AI-generated World of Haiku

AI-generated World of Haiku

(At a hut of Caro within the Second Life, a prototype of the Metaverse)

Haiku Kozo (Haiku Monk) is a member of the Second Life (a prototype of the Metaverse recently argued about actively). Under the avatar name "Ichiro Dufaux" he attended many meetings within this virtual world, getting acquaintance with many unique people and learning much about the rapidly changing world. Caro was one of those Second Life friends. This snapshot of Haiku Monk during meditation was taken at her fancy hut.

Monk often came to this hybrid Japanese-Chinese style hut and spent a time of meditation. One day, he found himself beginning to pay attention to Haiku (three-line unrhymed poem with 17 syllables). It seemed that the atmosphere created by this hut cultivated his Haiku mind. Among others, he carefully read the "Oku No Hosomichi (The Narrow Road to Oku)" written by Matsuo Basho (1644-1694) with the aid of the English version translated by Donald Keene (1922-2019).

The leitmotif of "Oku No Hosomichi" is travel. According to Basho, time comes and goes like a traveller. There may be diverse types of travel, ranging from sweet honeymoons and round-the-world cruises by rich couples to the escape journeys fleeing from chasers/oppressors (e.g., Jews chased by Nazis, Ukrainians forced to leave the homeland in the face of Russian attacks, and so on). The travel undertaken by Basho and recorded in this book was probably a kind of journey prompted by the awareness of the approaching end of one's life and the desire to summarize one's life, through dissolving the emotions, feelings, thoughts, views, experiences and activities of the past into a ceaseless flow of time embodied as a traveller. Basho died 5 years after this travel.

Donald Keene translated this masterpiece skillfully. His interpretation and memos based on extensive knowledge and deep understanding of the Japanese culture and history are quite helpful to readers, even to those Japanese readers having forgotten the old form of Japanese they learned at high school or having insfficient knowledge about past episodes related to Haiku or Tanka (another form of traditional Japanese poem). His contributionto global acceptance of the Basho's artistic world cannot be underestimated.

Haiku Monk, however, cannot agree with the Keene's translation at one point. His translation sometimes uses interjections and exclamation marks. This does not seem to be compatible with the essential nature of Haiku. According to Monk's view, Haiku attempts to create something deserving to be exclaimed through combining plain/ordinary words. Attaching importance to this basic stance, Haiku Monk has attempted to translate each piece of Haiku contained in Oku No Hosomichi into English, referring to the memos given by Donald Keene and borrowing some expressions from his translation, while avoiding the use of interjections and exclamation marks.

English is not the mother language for Haiku Monk. You may find some (or many) strange or unacceptable expressions. Please feel free to inform FKPress@pro.email.ne.jp of such expressions. Monk will modify the relevant translation if deemed appropriate. Your proposal of a better or alternative expression will also be welcomed. Let's create and enjoy our own world of Haiku together.