Shamrock Haiku Journal

 

Shamrock

 

Haiku Journal

of the Irish Haiku Society

Focus on

 

Serbia

 

old man -
his horse ploughing the last rut
and his shadow

 

-- Zoran Antonić (transl. by the author and Anatoly Kudryavitsky)

 

 

 

 

through an open door
into the ambulance,
a yellow leaf

 

 

scent of the sea -
so small the shell
in my suitcase

 

 

country feast -
between two songs,
a cricket’s story

 
-- Rajna Begović (transl. by the author and Anatoly Kudryavitsky)

 

 

 

dewdrops gleaming
on chestnut buds -
not on each of them

 
-- Rajna Begović (translated by the author)

 

 

 

 

mulberry leaf
picked up by the wind -
a kitten plays with it

 

 

hand in hand,
a boy and a girl walk
through the field of wheat

 

 

a cock on the windowsill
viewing hens
in the neighbour’s yard

 

 

one after another:
a procession of ants…
a hare jumps over it

 

 

boy’s tight fist
has captured light -
a firefly

 
-- Dejan Bogojević (transl. by Anatoly Kudryavitsky)

 

 

 

 

an owl’s feather
on the old stump
absorbing moonlight

 
-- Branislav Brzaković (transl. by Anatoly Kudryavitsky)

 

 

 

 

a mountain passing to another
the blue flower -
wind

redness in her cheeks…
girl eating a frozen apple
this winter day

flickering flame…
on the opposite wall,
shadow of the hearth

 
-- Tatjana Debeljacki (transl. by Anatoly Kudryavitsky)

 

 

 

 

abandoned house
a door wreath
still there

 

 

virgin snow…
a pine surrounded by
green grass

 

 

icy wind -
a bare lime-tree branch
scratches on the window

 

-- Ljiljana Djuricić (transl. by Anatoly Kudryavitsky)

 

 

 

 

close of the day -
a naughty boy
gathers glow-worms

 

-- Ivan Kolarić (transl. by Anatoly Kudryavitsky)

 

 

 

 

shirt hanging from a birch branch -
the owner sits
in its shade

 

 

in an empty
mug,
firefly glow

 

 

snow shaken off the tree -
the bent branch
goes up again

 

­-- Dusan Mijajlović Adski (transl. by Anatoly Kudryavitsky)

 

 

 

 

clearing in the woods -
the full moon highlights
a cemetery

 

 

taking a walk -
among rooftop antennas,
the newborn moon

 
-- Vitomir Miletić-Witata (transl. by Anatoly Kudryavitsky)

 

 

 

 

November morning -
travelling on the motorway,
wisps of fog

 

 

falling snow -
a child draws the horizon
on the windowpane

 

 

from door to door -
the postman carrying letters
and first snowflakes

 

 

cloudless sky -
in the field, the wind shaking
an old scarecrow

 
-- Jasminka Nadaškić-Djordjević (transl. by the author and Anatoly Kudryavitsky)

 

 

 

 

underneath the moon
only these willow leaves -
each one shining

 
-- Aleksandar Nejgebauer (translated by Anatoly Kudryavitsky)

 

 

 

 

destroyed bridge -
only the rainbow connects
the banks of a river

mist clears away -
in the spider's web,
a string of pearls

 
--  Aleksandar Ševo (transl. by Anatoly Kudryavitsky)

 

 

 

snow up to my knees…
where’s the path that
has brought me here?

 

 

a blackbird has perched
on the branch
hey angler, take a look!

 

 

beggar
gathering cigarette buts
a profusion of roses

 

 

city lights
a firefly pauses at the edge
of the forest

 

 

blooming season
a huge stump on the riverbank
unconcerned

 
-- Tanja Stefanović (translated by Anatoly Kudryavitsky)

 

 

 

 

wading through the silence
of hospital lobbies
full moon

 

 

reaper swings his arm -
a cloud of petals from
ripe cornflowers

 

 

view from the terrace
a hilltop hut sinks
into the shade

 

 

train roaring by
the utter silence
of military graves

 
-- Saša Vašić (transl. by the author and Anatoly Kudryavitsky)

 

 

 

 

clouds’ reflections
drawing a shadowy landscape
on the stream bottom

 

 

abandoned house
giant snowflakes fall
into the chimney

 

