The bulk of what follows comes from Chapter 18 of R.H. Blyth’s “Japanese Life and Character in Senryu,” though these excerpts may also be found in the posthumous best-of Blyth, “The Genius of Haiku.” (A book with a title that has a double-meaning.) The opening is from Blyth’s introduction to “Japanese Life.”
The fundamental thing in the Japanese character is a peculiar combination of poetry and humour, using both words in a wide and profound yet specific sense. ‘Poetry’ means the ability to see, to know by intuition what is interesting, what is really valuable in things and persons. More exactly, it is the creating of interest, of value. ‘Humour’ means joyful, unsentimental pathos that arises from the paradox inherent in the nature of things. Poetry and humour are thus very close; we may say that they are two different aspects of the same thing; Poetry is satori; it is seeing all things as good. Humour is laughing at all things; in Buddhist parlance, seeing that ‘all things are empty in their self-nature’, and rejoicing in this truth.
On p. 209 of the same book Blyth says:
Haiku have little to do with science or philosophy or psychology. They are unaffected by the theories and discoveries of Darwin and Plato and Freud. Senryu, however, are apparently factual, have a certain philosophy of life in them, and as for psychology, senryu, like Cassius, ‘look quite through the deeds of men’. Nevertheless, senryu are not mere records of psychological situations and comical analyses of human weakness. They are of course full of psychology, but with something which transcends while including it. A really good senryu has what is called in Japanese literary criticism ‘after-taste’, atoaji, what remains, to change the metaphor, echoing in the mind ‘long after it is heard no more.’
The point of all this is that what is really good in it is not the psychology which it is full of, but the poetry, which comes and goes in some mysterious but indubitable way.
Oshienai koto o shitteru teinoji
The weak-minded child;
He knows
What he was not taught. — Hydraku
This is true, and equally true, of all of us. What we really know is what we have picked out of our experience…
Now to chapter 18:
Rather than give a solemn and unhumorous account of the origins and nature of humour, it may be better to illustrate the various kinds of humour in senryu…– grim humour, tragic humour, irony, linguistic humour, kindly humour, Shakespearean humour, humour of exposed pretence, humour of indirectness, humour of stupidity, and parody.
.
Grim Humor
Suppari to .naorimashita to .lulna ga ochi
Quite recovered,
But his nose
Has fallen off.
In this sort of senryu. the humour needs to be strong enough to prevent the verse from falling into cruelty, and the reader of course must play his part in this. In the next example, it is the sentiment which must not be allowed to dominate the verse. Grimness must be added to prevent the pathos from killing the humour:
Ima suteru .ko ni ariatake no …chi o nomase
Going to desert her child,
She gives it
All the milk she has.
The mother is going to leave her baby to be picked up by someone, and will never see it again. She is deserting it, leaving it to its fate, but gives it all the milk she has in her body. There is a contradiction here which belongs to every region of human life…
Nyobo e .muketa shisen e .teishu muki
Against the eyes upon his wife
The husband turns
His eyes.
Someone is staring at his wife, and the husband glares at the man to show him who he is. The point lies in the force of will, instead of physical strength, which is exerted one against the other.
.
Tragic Humour
The following senryu is a particularly fine example of tragedy and humour united.
Yoshiwara e .muite .Ueno de kubi o tsuri
He hanged himself
At Ueno,
Facing the Yoshiwara.
The violence of tragicomedy here is Hogarthian. To commit suicide is a terrible and ghastly thing. But to do it because of some wretched prostitute is a kind of parody. But the parody also disinfects the scene of all falsity eternal love, and other sentimentality. We see a human being stripped bare of all but his painful life and solitary death. There is also another element, seen in the place, Ueno, of exhibitionism, a quality of which the greatest men are not free.
.
Irony
ltoko nimo .shiro yo kuru to .tabi no rusu
He may be her cousin, of course,
But he comes very often
When the master’s away on a journey.
…It is very hard to make a tactful reply to this remark.
Unconscious irony is a favourite form of humour with senryu writers, for we get the pleasure of contrast in both the irony itself and in the obliviousness of the person concerned:
Yoku shimete . nero to ii-ii .nusuni ni de
‘Shut up the house carefully
Before you go to bed,’
He repeats, going off to burgle.
The point of this senryu lies in the sublime unconsciousness of the thief that he is one. He is a private citizen as far as his own house is concerned. Sometimes it is the irony of fate that senryu displays to us.
