Traditional linked poetry (連歌renga) is a Japanese verse form usually written by a group of poets. Though not as well known as haiku (俳句), haiku itself originated in renga writing practices, being written as possible opening verses for renga writing sessions. It is helpful to know that out of serious linked poetry, with high literary aspirations, there emerged a more popular form called satirical or non-standard linked poetry (俳諧の連歌). Modern linked verse (連句renku) takes even more liberties with the form, including short sequences of 12 or 20 verses, and becoming more stylistically open in terms of tone and poetic lexicon.
Writing linked verses has always been a social occasion as well as an opportunity to engage a literary tradition centered around waka (和歌). Depending on the host who selects the format and rules, judges and even edits the verses during and after the writing session, the poetry can vary from dry and formal to buoyant and risqué. Participants may range in number from one—solo renga (where the social element exists in a Bakhtinian sense of implied dialogic others)—to as many as are allowed in a given session. Even a basic understanding of the principles of writing renku and rules can be tedious to learn. Knowledge of season words is necessary, though the specifics are flexible (especially in non-Japanese verse). In our writing sessions we discovered some Japanese seasonal associations did not correspond with Chinese or English ones.
Verses written in English have lacked both a mature matrix of poetic associations developed in Japanese traditional verse and also the opportunity to write against this tradition as such. English imitations of Japanese verse forms often tend toward the naïve, sentimental and mundane. It is not because these verse forms are inherently confined to smiling happy reflections on the everyday; it is due to stereotypes about the nature of Japanese verse—depicted since the 1950s in haiku handbooks as simple verses reflecting a Zen (Buddhist) moment, which gave license to confused, ahistorical absorption in details as profoundly other and beyond explanation in words. That said, the haiku tradition developing in the English-speaking world today, even with its Orientalist misreadings of Japanese poetry, at times shows signs of beginning to mature into a form capable of manipulating words so as to evoke matrices of associations similar to those found in Japanese, as well as tapping Anglophone modes of literary production. This bodes well for anyone trying to write Japanese forms in English, for the audience will be increasingly prepared for the variant modes of expression found in this intertextually rich poetry of allusion.
In leading this session with two students in an experimental creative writing class, I encouraged distant links between verses (to avoid being too literal) and tried to mix in an undercurrent of implied love topics, if only to assert a variant reading of the form, which like other Japanese forms in English, has been pegged “nature poetry.” For me, the forte in Japanese poetry is its nuanced love poetry, which derives from the sense of love cycles depicted in Heian (平安) court poetry and narratives (物語). Emphasis on the seasons and love in renga derives from the predominance of these themes in the seminal first imperial waka collection, the Kokinwakashū (古今和歌集905). Reading this collection and later ones can give potential renku writers a sense of the poetic tradition from which it hails, and something to parody and write against.
The primary structural element distinguishing linked poetry is simple: every given pair of verses should offer some possible illusion of continuity, but every third one following this pair should break away clearly from the first verse of the three. The renku tumbles forward in this globally disjointed, but locally connected manner. It is important to note that its very structuring inhibits narration. Narrative elements are to be encouraged only in isolated details found in a single verse or a pairing, and not over the course of the 36 (or 100) verses of a typical sequence.
Readers interested in how to order a sequence may readily find examples and templates online, along with bilingual Japanese-English season word lexicons. The main idea in ordering the sequence is to vary the appearance of a handful of verses on a given season (in no particular order of the seasons) and to have some non-season-specific verses appear between the season-specific ones. The appearance of strings of verses on love is also important, and certain places for the moon, flowers and so forth may also be included. An important rule to keep in mind, especially in shorter sequences, is that one should avoid repeating words and images.
I hope readers may enjoy our experiment in linked poetry and be inspired to gather some friends and write your own verses in any language you like. As it is a first attempt for us as a group, we beg your kindness.
Bao De-le (Dean Brink), July 2, 2008, Hualien
[Appeared in Frogpond 33.1]
36 Verses
bd – Bao De-le
cc – Charles Chang
ck – Claire Ku
1
winter
Bao De-le
The withering wind2
brings down the leaves—your fingers
touch my brow and eyes
winter
Charles Chang
Plum blossoms—the only tracks3
floating away on the ice
winter
Claire Ku
The last snow4
did not cover the lost shoe
of the fisherman’s son
winter
cc
A north wind blows nets up high5
stars fade away in the winter night
non-seasonal
bd
Approaching the gate6
your Pekinese barking,
father’s light goes on
non-seasonal
ck
Streamlight Stinger searching darkness,7
The daffodil shadows grew still
moon/autumn
cc
Retiring diva8
Luna removes her makeup
little by little
autumn
bd
Out of the fog for how long9
overhead—migrating birds
autumn
ck
Stepping off the train10
heads down, a chilly wind blows
their coats open
autumn
cc
Quails sneaking behind the bush11
are still swallowed by sunshine
autumn
bd
Chilled to the bone12
I peddled twice as far
as we’d gone long ago
love
ck
Fresh footprints in the mud13
I follow your path alone
love
cc
Halfway through the woods,14
beside the singing creek
nothing but your shoes
love
bd
Forgetting our breakfast date15
my phone stops ringing at lunchtime
non-seasonal
ck
Chirping birds drown out16
the call to board the last train—
a lost traveler
non-seasonal
cc
Under the only light17
the homeless start to gather
New Year
bd
On a hill deep in18
the forest preserve, we look
out on the first sunrise
New Year
ck
Lighting firecrackers in blowfish19
washed ashore, the rich boys run
non-seasonal
cc
Chromatic20
toxic clouds follow instep
with homo sapiens
non-seasonal
bd
At the edge of the forest21
mother still rings the bell
Spring
ck
Deep-fried baby trout,22
pickled radish, cheap sake
for father and friends
Spring
cc
Under cherry trees, the East wind23
comes along, blows off blossoms
Spring
bd
While we ate fiddleheads24
at the dive facing the waves—
an old couple sang
Spring
ck
The drunken sailor whirling25
his red scarf—the tranquil night
Spring
Cc
Maiko walk away26
from the okuya, kimono
sweep the stink away
non-seasonal
bd
Bamboo block the view from the bridge27
where we once took Polaroids
non-seasonal
ck
Crossing the dried riverbed28
the tea-picking lady
goes into the hills
love
cc
Doves fly off in the downpour—29
the wood shivers in the wind
love
bd
Our umbrella torn,30
North Shore so far—and you say
you love rainy days
love
ck
Soggy socks under my chair,31
you go smoke in the bathroom
non-seasonal
cc
The old clock stopped—32
I count the minutes alone
the day you went away
non-seasonal
bd
In short-sleeved shirts again33
our arms brushed as we walked
Summer
ck
Last time at your house34
new tea steaming between us
we drank in silence
Summer
cc
Greeting the flying fish,35
coconut palms wave from shore
Summer
bd
Boys in uniform36
corner an eel in the canal—
hold it overhead
non-seasonal
ck
Bended wing hanging loose,
a waterfowl soars upward
