Western
artists and writers have pulled from the tradition of East Asia for another reason:
brevity, conciseness, and simplicity.
 |
| Mies van der Rohe architecture: “Less is more.” |
From the sketches of Pablo Picasso, to
the four-word stanzas of William Carlos Williams’s “The Red Wheelbarrow,” to
the “Less is more” steel and glass geometry of Mies van der Rohe’s architecture,
this aspect of the aesthetic of East Asia has opened up new possibilities in
the art of the West. Traditionally, ornateness and opulence were more or less
synonymous with artistry in Europe.
 |
| Medieval ivory carving, Louvre Museum |
Think of the highly populated worlds of
medieval ivory carvings, and the intricacies of such forms as the sestina, not
to mention Tolstoy’s novels, requiring an index of the myriad of characters.
Enter
the purity of East Asian art, influenced by the sensibility of Buddhism,
particularly Zen.
 |
| Moon jar, South Korea |
In
poetry, this aesthetic is most pronounced in such forms as the tanka or waka,
which creates the fulcrum of a story in only thirty-one syllables. And of
course there’s haiku, which gives the readers a moment of heightened awareness
in only seventeen syllables.
Even
though the initial translations of East Asian poetry into European languages
were in French, the aesthetic of East Asian poetry was slower to influence Paris
modernism. In France, the new writing of the early twentieth century was
closely linked to the subconscious, and the subconscious requires free
association. Free association often takes the form of long lines or prose poems
that allow for an outpouring of imagery, as in the writing of Guillaume
Apollinaire or André Breton. The extended lines of Walt Whitman were more of an
influence for the French modernists than the poets of East Asia.
To
my mind, the French modernist who shows the greatest influence of East Asian
writing is the poet Jean Follain, who lived from 1903 to 1971.
 |
| Jean Follain, French poet (1903–1971) |
Follain, unlike many of his contemporaries, was not a follower of “isms.” In fact, in contrast to many of the revolutionary French writers of his time, he worked as a lawyer and then as a district judge. Many of the artists of his era flocked to the artistic center of Paris, where the cafes were continually churning out new literary movements. The great urban centers can sometimes be surprisingly provincial in their insistence on embracing the latest avant-garde. But Follain lived much of his life in the provinces, in the little town of Canisy in Normandy, in the north of France.
 |
| Canisy, Normandy, France |
He was somewhat isolated from other
French writers. This may be one of the reasons that he was open to influences
outside Europe, particularly East Asian writing.
For
Follain, the short line and the poem of few words becomes a way of sketching
the fates of living beings, much the same way that a haiku or tanka poem can.
Here,
for example, is Follain’s poem “Dog with Schoolboys”:
Dog with Schoolboys
For
fun the schoolboys crack the ice
along
a path
next
to the railroad
they
are heavily clothed
in
dark old woolens
belted
with beat leather
The
dog that follows them
no
longer has a bowl to eat from
he
is old
for
he is their age.
(translation
copyright © by Keith Waldrop)
This
poem is almost a Zen koan. It presents the odd spectacle of schoolboys
wandering by themselves, ostensibly having fun, but there is way too much
silence and emptiness in this poem for their amusement to be anything but a way
to heighten the pathos. Something about the schoolboys “dark old woolens” and
“beat leather” suggests anything but a carefree childhood, and may even imply
domestic violence.
Follain
holds off on introducing the dog until the last four lines. Unlike the boys,
the dog is homeless. The last two lines are understated but shot through with
emotion: “he is old/for he is their age.” The paradox is that for a dog, the
age of twelve or thirteen is past middle age, while the boys are the same age
but still young. And yet…we sense that there is something old about these boys,
repeating the ageless pranks that schoolboys have always played, in worn-out
clothing, like the garb of old men. They are next to a railroad track, but
ironically, they are not going anywhere. Their lives, like that of the homeless
dog, are laid out before them, and those fates seem anything but promising. “Dog
with Schoolboys” is a poem that shifts rapidly in perspective, and opens a sort
of bottomless, emotional trapdoor at the end. It reminds me of the very famous
Japanese haiku by Ransetsu:
 |
| Hattori Ransetsu, Japanese poet (1654–1707) |
The
childless woman,
How
tender she is
To
the dolls!
(translated
by R.H. Blythe)
In
Ransetsu’s haiku, he also sets the scene, and then suddenly pulls the rug out
from under the reader, leaving only pathos. Ironically, the non-human world evokes
human loneliness.
Follain’s
“Dog with Schoolboys” also reminds me of those great tanka poems where there
are two separate sections, connected only metaphorically. I’m thinking, for
example, of this classic by the 10th century poet Fujiwara no
Toshiyuki:
 |
| Fujiwara no Toshiyuki, tenth century C.E. Japanese poet |
waves crowd the shore
Even at night
by the corridors of dreams
I come to you secretly
(adapted from the translation of
Kenneth Rexroth)
The
poet allows the reader to make the connection between the waves crowding the
shore and the speaker, who is visiting his beloved in a dream. It is only on
reflection that we realize that the waves could be a metaphor for the speaker
in the dream. That wonderful phrase “crowd the shore” tells us that a love that
penetrates even to dreams is a bit overbearing.
Follain
draws on this sort of metaphorical tanka in his poetry, often presenting two or
three or more elements in his poems that seem unrelated. It’s up to the reader
to place these elements in a continuum along an axis, and to figure out what
that axis is. Follain borrowed from East Asian poetry to create a poetics where
the reader has to solve the puzzle.
The Influence of East Asian Literature on Western Poetry, Part 1, Introduction
The Influence of East Asian Literature on Western Poetry, Part 2, The Akhmatova Bridge
The Influence of East Asian Literature on Western Poetry, Part 4: Jack Kerouac's Haiku; and Conclusion
The Influence of East Asian Literature on Western Poetry, Part 2, The Akhmatova Bridge
The Influence of East Asian Literature on Western Poetry, Part 4: Jack Kerouac's Haiku; and Conclusion
Zack’s most recent book of poems, Irreverent Litanies
Zack’s most recent translation, Bérénice 1934–44: An Actress in Occupied Paris by Isabelle Stibbe
Other recent posts on writing topics:
How to Get Published
Getting the Most from Your Writing Workshop
How Not to Become a Literary Dropout
Putting Together a Book Manuscript
Working with a Writing Mentor
How to Deliver Your Message
Does the Muse Have a Cell Phone?
Why Write Poetry?
Poetic Forms: Introduction; The Sonnet, The Sestina, The Ghazal, The Tanka, The Villanelle
Praise and Lament
How to Be an American Writer
Writers and Collaboration
Types of Closure in Poetry
