Let haiku be on the UNESCO list!
Here is a letter of support of the campaign from Mr. Zoran Raonić, Pljevlja, Montenegro.
The former half is written in Montenegrin, and the latter half in English.
We sincerely wish to appreciate and share it with each other.
Dear Hidenori-san, dear Akito-san,
sending you my regards from Montenegro.
Haiku helped me and many Montengerin authors to connect with poets worldwide. And knowing that everywhere on the Planet there are people who respect Nature, live in a modest way and care for other people in emphaty, gives me hope that things will go on just right with this world of ours.
Sincerely,
Zoran Raonić, Pljevlja, Montenegro
***
Haiku poezija u Crnoj Gori odavno ima svoje značajno mjesto. Još od 1928. godine, kada je Miloš Crnjanski preveo i objavio izbor Pjesme starog Japana, i u Jugoslaviju donio jedan sasvim nov (iako u Japanu i na Istoku vjekovima poznat i praktikovan) poetski žanr, ujedno objasnivši sve bitne poetičke odlike te „najkraće pjesme na svijetu“, haiku poezija i ovdje dobija sve više i više pristalica, kako među stvaraocima, tako i među čitaocima. Haiku odavno više nije neka egzotična pojava niti pojava na koju se gleda sa nepovjerenjem, naprotiv, u Crnoj Gori to je već pokret koji predvodi stotinjak stvaralaca te male-velike pjesme o prirodi, rečeno u najširem i najopštijem značenju tog pojma.
Haiku pjesma opisuje nešto kakvo ono zaista jeste, bez poređenja i bez metafora, što u Crnoj Gori ima puni smisao čak i kad se poređenje i metafora koriste i više nego je uobičajeno, jer se nešto naše, bez pretjerivanja, ne može upoređivati s drugim – može samo to drugo da se upoređuje sa našim, jer ovo naše je najljepše i najbolje (u protivnom bilo bi grđenje!). Zato haiku pjesma i jeste naša koliko japanska, i koliko svi uzori na koje se ona oslanja u svom hodu ka Zapadu, gdje tokom cijelog 20. stoljeća dobija sve više i više pristalica, i o njoj se kao o nečemu tuđem i „uvoznom“ (kako neki mrzovoljnici žele da pokude), više i ne razmišlja u ozbiljnim krugovima, jer, pobogu, šta je to više originalno naše ili bilo čije – počev od epa, priče, soneta, romana … Sve ovo poseban smisao dobija nakon proglašenja Crne Gore ekološkom državom, koju su možda samo haiđini dočekali spremno.
***
Haiku poetry is an important genre in Montenegro for a long time. Ever since 1928, when Miloš Crnjanski translated and published a Choice of poetry from the traditional Japan, thus introducing an entirely new poetical genre to Yugoslavia, at the same time explaining all important poetical characteristics of the shortest poetry in the world, haiku poetry has its followers, their number growing among creators as well as the readers. For a long time by now, haiku is not an exotic appearance looked upon with distrust, on the contrary, in Montenegro it is the largest movement lead by about a hundred creators of this small but great poem about nature, told in the broadest meaning of this term.
Haiku poem writes about something the very way it is, without comparison and metaphor, which has a full meaning in Montenegro, where both comparison and metaphor have been used more than usual, for something that is ours, without exaggeration, cannot be compared with other – only this other can be compared to ours, for our is the most beautiful and the best (on the contrary it would be a vituperation). That’s why haiku poem is our poetry as much as it belongs to Japan, and as much as all the models on its way to the West are, where during the XX. century it is given more and more admirers, and about it spoken as of something strange and „imported“ (as some “grouches“ wish to scold it), not thought of in serious literature circles, for, for God’s sake, what is more originally ours or anybody else’s – starting with epical poetry, stories, sonnets, novels… All this gains a special meaning after declaring Montenegro and ecological country, and that was perhaps, only to the joy of ready awaited for by the Montenegrin haijins.
Zoran Raonić, Pljevlja, Montenegro
Akita International Haiku Network 