Book of Haikus

Hoje é o centenário do Jack Kerouac, estava guardando o Livro de Haicais, edição bilíngue que saiu pela L&PM com tradução do grande Claudio Willer, para essa ocasião.
Tudo que Proust me influenciou no início dos meus vinte anos nos 2000, Kerouac fez o mesmo a partir de meados da mesma década, The Dharma Bums foi uma virada no meu modo de pensar a vida e a partir daí comecei a me interessar por budismo.
Os koans zen tem muita influência na escrita de Kerouac, mas é sobretudo nos haicais clássicos e nos senryu que o autor tira sua energia poética seja nas poesias propriamente ditas seja na sua prosa a partir das experiências narradas no Vagabundos do Dharma.
Aparentemente essa edição não comporta os rascunhos mais show more ruinzinhos de sua coleção de haicais, o que torna o livro bom de cabo a rabo, mas que empobrece nossa visão da evolução poética de Kerouac.
Mas o que importa mesmo é a grande quantidade de haicais sobre gatos, nenhum grande ailurófilo estaria completo sem odes poéticas aos bichanos. show less

Book of Haikus compiles Jack Kerouac's haiku from various published works and journals (Regina Weinreich does an excellent job with the introduction and with the asides throughout).

Kerouac breaks away from the Japanese syllable counting tradition of 5-7-5 per line. Instead he developed his own standard of American Haikus, which often exists in direct relation to the Japanese haikuists. His haiku bends the traditions further, playing with seasonal references in new ways and infusing humor into his lines. Sometimes dark sometimes light-hearted, his haiku are always (or almost always) poignant. Kerouac's haiku and his love of Japanese haiku inspires me to want to read the traditional Japanese greats.

I quite enjoyed the poetry throughout show more this book, and I found it inspirational to my own writing. I'm enthralled by the haiku form, how so much can be said in such a small space. I'm going to have to buy my own personal copy, so that I can flip through it randomly as I'm out and about in the world. show less

I liked these haikus —
And how Jack fit big ideas —
Into little lines.

I love Jack Kerouac's Haikus, perfect anytime reading. He had an amazing talent for creating a whole scene for the senses in just three tiny lines. Whenever I need a little inspiration I pick up this book.

I enjoyed this collection. I will share a few of my favorites. Kerouac does not write purely in the traditional form of three lines with 5, 7,and 5 syllables. He also writes "American haikus" which are simple three line poems without a fixed number of syllables.

Listen to the birds sing!
All the little birds
Will die!

Dusk-the bird
on the fence
A contemporary of mine

Useless! Useless!
-heavy rain driving
Into the sea

Train tunnel, too dark
for me to write that
"Men are ignorant!"

Dawn-the writer who
hasn't shaved,
Poring over notebooks

Little pieces of ice
in the moonlight
Snow, thousands of em

Praying all the time-
talking
to myself

Shall I break God's commandment?
Little fly
Rubbing it's back legs

I enjoyed this collection. I will share a few of my favorites. Kerouac does not write purely in the traditional form of three lines with 5, 7,and 5 syllables. He also writes "American haikus" which are simple three line poems without a fixed number of syllables.

Listen to the birds sing!
All the little birds
Will die!

Dusk-the bird
on the fence
A contemporary of mine

Useless! Useless!
-heavy rain driving
Into the sea

Train tunnel, too dark
for me to write that
"Men are ignorant!"

Dawn-the writer who
hasn't shaved,
Poring over notebooks

Little pieces of ice
in the moonlight
Snow, thousands of em

Praying all the time-
talking
to myself

Shall I break God's commandment?
Little fly
Rubbing it's back legs