• A Haiku Examination




    (This is the Haiku)
    So there's like a tree...
    And it's pretty or something...
    I don't really know


    Story

    llllllll
    llllllll While the Haiku portrays the imagistic nature of the Japanese culture and of their poetry, the Haiku still represents a metaphorical and an in depth measure of thought when writing such a poem.
    llllllll The Japanese like trees, as “they are asymmetrical”( R.1), and enjoy cherry trees for this aspect highly, as well as many other things of an asymmetrical value, including “vases which are cracked, cherry blossoms, and odd-letter poetry” (R 2) . As well, the tree possibly represents a woman meaning that it is related to that of a personal relationship that the person himself, or that herself, is feeling. This can be proven true not only because the poem suggests a degree of confused enjoyment, but as well because in many Haiku’s the imagistic nature is normally used to represent other figures of a metaphoric value, increasing the idea that it is representative of something more, as “Haiku’s more or less portray a sense of imagistic value which seem to display a sense of metaphorical idea connected to that of the physical world.”( Ref. 3)
    llllllllThe Author starts off with an imagistic nature, a tree, but leads physically and metaphorically to the assumption that the writer does not know what is actually going on, trying to reveal many options to the reader to be as what the writer does not know. The wording suggests uncertainty, which leads to the people believing that the person does not know for sure what is going on, portraying a sense of desire but mixed with a lot of confusion. This is seen by the use of colloquial language familiar to the language of the native people, hinting at a connotation that can only be created with the Native’s specific kind of wording to convey a hidden message, which can only be deciphered if knowledge of the general area which the Author lives is discovered first, leading to a highly encrypted message in a regular word form manner. This is very important, as a normal appearing and even a colloquial sounding Haiku’s masks the importance through the use of specific word choice, showing a perfect example of how wording changes the thought of an idea in a person’s mind, and can over-all manipulate a person’s mood for a specific situation simply by implying hidden messages.
    llllllll Stating that the tree is "pretty" represents that the person feels that such an object is pretty, and that the tree may be leading to another abstract idea, perhaps while actually having a tree stand in the place of a person. Perhaps the tree reminds the person of the woman he desires, or perhaps it is a tree. It is uncertain to many critics whether or not the tree does or does not actually portray emotions about a tree, or about something entirely different, though through the use of the Haiku and “even if an Author is dead, and he comes back and tells us this is not what he meant to say, it does not matter, because we have found things that the Author may have been suggesting or subconsciously adding to the paper without even realizing it.” (Ref. 2) Using such ideas, we can determine that the writer was in fact trying to show an image of a woman rather than a tree, and that upon seeing this tree he felt many emotions, which caused him to spring into action and write about a tree.
    llllllll Stating the tree is “pretty or something” reveals not that the Author does not know if that tree is pretty or not, but that the Author is unsure why he cannot stray away from the tree. The Author tries to find out not why he is attracted to the tree, the tree is “pretty”, but that he does not understand why he is feeling the ways that he is, and is incapable of expressing his desire for the tree. This is a very different deviation from what is typically misunderstood in the general idea that the Author does not know if the tree is pretty or not. However, the author truly is having difficulties portraying his emotion for the tree, or the assumed woman, and is confused about the situation which is about him, of which is still trying to be discerned today.
    llllllllThough none of this may be true, I will sway from the normal idea of a formal paper and ask you a question. As well, I will not make use of an expletive to reinforce my point, and so I will simply state it. Is this poem really about uncertainty over a woman, or is it simply a tree? I believe that this is merely the white man’s attempt to try to grasp things on a higher level which he does not know, or that he tries to complicatedly to find out, and that the real answerer is in front of the reader the whole time.


    Reference 1- (Wikipedia. "Haiku." Wikipedia. 13 Dec. 2008. Wikipedia. 13 Dec. 2008 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/haiku#from_renga_to_renku_to_haiku>.)

    Reference 2- (Mr. Garret’s Notes)

    Reference 3- (My notes)