JAPANESE POETRY

Press, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 26123, 27 May 1950, Page 3

JAPANESE POETRY

[Reviewed in “The Times Literary Supplement”]

Haiku, Vol. 1. By R. H. Blyth. Kamakura Bunko, Tokyo. Senryu. Japanese Satirical Verses, translated and explained. By R. H. Blyth. Hokuseido Press, Tokyo. Songs for Children, Sung in Japan. By Yukus Uyehara. Hokuseido Press, Tokyo. It is the design of Mr Blyth, who knows the Far East in life, art and letters in a way attainable by few, to interpret “haiku” in a comprehensive work, of which the first of four volumes is published. “Haiku ” he says in his preface, “is the final flower ot all Eastern culture; it is also a way °f living.” This is rather like calling the Spenserian stanza or the Pope couplet a way of living; but Mr Blyth is not afraid to challenge us with statements in which some truth will be found on reflection even by determined dissentients.

The chief thing, however, is the poetry, for “haiku” signifies a form in which Japanese poets traditionally write. How difficult it is for Western translations to bring the voices and the associations of these short Japanese poems into our axvareness. many observers have declared. Mr Blyth’s treatise is thoughtful and his translations are truthful. If others have tried to import the “haiku" as a poetical jewellery, he is not concerned. “There is something spontaneous, effortless, something even flat about” these compositions. They accord, he concludes, with the rule of emotion remembered in tranquillity. And he illustrates them, with reservations from the Japanese point of view, by arranging several passages from English verse as “haiku.” Strange power! I trust thy might; Trust thou my constancy. Another example: The gods are happy; They turn on all sides Their shiniiig eyes. And this is his version of one of Basho’s best-known “haiku,” perhaps never to be translated into any words, but offering these experiences: The old pond: A frog jumps in,— The sound of the water. While Mr Blyth, displaying the spiritual and technical aspects of “haiku,’’ takes his place among the ablest exponents of the highest kind of Japanese writing, he has another brilliant shot in his locker. And this may be saluted with more excitement; lor we have had the best part of a century's effort to communicate the standard poetry of Japan, but in his “Senryu” he moves on to an unfamiliar subject. This volume at once stands as an original authority. Japanese humour is not well known. “It is brief." But it has a domestic give and take. It might not fail xvith the audiences of Eilly Bennett and | Will Hay. It is even missed by many ! cultured Japanese, or given a lower i rank than it occupies in Mr Blyth’s book. Examples again may show why: A love-scene; Somewhere the clatter Of a falling lemonade-bottle. “The one behind is not crowded.” Says the tram conductor, As he goes off. Mr Blyth’s books are both illustrated, but that on “Senryu” especially xvell. The artist, Sobun Taniwaki, now dead, excelled in a simple style which even suggests the primitives of Thurber. Another beautifully illustrated book is Mr Uyehara’s selection of 50 of the poems sung, and sung xvith fervour, by Japanese children. The text is given in Japanese characters, in “romaji” and in English renderings, one of which will show the place of nature and landscape in the Japanese spirit:

The sun went doxx’n with the sunset glow. And now the temple bell in the mountain rings. Let’s all go home hand in hand, Together with the homeward crows. After the little ones are gone. The big round moon comes on, And when the little birds begin to dream The sky is filled with golden stars. AH this should not be over-estimated. Neither the poetry of Basho. Buson and Issa, nor the sxveet imagery of these poets for the young, nor even the Buddhist tradition, has made the Japanese any more conscious of the rights of nature than other people. The “xvay of life" is disconnected, in fact, from the calm of the “haiku.” and the chants of the children. But all mankind stones its prophets in this regard

PIONEER OF THE AIR

“Smithy,” the story of Sir Charles Kingsford Smith. By John Stannage. Oxford University Press. 120 pp. In this book Mr Stannage, who is now station manager of 3ZB. Christchurch. has amplified a previous booklet about a very great Australian Sir Charles Kingsford Smith. As probably no one needs to be told, “Smithy,” as he was known the world over, is acknowledged as the greatest pioneer of trans-ocean flying. Mr Stannage is an unashamed hero-worshipper. "Smithy" was the greatest flyer and. better than that, the greatest man he has ever known. In an introductory note he makes no claim to an exhaustive picture of his hero; but he can claim, since he was one of “Smithy’s" closest friends and shared in some of his greatest adventures, to be able to give an authentic story of the outstanding episodes of his flying career and a penetrating estimate of the character of a very remarkable man. Mr Stannage writes xvel] and has a graphic descriptive style xvell suited to the events and persons he writes about. Good photographs illustrate the text.