Horerareta .koto ato de shiru .gojunen
Knowing she was
Mad on me
Fifty years afterwards. — Kenkabô
The impotence of man with regard to time is keenly felt here. Being told, or suddenly realizing, that a certain person is in love with us is a great pleasure and source of satisfaction, but to do so fifty years after the event brings mixed feelings and a kind of melancholy, mild cynicism which belongs especially to senryu.
Kanemochi o .mikubitte yuku .hatsu-gatsuo
The first bonito;
It passes by,
Despising the rich.
In all times and places the poor have thought more of their stomachs. The rich are rich because they have loved money and power more than the pleasure of the moment. But the senryu writer has perceived this sociological fact poetically. The bonitos go swinging by in the baskets hanging from the shoulder-pole, and their eyes seem to disdain the rich people who want to taste them but will not pay the money.
Mamagoto no .sembei chisaku chisaku .wari
She divides up the wafer
For those playing at housekeeping,
Ever so, ever so small. — Monsen
This shows the inherent meanness of mankind, and of women especially, that the little girl, who takes the part of the mother of the house, should divide up the biscuit into such tiny pieces.
Oriru toki .seki o yuzutta jinkakusha
What a beautiful character!
He gives up his seat to someone,
When he gets off. — Ryusei
The car is full, and in front of him there stands, for quite a time, a woman with a baby. Suddenly, he stands up and in a very gentlemanly way offers her his seat, graciously receiving the profuse thanks, but he is getting out! So many senryu deal with just those things which intellectual polite society does not admit. This has been pointed out by Aldous Huxley, but too cynically and misanthropically. Senryu deals with such matters more lightly.
Ryoho ni .hige no haeteru .neko no .koi
Both of them
With whiskers,
Loves of the cats.
It is very odd, when one thinks of it, that both the cat shave whiskers. It makes the whole affair seem homosexual. And yet the word ‘heterosexual’, which we must apply to human beings, does not sound any too good either.
.
Linguistic Humour
Koku o .tsukami sorikaeri .nagai hi da
Gripping the empty air,
He throws back his head,
‘What an interminable day!’
The chief merit of this verse is the first two lines, which well express the attitude of a man yawning. The first line illustrates one of the special characteristics of senryu, a figurative description of ordinary actions, but taking these descriptions literally. Another example:
Muko-erbai .suru uchi yanagi .usu ni nari
While her partner in life
Is being chosen,
The willow tree becomes a mortar.
As a woman becomes older she gets broad in the beam. What is interesting is the way in which the girth registers the years, just like the rings of a tree.
Sui musuko .karai oyaji ni .amai haha
Sour son,
Peppery father,
Sweet mother.
These epithets are clever and true to life, that is, Japanese life.
Asagao wa .asane no hito ni .shigamitsura
To the late riser,
The morning-glory
Makes a wry face.
The asagao is literally the ‘morning-face’. By the time the lie-abed has arisen, the flowers are wilting, and present a fading, wrinkled, scornful, reproving face.
.
Kindly Humour
There is a certain amiable, benevolent humour in senryu, which is nevertheless not allowed to fall into kindness. It has no malice, but a certain tolerant contempt mingled with its affection. For example:
Hanani sa to .gejo Karisha de .te o migaki
‘We’re going cherry-blossom viewing!’
Replies the servant,
Scrubbing her bands with pumice.
There is a discord here between the servant’s great dirty hands, and the delicate pink blossoms, but also there is some secret harmony between them and her spirit. This is also what we feel in Katherine Mansfield’s “At the Bay,” when the servant goes out for the day. Theoretically, a person with big red chapped hands should not be able to enjoy the delicate beauty of the cherry blossoms, but… There is always a ‘but’. Perhaps the ‘but’ is the poetry.
Berabô ni .umai to homeru .zatsu na kyaku
Thundering good!’
Praises
The uncouth visitor.
This senryu is very delicate. It points to the state of mind of a man who is praised for something or other by a visitor who is at the same time so rough and ready that the praise seems almost cancelled by the rude manner in which it is expressed. Berabô means a blockhead, and berabô ni, awfully, exceedingly. It is as if one should say to a parson, ‘Hellishly good!’ or smack a very dignified gentleman on the back.
Kuru hito wo. mushi ga shirasuru .kusa no io
The insects tell
That someone is coming:
The grassy hut.
