japanese. It typically captures a moment in nature or a fleeting emotion while emphasizing simplicity, clarity, and sensory detail. The haiku genre originated in 17th-century Japan where it developed into an independent poetic form under the guidance of key poets such asBashō, Buson and Issa, each of whom helped to popularize the genre but also elevated it with a particular philosophical depth and a sensitivity to nature and the natural world. Together, these haiku poets known as haijin (literally “haiku persons” or “haiku poets” established haiku as Japan’s most enduring poetic form.
As regards children’s literature in Irish, Gabriel Rosenstock’s output is vast and has proved an exciting gateway into Irish‐language literature for younger audiences. Four recent haiku collections by Rosenstock – “Snowy Owl – Ulchabhán Sneachtúil,” “Loneliness – Uaigneas,” “Popocatépetl” and “Orang-Utan – Órang-Útan”—fill a lacuna in Irish-English haiku for older children. In these books, Rosenstock captures simple moments from everyday life – as well as bizarre moments – and the natural world with the sensory detail and precision of a master haiku poet.
Poet and translator Mícheál Ó hAodha recently caught up with Gabriel to ask him about the art of haiku and his latest work in this area:
Can you tell us a bit about yourself and how you became interested in writing haiku?
I was in UCC in the early 70s. sharing a flat with a Scottish-Australian editor and litterateur, Roderic Campbell. He had A History of Haiku by R. H. Blyth on his shelves, in four volumes. Though since slightly discredited, Blyth has some extraordinary statements to make on haiku and some beautiful examples of the genre. My interest in haiku has never waned since that first encounter. Haiku has the extraordinary ability to make memorable observations which self-renew: one can read the same haiku a year later and find something new in it, as in these samples from K. Ramesh:
daybreak
waves keep touching
the dead turtle
winter evening
the newborn calf
eyes everybody
What inspired you to write haiku specifically for older children – in this instance 12–15?
Children are extremely important. I’ve another interest – though not as a practitioner – and that’s photography. (I write an occasional column MIONLÉIRMHEAS for Tuairisc.ie which can be viewed online: https://tuairisc.ie/scribhneoiri/gabriel/)
Now, recently I wrote a mini-review on Spirits and Places (Thames and Hudson) by Roger Ballen. Ballen is an extraordinary photographer and really gets inside the mind of a child. I am worried that we try to pacify, or tame, that mind, rather than give it scope and freedom to express itself. If we truly saw and felt what was going on inside the mind of a child, it would frighten us. I fear that there is a conspiracy to silence the turmoil of a child’s mind.
All children are different, of course. Some are born with easy-going vasanas, or inner tendencies. But others are challenging, to say the least. We treat extreme tendencies as special cases and invent names for diseases or abnormalities. Why?
https://artvee.com/dl/camel-grazing-study-for-pilgrims-going-to-mecca#00
fear ag dul go Meice
(nó ag teacht as Meice?)
ar muin camaill
a man going to Mecca
(or coming from Mecca?)
on a camel
Was there anything in your own life, or in the world around you, that made you want to write these haiku when you wrote them?
My world is teeming with visions, dreams, experiences that in turn delight and inspire me. As an Anarchist, I am opposed to all the physical structures of the State, visible and invisible, which try to control my life; as an Advaitist – like the 14th century, Heinrich Suso, I say:
‘I come from Nowhere…’ ‘Tell me, what are you?’ ‘I am not.’. ‘What do you wish?’ ‘I do not wish’. ‘This is a miracle! Tell me, what is your name?’ ‘I am called Nameless Wildness’ ‘What does your insight lead into?’ ‘Into untrammelled freedom . . .’
We still look at children as adults-in-waiting. But do we ask ourselves, ‘Where have they come from?’ Look at the haiku above by K. Ramesh: winter evening / the newborn calf/ eyes everybody
(c) Mícheál Ó hAodha
Read Part 2 of this interview here.
Read more from Mícheál Ó hAodha on Writing.ie here.
Snowy Owl – Ulchabhán Sneachtúil
https://www.amazon.com/Snowy-Owl-Ulchabh%C3%A1n-Sneacht%C3%BAil-Irish/dp/1918058040/
Loneliness – Uaigneas
https://www.amazon.com/Loneliness-Uaigneas-Gabriel-Rosenstock/dp/106854080X/
Popocatépetl
https://www.amazon.com/Popocat%C3%A9petl-Gabriel-Rosenstock/dp/0893044490/
Orang-Utan – Órang-Útan
https://www.amazon.com/Orang-Utan-%C3%93rang-%C3%9Atan-Irish-Gabriel-Rosenstock/dp/1918058059/
