| Chapter 1: | Autobiographical Self |
Though I want to cry
English tears come painfully
So I cry haiku
(Yoshimoto, 2005, p. 36)
Haiku
Haiku is a popular form of Japanese poetry that employs a 5-7-5 syllable structure and often draws on themes of seasons, nature, feelings, and life experiences. Haiku also draws heavily on the Japanese speech style, which is very ambiguous and requires the listener to have the necessary cultural knowledge to interpret the speaker’s intended meaning. Because of my Japanese background, I have much experience expressing myself using haiku and find it a comfortable method to express what I cannot say otherwise. However, my use of haiku is different than the traditional method. Following the example of Tawara Machi (1987), a Japanese poet who disrupted the established constraints of poetic form, I have taken the liberty to create haiku that reflect my changing values, both Canadian and Japanese, and to express this transformation into a new set of ideals. I rely on haiku to voice a silent cry, a cry that I cannot express in conventional language in either Japanese or English.