Vladimir Devidé Haiku Award 2014

VLADIMIR DEVIDÉ HAIKU AWARD 2014

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IAFOR PUBLICATIONS

Executive Editor : Dr. Joseph Haldane

Published by

The International Academic Forum (IAFOR), Japan

IAFOR Publications, Sakae 1-16-26 – 201, Naka Ward,

Nagoya, Aichi, Japan 460-0008

ISBN: 978-4-907131-03-6

Designed by Thaddeus Pope

Printed in Japan, 2014

www.iafor.org

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VLADIMIR DEVIDÉ HAIKU AWARD 2014

Founder & Selector: Dr. Drago Štambuk, Croatia

Number of entries: 290 entries, from 39 countries (the highest from Croatia and USA, each 39; India: 19, UK: 17; Romania: 12; Serbia: 11; Canada and New Zealand each 9; no country affiliation: 31)

The Vladimir Devidé Haiku Award was founded by Dr. Drago Štambuk, as a tribute to Vladimir Devidé’s vision and passion for haiku. The award is based on literary merit, regardless of whether written in the traditional or modern style. As such, it aims to transcend haiku divisions in the unifying spirit of Vladimir Devidé. The Vladimir Devidé Haiku Award is proudly organised by The International Academic Forum (IAFOR) as part of The Asian Conference on Literature and Librarianship (LibrAsia).

Lars Vargö, Ambassador of Sweden to Japan, announced the winners of the 4th Vladimir Devidé Haiku Award during the 2014 Asian Conference on Literature and Librarianship in Osaka, Japan.

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FOREWORD

As the Vladimir Devidé Haiku Award enters its fourth year, I am happy to report that the competition is growing in both strength and prestige, and this is in no small part due to the dedication of His Excellency Dr. Drago Štambuk, founding and current judge of the event, whose singular vision and commitment to poetic excellence has assured that the award has taken its place among the most prestigious.

The International Academic Forum, the awarding body, of which I am Executive Director, is committed to providing new perspectives to the thought-leaders and decision-makers of today and tomorrow by offering constructive environments for dialogue and interchange at the intersections of nation, culture, and discipline. Haiku is a wonderfully international art form, and one that encourages new takes, and sometimes disarming new perspectives, on the apparently familiar, and in this way it reflects the academic mission of the organization as it seeks new and unfamiliar research approaches.

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As a Japanese-based organization, we are also proud of the way this traditional Japanese form is being both explored and enriched by its international exposure through the English language. This year we received nearly 300 entries from 39 countries, proving that the international appeal of haiku is strong and growing, and the standard of entries has been very high.

The winning entries of the 2014 competition were announced during the plenary session of the IAFOR Fourth Asian Conference on Literature and Librarianship by His Excellency Dr. Lars Vargö, Swedish Ambassador to Japan, and also a distinguished poet and Japanologist, in front of some three hundred academics and visiting dignitaries including members of the board of the Haiku International Association.

We trust that you will enjoy the selection of commended entries in this book, and we look forward to the 2015 award with great optimism.

Dr Joseph HaldaneNagoya, April 2014

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

IAFOR would like to thank Their Excellencies Dr. Drago Štambuk, founding judge of the Vladimir Devidé Haiku Award and Croatian Ambassador to Brazil, and Dr Lars Vargö, Swedish Ambassador to Japan, who announced the winning entries.

We would also like to thank the Haiku International Association for their continued support of the event, and its President, Dr. Akito Arima, as well as the Secretary General, Mrs Hana Fujimoto. Mrs Fujimoto and Mrs Emiko Miyashita, Member of the Haiku International Association Board of Councillors, and Director of the JAL Foundation.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

一 Haiku in Sweden by Lars Vargö 13

二 Vladimir Devidé 22

三 Drago Štambuk 26

四 Grand Prize 35

五 Runner Up 39

六 Commended 59

七 Vladimir Devidé Haiku Award 2015 93

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HAIKU IN SWEDEN

As was the case in many other European countries, the interest for haiku in Sweden was greatly stimulated by the books of Reginald Horace Blyth (1898-1964) and Miyamori Asatarô (1869-1952) that found their way to Swedish libraries.

Haiku: japansk miniatyrlyrik (Haiku: Japanese miniature lyrics) by Jan Vintilescu, published in 1959, contained a limited collection of the most representative Japanese haiku poets in Swedish translation, but it was published at the right time, when interest in traditional Japanese culture again was on the rise and no longer overshadowed by the Second World War. The book somehow opened the door to a world that had been shut for at least two decades. Haiku became a literary form that transcended politics.