This senryu de-poeticises the poetic life. The insects that serenade the hermit and afford him a subject for his poetical effusions, are also a sort of buzzer in reverse, announcing visitors and others by their sudden silence…
Waga seku ga .kubeki yoi nari .shichi o oki
It is the evening
My beloved should come,
Having pawned something.
This is based on a tanka in the Kokinshu by “Sotori Hime” who was the mistress of the Emperor:
Wago seko ga .kubeci yoi nari .sasagani no
launo no furunai .kanete shirushi mo
It is an evening
My beloved should come,
For the spider
Has been at its work,
Foretelling this.
It was believed that a spider making its web in the evening was a sign of the coming of one’s love. In the senryu the woman is of course a courtesan, and her lover must pawn something to get some money for her.
Tsurenu yatsu .biku o nozoku to .kakusu nari
Having caught nothing,
He hides the creel,
When someone wants to peep in.
Either to hide the fish basket, or smile a sheepish, fishy smile, — is there any other alternative?
.
Shakespearean Humour
The humour of Shakespeare is a peculiar combination of all kinds of qualities; wit, brevity, indirectness, humanity, forgiveness, understanding, inevitability. It is seen most vividly and significantly in Falstaff, and here is a senryu that he would have enjoyed.
Attesae .iwanya goke ni .oite oya
Sometimes when it’s a wife,
How much more so
In the case of a widow!
Even a wife may slip from the path of virtue. For a widow it is easier and more understandable.
.
Humour of Exposed Pretence
There is a universal desire to explode the bubbles, to break through the camouflage, to tear off the masks by which human beings hide their true selves. The odd thing is that the more we try to prevent others from knowing our self, the more we reveal, for in life as in art, to hide is to show.
Unubore o .yameraba loka ni . hore-te nashi
When he stops
Being in love with himself,
Who will love him?
This senryu does not imply that self-love prevents others from loving him, but that, as the comic song says, ‘Everybody’s loved by some-oooone’, at least by himself. But this is just why be fancies himself. Good, true, and beautiful people are admired, so there is no need for them to love themselves. In other words, there is no virtue whatever in humility or altruism or selflessness. Somebody must love us; it is only a question who, other people or ourselves. This is the profound philosophy of senryu, that goes beyond Thomas Aquinas or Nagarjuna.
Daimyaku .kotaete shisei wa .ten ni ari
The Assistant Doctor replies,
‘Life and death
Depend on the Will of Heaven.’
The Assistant parrots the words of Confucius, just as be reels off the words of the Chinese book of medicine, Pentsao Kangmu, by Li Shi-chen, 1S78:
Honzo no .tori daimyacu .shaberu nari
The Assistant Doctor
Chatters
According to the Materia Medica.
Aisatsu ga .sumu to tsumetai .me ni kaeri
After the greetings are over,
He becomes
Cold-eyed again. — Tokan
This verse reminds us how much stronger manners are than morality.
Oshakasama .umareochiru to .miso o age
When Buddha was born
He immediately
Blew his own trumpet.
It is said that Sakyamuni cried, on being born, ‘Above and below the heavens, I only am the Holy One’. This singing his own praises seems out of keeping with the Buddhist virtue of humility.
.
Humour of Indirectness
Mere indirectness has something comical in it. The reason for this must be in the revelation of the disparity of cause and effect, ideal and real, silence and speech.
Shikarazu ni .tonari no yome o .honete oki
Not a word of blame, —
But praising
The bride next door.
Praise is always blame of someone else, or the same person some other time, and obviously so when a mother-in-law praises another bride. Another example, more acid:
Towa shirazu .sazo rusuchi wa .osewasama
Knowing nothing about it
‘Many thanks for your kindness
While I was away.’
‘It’ means the relation between the man he is thanking and his own wife. The obliquity and obscurity of the verse represents life flowing on, regardless of those details which at times seem so important.
.
The Humour of Stupidity
Much laughter is caused by, or reveals, a sense of superiority over the folly or weakness of others; for example:
Naidan no .hibachi jutari de .ijiri-keshi
In a tete-a-tete over the brazier,
They both fidgeted with the fire,
And put it out.
Two people, engrossed in private talk, keep playing with the coals without thinking of what they are doing, and it goes out. We have also a contrast here between the lofty concentration, on something else, of the two human beings; and the independence of things, which will not allow themselves to be mistreated or abused, but will rather go out of existence than be treated with indignity.
Yubi sashite .zato ni oshie .warawareru
Pointing the way
To a blind shampooer,
Gets us laughed at.
