Haiku Smile: September 2011

Friday, September 23, 2011

AKITA INTERNATIONAL HAIKU NETWORK PUBLISHED THE HAIKU POEMS WRITTEN BY Kaa.Na.Kalyanasundaram

Akita International Haiku Network

“We all try our best / in our busy, busy lives / to write poetry.”

Haiku by Kaa Na Kalyanasundaram in India (1)2010/11/06
Let me introduce Kaa Na Kalyanasundaram, an Indian poet, who sent me the following mail on October 28.

Dear Hidenori Hiruta, I am very much glad of your mail. I am late but I wish to put forth my bio and also haiku poems for your perusal and publishing.

BIO:(Haiku poet Kaa.Na.Kalyanasundaram, Chennai, Tamil Nadu)

My birth place is a little and sweet village named Kavanur situated nearby Vellore of Tamil Nadu. I have written somany lyrics, poetry in my mother language Tamil. Many of may songs are broadcasted by All India Radio,chennai during my school life. Many literary magazines also published. I have been awarded “Bharathidaasan Award ” in the year 1991. Later I was attracted much by Haiku poems. I have written more than 1000 Tamil Haiku poems. My first book named ‘ Manithaneyath thuligal’ – Tamil Haiku poems published in July 99. The Book has been translated into English and published in the name of “The Smile of Humanity” in the year 1991. Many of my haiku poems are translated in many languages. I have established Cheyyaru Tamil Literary Association in 1997. I have conducted haiku meet in a large manner headed by Great Tamil Haiku Poet Erode Tamilanban and Mu.Murugesh. At present my haiku poems are in the social networks such as www.writerscafe.com; www.eegarai.com; www.wordpress.com; www.voicesnet.com ; www.haiku.com ; www.wonderhaikuworld.com ; www.poemhunter.com; www.ezhuththu.com;

My aim is to enlighting the social reforms; public services; national integration in Haiku poems.

My selected haiku poems:(Kaa.Na.Kalyanasundaram)

*even though unequal

unity in function…
the fingers!

等しさは違えど団結指五本

*many coloured flowers

in a single fibre …

the feelings of integrity!

繊維なす色々な花統合や

*the tears overflowed
for the little sparrows…
we sold the house!

家を売り雀の子らに涙する

*though drowned
blossomed as water circles…
stone thrown in the pond!

石投げる池の水面に花が咲く

*to protect the environment
refused to peck
the silent woodpeckers

つつき止む環境保護の啄木鳥や

*sitting on the bird too
you can fly in the sky…
if broad-minded!

鳥に乗り空飛ぶ君は寛大や

*for seeing the horizon
a sweet journey…
towards the home town!

旅思う水平線のふるさとへ

*we are on journey
in the galleon
towards the splendid aim

目標へガレオン船の旅路かな

*the personal language of
the Universe
is silence

沈黙や宇宙の人の言語なり

*in the yard of the house
a house warming
by little sparrows

雀の子家暖める庭の中

*for the jingle of coins
showers of sweet songs
the street singer.

コイン得て歌のシャワーや街の歌手

*while stepping down
refused to show their faces
the mountain steps.

山下り顔見せ拒む石の段

*even the bitter relations
become sweet jack-fruit-peals
in the shadow of separation

苦き仲別れの影や甘くなる

*to see the flowers
always searching in the soil
the roots of a plant

花見むと植物の根の土探し

*The bamboo embraced
The winter fire holes…
Lovely flute born!

竹抱かれ冬の火の穴フルートや

……………………………………..by Kaa.Na.Kalyanasundaram,
Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India.

Thanking you Sir,

Kaa.Na.Kalyanasundaram,

No:CT-8, Navin Tara Garden,

4/318, OMR, Kottivakkam,

Chennai-600041,Tamil Nadu,

India.

The next posting ‘Tanka by Wahyu W. Basjir in Indonesia’ appears on November 13.

― Hidenori Hiruta

Thursday, September 22, 2011

FORE WORD

Asked to write a foreword to Mr.Kaa.Na.Kalyanasundaram's collection of Haiku poems entitled "The Smile of Humanity" translatged from his original tamil writing "Manithaneyath thuligal", I wish to mention the following :
A foreword is only a sign post directing the reader's attention to spots of beauty and guiding him to have a better appreciation of the poems.
The present selection is representative of Mr.Kalyanasundaram's poems. His career as a poet and lyricist started while yet in his teens; and many of his verses were set to music and broadcast on the All India Radio. And some of his poems appeared in the periodicals and some have even won some awards. However, it is for the first time that he bnrings out volume of his poems which lay claim to be 'Haiku', a Japanese verse form, popular from the 17th to the 19th Century, transported to France first, and then to other countries, and finally to India (particularly in Tamil Nadu)through English.

'Haiku" is a lyric of 17 syllables in lines of 5,7,5 syllables; and the early translations of the Japanese verses were a mere metrical and rhymed jingles; later imitators attempted to render them in the form of prose which was then mistaken to be' vers libre'.

What is a name? A rose is a rose is a rose and good poetry makes its presence known through its fragrance. Onething common between Japanese haiku and Kalyanasundaram's verses is the use of natural imagery, the tendency to draw on literary and cultural traditions, and the eternal love of humanism. He aims at showing human nature in various lights and in all its varied dimensions. There is a longing for the emergence of a classless society, a welfare state where the sorrows of the needy, the diseased and the destitutes would find no place. Instance are:

'Pieeons are being sold to
The paralytics...
peace-talks are buried'

Jam from abdullah's house
Is spread on ...
The bread of Peter's house!

I must admit that the Tamil original has much more to offer than the translation. Hower, the attempts made by the author Mr.N.Kalyanasundaram and the translator Mr.Maha Madivaanan are commendable, and I wish them success in all their future endeavours!. All I could say is this: I enjoyed reading them. I hope you will.

..........By Dr.M.D.Jayabalan, M.A.,Ph.D.,
Rtd. Head, PG Dept.of English,
Arignar Anna Govt.Arts College, Cheyyar,
T.V.Malai Dist.