SJG photo-workshop and haiku information

by aleks

Photo: Ray Pfortner

•  Spring photo-workshop at the SJG with Ray Pfortner is coming soon - April 26/27 and May 10/11 - with a show in TCR in the fall.  Registration started  March 12 at cheryl.brown@seattle.gov. Don't miss it, if you are interested - this 4-session class is a dream-come-true for all SJG photographers.
Cost: $200 with a $20 materials fee.  Instructor: Ray Pfortner | RayPfortner.com
Link to full flyer here.

• The SJG 2013 new Docent Training is winding down and almost finished (Day 5 - the last, is this wednesday).  One of the things cut off from the training due to the time constrains was haiku instruction, so the students will have to tackle that on their own. To make it easier on them here is  'Haiku and haiga resources' page, with a list of useful links in google docs (anybody with link can go there, no registration required).

• Our esteemed late guide, Jesse Hiraoka explained once that it’s up to the reader to interpret haiku, depending on one’s perspective, experience and understanding of the world; the 5 different translations of the same 'spring haiku' by Matsuo Basho below are examples of this concept.

春なれや名もなき山の薄霞

Haru nare ya / na mo naki yama no / usugasumi
Matsuo Basho (1644-93)

• • •

Spring - through 


morning mist 


what mountains there?

Translated by Lucien Stryck

• • •

it’s spring now, yes spring!

above the nameless mountains

a faint haze and mist

Translated by Dr. Tim Chilcott

• • •

Yes, spring has come 


This morning a nameless hill 


Is shrouded in mist.

Translated by R.H.Blyth

• • •

Spring:

A hill without a name

Veiled in morning mist.

Translated by Geoffrey Bownas And Anthony Thwaite

• • •

Spring morning marvel 


lovely nameless little hill 


on a sea of mist

Translated by Peter Beilenson

 As if to help you, new guides, and for enjoyment to all: Seattle Public Library is celebrating National Poetry Month in April by sharing 30 winning haikus from  the library readers - to read them all, go the library website;  also, the SPL main page, www.spl.org,  opens each day with a different haiku... 

Here is the beginning of the Seattle Times 4/8/13 article It’s haiku heaven at Seattle Public Library:  Seatttleites love their libraries. They check out literally millions of items — 11.5 million books, movies, DVDs and CDs (both hard copy and digital) in 2012 alone. They flock to author readings, queue up for story times, register for how-to and self-improvement sessions. They raise their own taxes to keep the libraries open, in an era when many cities are hammering plywood over library doors.  And they even write poetry to the library. [...]   For the rest of the article go here.... 

(The article's last sentences, about syllable count, promotes very common misconception of haiku in English, but I'll let it rest here, see the haiku above: some of them do, and some don't observe 5/7/5 formula. Hint: unlike Japanese, the English language has many one-syllable words, so it's easy to over-talk haiku; try the shortest version of your poem instead.)

SJG • 4/4/13 - Rain on the Turtle Island, seen through weeping willow branches