This does not seem to be very amusing, until we see a man bowing and gesticulating at the telephone.
Tsuru yatsu mo .tsuru yatsu mini .yatsu mo yatsu
The creatures angling!
The creatures looking at the creatures angling!
What creatures they are!
This is amusing in the original from its fourfold repetition of yatsu, ‘chap’ or ‘fellow’. It gives one a feeling of the ‘many-headed multitudes’, so small in the head.
Echigo-ya ga .mieso mono to .Fuji de ii
‘Echigoya should be visible
From here, surely,’
They say from Mount Fuji.
Echigoya was the name of the most famous draper’s shop in Edo. Mount Fuji could be seen easily from here and the mountain and the shop stood in a certain peculiar relation of richness and grandeur to the people of Edo. Some people climbed up the mountain and expected to see Fchigoya from there, because Mount Fuji was visible from Echigoya, and they were incredulous when they found it impossible to place it…
Mizu o yobu .sanyaku oshi .no yo ni ii
The medicine powder;
Calling for water
As if he were dumb. — Dokoshimbô
A man puts the powder in his mouth, and then thinks of the water. He calls for it in dumb show. Besides the humour of this, or through it, we feel the pathos of human nature, so upset by a little powder in the mouth.
.
Parody
Korobazuba .okina no yukimi .hate ga nashi
If the old chap
Does not tumble down
There’s no end to his snow-viewing.
This is a very good example of senryu as parody, taking literally the poetical hyperbole of Bashô’s well-known verse in which he expresses his love of the beauty of the snow and snow-scenery.
Iza saraba .yukimi ni korobu .tokoro made
Now then!
Let’s go snow-viewing
Till we tumble down!
Waga mono to .omoeba karushi ô-zutsumi
When I think it is mine, —
How light it is,
This big parcel — Suigetsubô
This comes from the well-known haiku of Kikaku, which is itself practically a senryu:
Waga mono to .omoeba karushi .kasa no yuki
When I think it is mine,
How light it is,
The snow on my kasa
Suigetsubô’s verse asserts the psychological principle of self-interest, as it affects our judgement and effusion of vital energy. But the historical association and historical flavour give it some slight poetical value.
Shojiki no .kobe jugatsu .karu nari
The head of the honest man
Becomes light
In [November].
November is also called Kannazuki,’the God-absent month’, for in that month the gods all over Japan gathered at lzumo to discuss what had occurred during the past year, and what would happen in the coming year. There is also a Japanese proverb:
God lodges in an honest man’s head.
The senryu has combined these two ideas. The honest man’s head is always heavy except in [November]. We should note the extraordinary ingeniousness of this verse, and its cynicism, which will allow no proverb or custom or superstition to pass unscathed.
Zashiki-rô . yume wa kuruwa o .kake-meguri
House-imprisoned,
My dreams hover
Over a prostitute quarter.
This is a blasphemous and excellent parody of Bashô’s death-verse:
Tabi ni yande .yume wa kareno o .kake-meguru
Ill on a journey,
My dreams hover
Over a withered moor.
Araumi ya .yami o kite neru .gakuya-mono
The green-room men
Sleep, covering themselves
With the raging sea and the darkness.
On the Kabuki stage night is shown by a black curtain hanging from the ceiling. The sea is represented by a blue cloth plaited here and there, on the floor. Araumi ya is probably taken from Bashô’s famous haiku, but here ya is not an exclamation; it means ‘and’.
Dôgu-kata .iwa o chigitte .hana o kami
The stage carpenter
tears off the rock,
And blows bis nose.
The rock on the stage is made of paper. We have here a sudden vision of the magical nature of matter.
Hitodama de .zôri o sagasu .gakuya-ban
The green-room mail
Looks for his sandals
With the ghost-fire.
On the stage the ghost of a dead person is represented by a waving will-o’-the-wisp-like torch. It is used here for a very humble purpose…
xxx
About the intensive practice of Zazen: I think it is very good for a time but…I feel inclined to warn you against a humourless zen. The secret of life consists in being always and never serious.
(from a letter Blyth wrote to James W. Hackett, 1 April 1962)
xxx
About haiku in education:…haiku should be the chief subject in primary and secondary schools in every country in the world. But it should be prohibited in the universities, and on no account should children ever be examined on them, or forced to explain them. How about my own explanations? Some say they are better than many of the original haiku. Some say they should be omitted. I myself agree with both views.
History of Haiku Vol. 2