 

the wind carrying
children’s kites
and wild geese

 

 

cherry petal
falling through the shadows
of grass blades

 
--Vid Vukasović (translated by Anatoly Kudryavitsky)

---------------------------<->----------------------------

Haiku in Serbia

 
Saša Važić

The history of haiku in our region, i.e. in former Yugoslavia, began almost eighty years ago. In 1927, Milos Crnjanski published his article titled “Pesme starog Japana” (“Poems of Ancient Japan”), which contained not only his translations of classical haiku (mostly from English and French) but also some information on the history of the haiku movement. Published in the Serbian magazine called “Letopis Matice srpske”, this was the first ever publication on haiku in our country.

 

However this poetic genre really took off in Serbia only about thirty-five years ago. The pioneering work of the first ever Serbian haijun, Milan Tokin (1909-1962), was a collection of haiku poems entitled "Godisnja doba" ("Seasons"). Strangely enough, this book hasn’t yet been published in full.

 

At that time our understanding of haiku was enriched by the work of one of the most educated haiku poets, Vladimir Devidé of Croatia. He was a mathematician, academic and Japanologist. His opinions have often been challenged, however his contribution to the haiku development in the Balkans is undisputable. Vladimir Devidé has published over 150 essays on haiku poetry in some 20 national and international literary reviews and journals, and has given over 220 public lectures on poetry, as well as on the history of Japanese culture and, more specifically, literature. His anthology of haiku poems published in 1970 as “Japanska poezija i njen kulturno-povjesni okvir” (“Japanese Poetry in its Cultural and Historical Framework”) contains some 500 haiku poems by 100 Japanese poets in his translation into Croatian. This book, which still remains a valuable haiku textbook, introduced many generations of our poets to Japanese culture and spiritual life, as well as to the history of haiku.

 

In 1975 Aleksandar Nejgebauer (1930–1989), a translator, literary critic and Professor of English and American literature, published the first ever collection of haiku poetry in the Balkans. It was titled simply Haiku. His essay, "Metaphor in Haiku," was the first Serbian essay on haiku to be translated into English and published outside Serbia. It appeared in Frogpond in May 1980. The first haiku magazine that published a selection of haiku poems from Yugoslavia was Haiku, a Varazdin-based edition that existed between 1977 and 1981. In 1979, a certain Japanese scholar, Dr. Dejan Razic, published two important essays on traditional Japanese poetry: one on the development of haikai poetry from the very beginning to the times of Basho, and another on Basho himself, focusing on his role as a haikai poet.

 

The growing popularity of haiku in our country resulted in the establishment of haiku clubs and haiku magazines. The first Serbian haiku magazine, Paun, was launched in Pozega in 1988. It still exists under the editorship of Milijan Despotovic). The club called “Masaoka Shiki” existed in Nis in 1992–1993, and published its magazine titled “Haiku novine” in 1993, at first edited by Dimitar Anakiev, and then, from 1996 on, by Dragan J. Ristic. The club called “Shiki” appeared in Belgrade in 1992, with the most famous Serbian female poet, Desanka Maksimovic, as its honorary president. In Novi Sad, Aleksandar Nejgebauer edited the magazine called Listak in 1993. “Haiku Informator” existed between 1997 and 2002; “Haiku ogledalo”, between 2000 and 2002. There were also other privately owned haiku journals: “Haiku pismo”, edited by Nebojsa Simin in Novi Sad (1995–2001); “Haiku Moment”, also in Novi Sad, edited by Zoran Doderovic in 1998, re-launched in 2002 as “Haiku Moment Info”; Lotos, edited by Dejan Bogojevic and Rajkovic, since 1998 up to date, The Rainbow Petal, an online haiku journal edited by Vid Vukasovic, Belgrade existed between 1997 and 1999, “Haiku Reality” edited by Sasa Vazic; “Batajnica”, started in 2003, and a few more publications, all in all nineteen of them.

 

The national haiku association called The Haiku Association of Yugoslavia (now called The Haiku Association Serbia and Montenegro), has been founded in Belgrade in 1999. In 2001 it has started to publish a haiku magazine titled Osvit.