In 1959, the 2012 Nobel laureate in literature, the Swedish poet Tomas Tranströmer visited his friend, the poet and psychologist Åke Nordin, who was then the director of a juvenile prison. In a letter of appreciation, Tranströmer wrote nine

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short poems, calling them haiku. They were later published as a book titled Fängelse (Prison). The poems are closer to senryû than to haiku, but they follow the 5-7-5 format. Among them were:

När rymmaren greps bar han fickorna fulla med kantareller When the escapee was caughthis pockets were fullof mushrooms

and

Felstavade liv -skönheten kvarlever somtatueringar

Misspelt lives –the beauty remains as tattoos

There are many Swedish poets who have written poetry that could be said to follow the haiku idea,

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be it in free verse or some kind of bound verse. Sweden is a relatively large country, with a small population, and nature has always been present in Swedish poetry, in all its beauty and ferociousness.

Modern Swedish haiku has duality, both the admiration of the beauty and power of nature, and the fascination with the fragility of life. Tomas Tranströmer wrote:

Döden lutar sig över mig, ett schackproblem Och har lösningen Death leansover me, a chess problemAnd has the solution

Somewhere in the Swedish drama and heavy philosophizing there is also humour, perhaps not as light as in the poetry of the early 15th century Japanese haikai poets, but in the same way it takes life and death, from the lighter side. Lars Granström (1953- ), a skilful haiku poet, wrote the following poem:

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Statsbegravning - Gående hänvisas till andra sidan State funeral -Pedestrians are asked to crossover to other side

The Swedish Haiku Society (SHS) was formed in 1999. The society quickly grew. As a reaction to the strict 5-7-5 syllable form of Western haiku, another society, called the Fri Haiku (Free Haiku), was formed in 2008. The idea behind Fri Haiku was that if poets follow the syllable count too strictly, the poetry is easily lost. It is better to concentrate on the poetic idea and just keep the haiku as short as possible.

The number of Swedish haiku poets has continuously increased. So has the number of kushû, collections of haiku composed by single poets. A striking example is a poet called Ola Lindberg. His Hundraåriga skuggor (Hundred-year-old shadows) is arranged in five sections, Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter and Miscellaneous (zô).

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He emphasizes brevity and thereby comes closer to Japanese haiku, which are composed in one line and follow 5-7-5 onji, character sounds. Some examples:

rådjuret på vårisen försvinner

the deeron the spring icedisappears

and

sommarskur kanotisten stannar under bron summer showerthe canoeist stopsunder the bridge

The history of Swedish haiku might not be very long, but there has been a remarkable

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development during the last two decades. The trend is to move away from the bound format of 5-7-5 syllables, while keeping a kigo, a word or expression indicating what time of the year it is.

The Swedish forests are deep and extensive, the lakes beautiful and mysterious, the wild animals a natural part of our mythology and our stories, and our towns and cities both old and well developed. This is a good basis for creating haiku.

Lars VargöAmbassador of Sweden to Japan

Condensed from a speech given at the 4th Vladimir Devidé Haiku Awards ceremony, as part of IAFOR’s fourth Asian Conference on Literature and Librarianship in Osaka, Japan, April 3rd to 6th, 2014.

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VLADIMIR DEVIDÉ

Despite a successful international academic career as a renowned mathematician, with professorships in Australia and the US, as well as his native Croatia at the University of Zagreb, it is primarily as a Japanologist and haiku poet that Vladimir Devidé is now remembered. Devidé was not only one of the world’s most celebrated haiku poets, but a tireless promoter of Japanese culture. If Croatia is now considered a Haiku “superpower”, with more poets practicing the art per capita than any other nation, it is largely thanks to his efforts. A full member of the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, Vladimir Devidé has won a number of awards and honours, including the Le Prix CIDALC (1977), the Prize of the City of Zagreb (1982), and for his work as a promoter of Japanese culture, the Japanese Order of the Sacred Treasure (1983). Vladimir Devidé died in August 2010.

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DR. DRAGO ŠTAMBUK

His Excellency Dr. Drago Štambuk is the Croatian Ambassador to Brazil, a post he took up in early 2011, after five years as Ambassador to Japan and the Republic of Korea.

Dr. Štambuk is a widely published and acclaimed poet, and is now recognized as one of Croatia’s most distinguished men of letters. His writing career began in 1973 and has grown to include more than 40 collections of poetry in Croatian, English, French and Spanish, and his work has been included in all relevant anthologies of Croatian contemporary poetry. The ambassador has received numerous literary awards in his native country and abroad, and was the first recipient of Dragutin Tadijanovic Award established in 2008 by the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts. He is also a founder and director of the All-Croatian Poetry Festival on the Island of Brač, founded in 1991.

