A little haiku visits my home
A little haiku came to me, while I was going through some of the photos I had clicked. It whispered in my ear and enticed me with its beauty. Before this spark of creativity, I had dabbled on some of the online haiku platforms where you could collaborate with others to stitch up a haiku by contributing one line to it. However, I was unsatisfied. Results were patchy, unappealing and sadly it put me off from this wonderful form of poetry
It seems, haiku had some other plans for me. It came back in my life holding the hand of two stalwart poetesses of Marathi literature, Shirish Pai and Shanta Shelke. These two ladies introduced and popularised haiku into Marathi literature. While reading their little haikus, I started understanding the nuances of this form. I will not dare to claim an understanding of the form, but I have managed to get a bit of a hang of it.
My journey with Haiku
My journey which started with stitching one line into someone else’s piece has reached to writing the complete haiku on my own. Fitting the complete thought into just three lines while following the rules of the form is a tough task. Thankfully, these two lighthouses of Marathi literature have adapted the form to suit the nuances and structure of Marathi language and changed some rules which couldn’t be followed because of the nature of the language itself. As I read more and more Marathi haikus, my own work was improving. I was able to muster up courage and publish a desk calendar for 2024 with my friend which had my haikus and her lineart.
I was again browsing my photos to find inspiration to start my season of Half Marathon with Blogchatter, that little bird whispered in my ear again for a photo from my last year’s Banaras Retreat which keeps inspiring me time and again. This time, I tried one in Hindi.
Hope you enjoy it.
This post is a part of Blogchatter Half Marathon 2024
Discover more from Adi's Journal
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Reading your article made me to recollect that Haiku is closely related to the Sanskrit Metre “Kanya”
“kanya” metre is a news for me. I need to check. Thanks for sharing!
Never saw Marathi Haikus before. Well done, Aditya! Is that a pic from when we were travelling together in the boat?
Yes, it’s from the same morning boat ride!
Wow … Haiku in Marathi !! Very , very interesting. I love how you pick up the inspiration to write from the resources around you.
Oh yes, these two ladies have belted out hundreds if not thousands of Marathi Haikus during their times. I haven’t even crossed quarter century… It’s difficult to boil it down to three tiny lines.
I have tried understanding how to write haikus but haven’t been able to understand its rhythms. I loved the Hindi one – especially because I understood what it means!
I dont now much about how, when and where Haiku was born but I loved the way you talked about it and the way it made an entry in your life.