Sunday, February 19, 2012

More on Onomatopoeia



I enjoyed my first haiku meet at Pacific Asia Museum yesterday.  Thank you、 Deborah and Kathabela for inviting me.  At the meeting, one haiku made me giggle.  I received his permission to blog about his haiku.   Here it is.


In the winter fog
a cuckoo cries
wrong kigo, wrong kigo

by Amir Sapir


The last line sounded so funny looking at his mischievous smile.  Because I blogged about onomatopoeia before, I wanted to blog about it, but this morning I found one problem.  I think I didn't pay attention to the first line yesterday.  The last two lines still make sense and they are funny, but the first line has a correct kigo, winter.   So if the haiku didn't have "winter" in it, it works.  Only one kigo is needed, and I've never heard of haiku with two kigo.   Two is too much.  Zero kigo is not haiku, but I guess in American haiku, they allow no kigo.  That’s easier to choose words, so I wrote one with kigo yesterday, and the other last Friday, without kigo.


first haiku meeting
mother’s red-bean colored kimono coat
february sun


friday afternoon
a bus ride to my poetry meeting
noises rise to screams


I just loved the way Amir pronounced the last line of his winter haiku.  I wanted to see his spelling because it sounded like "kegle," like kegle exercise   He is from Israel and his native language is Hebrew, so when he recited the last line, it was a new music to my ear.  The sound was fresh and humorous.  It certainly made my day.   It's always something when people meet.  





6 comments:

ZACL said...

The sounds of a language spoken with different accents, emphases and in a range of timbres can be fascinating.

keiko amano said...

ZACL,

That's very true. I almost wrote "quite true," but I heard British think that not the same as very true.

Anyway, in my local writers group, we have a British person, and I love the way she pronounces dance. It really sounds like dancing!

Rebb said...

Well, Keiko, there I go seeing hearts again. The White flower looks like a heart to me. A Lilly?

Keiko, what's a kigo? I know it's probably obvious, but I'm not sure yet.

I like your haiku.

Rebb said...

Keiko, I got it-- kigo is season. I should have looked it up first not after and now when I read your blog again, I just didn't pick it up.

:)

keiko amano said...

Rebb,

I didn't think of heart shape when I took the photos, but you are right. When we want to, we look for it. So, first, we need to want to look for it?! That must be the law of seeing.

It's funny you asked about kigo. I was thinking if I should write about it because someone on FB is curious about it. But I'm not an expert in haiku, so I should be more careful in putting into words for what I say about it. After all, I've wrotten only two American haiku so far.

keiko amano said...

Rebb,

The flower is calla lily. This flower lasts long time.