 

According to the statistics, there are about six hundred haiku poets in our country; they have published more than five hundred titles. Haiku from Serbian haiku contests held in about seven Serbian cities and towns were collected in about forty anthologies. Among these contests, the Yugoslavian Haiku Festival and International Haiku Contest, in Odzaci (held since accordingly 1987 and 1989); the Knjizevna kelija "Sveti Sava" Competition in Paracin that was held between 1994 and 1998; the International Haiku and Haibun Contest organised by the Aleksandar Nejgebauer Haiku Club in Novi Sad in 1998 (and still running), and also the International Haiku and Senryu Contest held by the Lotos Haiku Magazine (which has been published in Valjevo since 1999).

 

The first (exclusively) haiku publishing library entitled Matsuo Basho was established in Odzaci in 1986. This event marked a new splash of interest in haiku. In 1988 a new haiku library was founded in Odzaci. It was also named after Basho. Later (1993) it was transferred to another Serbian town, Kula.

 

The first Yugoslav haiku anthology titled Leptir na caju (1991) was compiled and edited by Milijan Despotovic. Another Yugoslavian anthology, Grana koja mase, that represented works of around 400 authors had the same editor and was published the same year. We should also mention KNOTS (1999), the anthology of south-eastern European haiku poetry edited by Dimitar Anakiev of Slovenia and Jim Kacian. A Piece of the Sky (Haiku from the Shelter, 1999) was another anthology edited by Dimitar Anakiev.  Nebojsa Simin edited The Third Bank of the River / Treca obala reke (2000), an anthology of Serbian haiku translated into English, French and German, and also Haiku nestasna pesma (Haiku a Playful Poem, 2000). The latest anthology of haiku from our region was Iznad praznine (2002) edited by Dejan Bogojevic. There were also many translations of Japanese haiku into our language published in a book-form.

 

Haiku gained popularity among Serbian people of several generations, who all had different education levels and occupations. Some mainstream poets are known to write haiku, notably Desanka Maksimovic, Dobrica Eric, Momcilo Tesic, Miroljub Todorovic, Slobodan Pavicevic, Mirjana Bozin. Serbian haiku poets win on average about forty awards and commendations at national and international haiku contests per year. Not all of these competitions are professionally judged which, of course, casts the shade of doubt on the merits of some of our haijin. The editors of our haiku journals have developed very different tastes and elaborated different criteria of judging haiku. Many of our authors pay for the publication of their books, sometimes not even obtaining a catalogue number for them. These books never hit the shelves of our bookshops but are often used as gift items. The quality of their works is also very different. Many of them even translate themselves into English – sometimes not having mastered the language. Time and again these texts are being submitted to international English-language competitions, which can only damage the reputation of our haiku movement. Unfortunately, we don’t have official haiku workshops that run periodically. Nor do we have critics who are ready to write about haiku happenings, so our haiku poets are often deprived of seeing their work reviewed. Apart from that, we seem to be moving forward on the path of haiku discoveries.

 

(translated to English by the author and Anatoly Kudryavitsky)

 

 

Saša Važić is the editor of Haiku Reality (http://www.geocities.com/ana_vazic/esejeng33.htm)

------------------------<>------------------------

"Predeo" by Slobodan VItković (Serbia)

------------------------<>------------------------

Among other poems, we feature here some haiku written during the ginko (haiku walk) organised by the Irish Haiku Society. It took place in the Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, Dublin, on 28 June 2008. Of course, not all of the Irish haijin were present; so far as we know, some of them were enjoying a warmer climate than this. E.g. Siofra O'Donovan sent us a bunch of haiku from India.

tinder sticks
a last streak of green
in the aspen’s leaf

 

 

wind-twisted leaves
the silent flit
of a lesser whitethroat

 

 

footfalls
the lizard pauses
mid-scuttle

 

 

still shadows
the cow's neck bent
into its flank

 

 

honey country…
a tortoise makes its way
across the road

 
-- John Barlow (England)

 

 

 

 

the shallows
a coot and its chick
ease into water

 

 

turnstones
among the rain-washed pebbles
channel light

 

 

evening murmurs
through the yellowing grass
pairs of antlers

 

 

long shadows
a wagtail undulates
over the outfield

 
-- Matthew Paul (England)

 

 

 

 

whale song
the twilight blues
deepen

 

 

cotton sheets
the sound of the sea
folding, refolding

 

 

esplanade palms
the chihuahua's master
walking tall

 

 

new in town
a thousand butterflies
without names

 
-- Lorin Ford (Australia)

