Besoboru, Part I
NOTE: CLICK ON CARTOON TO VIEW IT ENLARGED.I was astonished to discover recently that one of the traditions in baseball, a sport rife with tradition, is the haiku. Of course, it's only widely practiced in Japan, where besoboru, as they call it, is even more deeply ingrained in the culture than it is here. With the season opening tomorrow, I thought I'd give it a try:
birds wonder why grown men
wear funny pants like small boys
eat marshmallows
Okay, I'm a cartoonist, not a poet.
posted by John M Crowther @ 7:13 AM
7 Comments:
Outdid yourself today, John C. Love this one! The use of the panels is great!
Commentary is brilliant as usual.
Most famous Japanese Baseball Haiku:
"Take me out to the ball game,
Take me out with the crowd.
Buy me some sushi and tempura
How are things in Glocca Mora?
Does that lassie with the twinklin' eye
Come smilin' by and does she walk away,
For it's one, two, three strikes, you're out,
At the old ball game."
How'd the Irish get into this? Do they hit the ball with a shillelagh? Forgive me if I edit your haiku, prof, but we must be purists and respect the 17 syllable rule:
ball game with crowd
sushi and tempura smilin' by
three strikes you're out
John, there are many many versions of Haiku—the so-called classic Japanese way with its 17 syllables-- and the long-ignored Irish way with whatever syllable you can pronounce. The Irish, lest we forget, had been persecuted for centuries, their language practically taken away, but the true Celtic Haiku or O’Haiku will go along on forever.
I would like to quote one of our greatest O’Haikus from the pen of the George M. Cohan (1906):
“For it is Mary,
Mary plain as any name can be
But with propriety,
Society
Will say Marie
But it was Mary,
Mary
Long before the fashions came
And there is something there
That sounds so square
It's a grand old name.”
You’ll note that over a hundred years ago, Cohan was the first to dismiss the insidious influence of “fashion” in our nation. He was also the first to celebrate the notion of “square.”
For all of us who’ll march this weekend in the Easter Parade, hoping to get our pictures in the rotogravure, god bless the true and only Haiku!
You know my respect for your intellect and scholarship is boundless, prof, but in this case I believe you may be mixing shamrocks and kumquats. My research shows the oldest form of haiku is actually the Jewish haiku, 17 syllables, but for you 15.95.
17 syllables but in a 5 - 7 - 5 structure tho...
balls in the wrong court
not Japanese nor Irish
in this old ball game...
You guys are too funny! LOL
>>but in this case I believe you may be mixing shamrocks and kumquats.<<
Mixing shamrocks and kumquats is a combination I’ve never attempted, though Lord knows I’ve had a few Mojitos. Your contention that the original haiku was a Jewish one discounted @ 15.95 has prove to be absolutely correct! Wikipedia –that impeccable and irrefutable source of knowledge-- quotes the poet David Bader:
“No fins, no flippers,
the gefilte fish swims with
some difficulty”
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