reviewed
by Charles Trumbull
English
Seasonal Images: An Almanac of Haiku Season Words
Pertinent to England, by David Cobb. 2004. 120
pages. Typescript on A4 paper, spiral-bound. $30.00
(in bills only) ppd printed matter rate from the
author at Sinodun Shalford, Braintree, Essex CM7
5HN, U.K. or <dcobb@cosi.fsnet.co.uk>.
What
follows is not really a review, for what I have
in front of me is not really a bookyet. It
is, however, an bellwether development for Western
haiku. Cobbs project not only makes an important
contribution to haiku stud-ies but addresses some
key issues of English-language haiku composition.
His thoughtful attention to detail and delightful
writing style are extras.
English Seasonal Images is an English saijikialmanacin
the full sense of the word: it comprises a structured
list of season words that have poetical associations
as well as haiku that illustrate how these words
are used (many so-called saijiki are really kiyose,
or lists of season words without the sample haiku).
Cobbs many glosses of the terms are indispensible.
The collection is organized traditionally, by season,
but with a new wrinkle: instead of the Japanese
fifth season, New Years, Cobb
has winterpost-Christmas (listed
first among the seasons) and winterpre-Christmas
(last). Within seasons, the words are traditionally
arrayed, by topic: The season, The
heavens, The earth, Human
life, Observances, Animal,
Vegetable, andanother wrinklea
new catchall category called Mineral,
which grandly embraces things that are
neither animal nor vegetable. The 14-page Calendar
of Topics is followed by 76 pages of Almanac
and Ex-amples. Clearly Cobb compiled the Calendar
independently and probably before he populated the
Almanac with examples. In fact a large number of
Cobbs topics are as yet undocumented with
haiku, which makes it clear that this is a work
in progress. (Other English-language season-word
collections typically fit the topics to the haiku
at hand, a problematical practice.) Cobbs
haiku examples are all from poets living in England
(only), who are identified by county of residence.
Cobbs
project also performs an important service by showing
how season words can link contemporary haiku to
English literary and cutural traditions. In some
cases, it even seems that he is helping conserve
endangered aspects of English lore. Two examples
of Cobbs explanations illustrate these points:
mist
and fog [autumn; the season] Thanks to Keatss
Ode to Autumn (season of mists
) many will
associate mist and fog with autumn, but it isnt
conclusively so unless something else in the context
assists.
(63)
bowls,
bowling green [summer; human life] Surely the
epitome of leisure and taking ones time
and ease, as exemplified by the favourite English
myth that Sir Francis Drake would not cut short
his game of bowls to tackle the Armada. (50)
Cobb
wrestles with the issue of all-season words
and no-season words, and concludes only
that in a haiku almanac the former are more easily
dealt with than the latter. In some instances he
frees up words that are seasonal in the Japanese
understandingfog and duck
are two examplesreasoning, There are
numerous phenomena (particularly of weather, which
in England is so unpredictable and liable to happen
almost any time of year, even snow in midsummer!)
which we may call all-season (78).
It is refreshing for us English-language poets to
be thus liberated from the shackles of Japanese
kigo, but by opening a door in this direction we
may be inviting parochialism into our haiku language.
On this issue, William J. Higginson, in his Haiku
World: An International Poetry Almanac (Kodansha
International, 1996) generally comes down of the
side of retaining the Japanese understanding of
sea-sonal topics and words for Western haiku (see,
for example, his discussion of the fine points of
haze, mist, and fog
on pages 19095).
The
poverty of the keyword concept that
seems to be gaining currency in certain quarters
is not ignored by Cobb:
Its
tempting to take advantage of the dispensation permitting
the use of key-words or phrases with
no-seasonal reference as a replacement
for strict kigo, but so far the rationale that underpins
keywords is little understood (if at
all) in the West and Im not sure it isnt
an abdication of responsibility, a sop to the unready.
Also, once the almanac is opened to keywordsas
we can see from this present compilationso
many phrases lay claim to inclusion that one runs
the risk of vapid proliferation. (99)
Indeed,
but Cobb himself is sometimes seduced by the keyword
sirens. It is diffcult to imagine how concepts such
as sleep, television, or
shadow, which are not even proper images,
can contribute much to an almanac of seasonal understandings.
Cobbs
own vastly understated conclusion may be a fitting
wrapup to the present nonreview:
But
perhaps, after all, this projects only value
will be, not for English readers of English haiku,
but for distant readers, mainly in America and Japan,
who want a slightly clearer understanding of the
things our haiku are talking about.
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