 

 

 

 

cloudy day
the green of water
and the green of trees

 

 

old willow
a thousand branches holding
the spring wind

chilly morning
patches of fog pause
in thistles

heat lightning
a sunflower
kissing the sun

 
-- Anatoly Kudryavitsky (Ireland)

 

 

 

 

flattened grass –
white lilies stand taller
in the rain

 

 

too wet for birdsong –
canary yellow beet leaves
glisten in the rain

 

 

sunburst –
scent of wild garlic
fills the garden

 

 

rain-drenched lawn
a spate of water lilies
carpet the pond

 
-- Martin Vaughan (Ireland)

 

 

 

 

September sunset –
fiery fuchsia nestles
in hedgerows

warm rain –
lily pads surrendering
to watery graves

 

a canopy of
gnarled wisteria –
grey refracted light

heatwave –
two lighthouses exchange
hazy flashes

 
-- Sharon Burrell (Ireland)

 

 

 

 

footsteps shuffling
outside the temple doors
new moon

 

 

carrying my baby
through the pine trees
a monkey watches

 

 

water rushing
through the paddy fields
morning soup

 

 

Golden Maitreya
hands resting on his knees
rupees at his feet

 
-- Siofra O’Donovan (Ireland)

 

 

 

 

first snow
the garden Buddha
deeper

 

 

late afternoon
a fading photograph of sky
on the tin roof

 

 

troubled sleep
the half of the moon
I couldn't see

 
-- John W. Sexton (Ireland)

 

cicada…
her tapping foot
follows the song

 

 

willow
a sliver of moonlight
beneath a branch

 
-- Cynthia Rowe (Australia)

 

 

 

 

heat haze –
dragonflies silhouette
the sky

 

 

above the circus tent,
tumbling
swifts

 
-- Juliet Wilson (Scotland)

New Year's Day –
sunlight and honey
in a jar

her hands
working with flour –
the cloudless sky

 
-- Hugh O’Donnell (Ireland)

granddad's garden
still
the rosebush blossoms

midnight stroll
a gust of leaves
throws shadows

-- Terry O’Connor (Ireland)

 

 

 

 

chilly morning –
a scarecrow leaning
towards the greenhouse

hyacinth
in the regal flowerbed –
taking a nap

-- Andrew Michael O'Brien (Ireland)

 

 

 

between races
boy-rowers chasing frogs
in the tall grass

 
-- Eileen Sheehan (Ireland)

 

 

 

at my front door
nothing between me
and the full moon

 
-- Mark Roper (Ireland)

 

 

 

 

avenues of trees
growing longer
after the summer rain

-- Breid Sibley (Ireland)

 

 

 

 

cicadas
singing for a mate
soon to die

 
-- Maureen Purcell (Ireland)

 

 

 

 

daybreak –
daisies peeping
through wet grass

 
-- Anne Morgan (Ireland)

 

 

 

 

termite mound…
the camper van
in its shadow

 
-- Allison Millcock (Australia)

 

 

 

 

our first picnic
jacarandas moult
into the iced tea

 
-- Scott Thouard (Australia)

 

 

 

 

backhoe berm –
ant pauses before pieces of
broken pottery

 
-- Richard Stevenson (Canada)

 

 

 

 

soft gum
under the desks –
first day back

 
-- Noel Sloboda (USA)

 

 

 

 

a monkey tearing
clothes from the line
monsoon drought

 
-- Michael Morical (USA - Taiwan)

 

 

 

 

rain again
the season of
verdant mountains

 
­-- Gillena Cox (Trinidad & Tobago)

 

 

 

 

hemlocks
entrance gate
off its hinges

 
-- Jared Carter (USA)

 

 

 

 

the gleam
of roof after roof
summer rain

 
-- Dawn Bruce (Australia)

 

---------------------------<->----------------------------

Connecting

by Diana Webb (England)

 

She glances at books of poems but spends the money instead on thread and a choice of loose beads in sea-green, rose and amber. Perhaps it's the nymph's claim about her jewels picked up from childhood verse speaking classes that haunts her - 'Hush. I stole them out of the moon.'
 
As the small glass spheres slip one by one along the needle into the growing necklace, her reflections drift from bygone generations through parting with a lover to embryos in formation. A tranquillity, each moment hovers.