As well as his writing, Dr. Štambuk has had two separate careers as both a medical doctor and a

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diplomat. A graduate of Zagreb University’s Medical School (1974), he went on to specialize in internal medicine, gastroenterology and hepatology at the Clinical Medical Center in Zagreb, before moving to London in 1983 to continue his medical career at both the Royal Free Hospital and St Stephen’s.

Following the independence of Croatia in 1991, he became a diplomat, and has served as the Croatian ambassador to various countries, including India and Egypt, and from 2005 was named as Croatia’s representative in Tokyo. His brief was expanded to include the Republic of Korea in 2006.

The ambassador was a Fellow at Harvard University from 2001 to 2002. He was appointed to the IAFOR International Advisory Board in 2010 as the conference chair for the first Asian Conference on Literature and Librarianship 2011, and instituted the Vladimir Devidé Haiku award as a tribute to Devidé, who had died earlier in 2010, serving as the judge since 2011.

VLADIMIR DEVIDÉ HAIKU AWARDSELECTED HAIKU 2014

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Grand Prize

Fathers’ Day -children measure old oaksby the length of their arms

Anthony Kudryavitsky, Ireland

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Runner Up

where do I gofrom here –

abortion clinic

Susan Burch, USA

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Runner Up

morning serenity -the day moon on the wire

with the swallows

Tomislav Maretić, Croatia

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Runner Up

butterflies weddingacross a melilot plot –

the monk stops scything

Lavana Kray, Romania

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Runner Up

Sharing a plate of gyozaand a bowl of ramen

spring in neighbourhood

Emiko Miyashita, Japan

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Runner Up

Queen Ann’s lace -a bee works

each tiny flower

Margaret Beverland, New Zealand

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Runner Up

purple crocus…pushing up through

last year’s leaf

Carole MacRury, USA

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Runner Up

spring plantingdeep within an old pot

cicada nymph

Vanessa Proctor, Australia

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Runner Up

dusk on the pond -a cloud slow enough

to be the moon

Jim Kacian, USA

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Runner Up

Melting stream –the old melody escapes

from the silence

Eduard Tara, Romania

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Commended

Only two readersin the big library:me and the moth

Vasile Moldovan, Romania

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Commended

Truthis a dream come true.

Adrian Pickett, United Kingdom

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Commended

lunch on the grassstraw replaces

a toothpick

Branka Vojinović-Jegdić, Montenegro

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Commended

not a single fish bitinga long shadowof a damselfly

Seren Fargo, USA

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Commended

drought!furrowed faceof the farmer

Raj K. Bose, India

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Commended

from a lattice doorto the Buddha’s cheek

autumn sunset

Yukiko Yamada, Japan

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Commended

small spring garden -shredded love letters

become mulch

Darrell Lindsey, USA

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Commended

Spider shares my room:Spinning webs, living in dark -

We live the same life.

Jack Pemberton, UK

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Commended

in her eyes tonight -that look

of many years

Gracy Dsouza, Kuwait

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Commended

New Year’s kiss -a dog howls

with shut eyes

Daniel Gahnertz, Sweden

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Commended

the falling featherin the thicket of branches

sound of battle

Krzysztof Kokot, Poland

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Commended

chrysanthemumsthe most beautiful flowers

in the coffin

Vesislava Savova, Bulgaria

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Commended

winter night -in between our quarrelling

baby’s first words

Kash Poet, India

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Commended

hold my hand todaytomorrow I will hold yours

yesterday is gone

Marios Schismenos, Greece

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VLADIMIR DEVIDÉ HAIKU AWARD 2015

The International Academic Forum (IAFOR) will begin accepting submissions for the 5th Vladimir Devidé Haiku Award on June 1st, 2014. If you would like to enter the award, please send previously unpublished submissions to haiku2015@iafor.org.

The Vladimir Devidé Haiku Award was created to celebrate classical and modern haiku, both those poems that follow the traditional form and those that play with it. Though traditionally Japanese, haiku has become a global art form. In keeping with IAFOR’s international scope, we welcome haiku submissions from around the world.

Further information on the award, including previous winning submissions, can be found by scanning the following QR code with a mobile phone, or by visiting iafor.org/haiku.

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Cover ImageSnake and Small Bird (Hebi to Kotori, 蛇と小鳥)ArtistKatsushika Hokusai

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VLADIMIR DEVIDÉ HAIKU AWARD 2014 The Vladimir Devidé Haiku Award is for haiku regardless of whether it is traditional or modern; it transcends haiku divisions and is based only on literary merit. The award was founded by Dr. Drago Štambuk, as a tribute to Vladimir Devidé’s vision and passion for haiku, and is proudly organised by The International Academic Forum (IAFOR) as part of The Asian Conference on Literature and Librarianship (LibrAsia).

IAFOR Publications / Japanwww.iafor.org