A Net of Fireflies

Although haiku was known among avant-garde circles in the West prior to World War II, the literary form did not become familiar to a wider English-speaking audience until the late 1950s and early 1960s.  To a large degree, the publication of two anthologies introduced haiku to the reading citizenry:  Harold G. Henderson’s An Introduction to Haiku in 1958, and Harold Stewart’s A Net of Fireflies in 1960.

Of the two, Henderson’s work is probably better remembered today and more widely available.  Without taking anything away from Introduction’s continuing value through the decades, Fireflies deserves renewed attention.
 
Favorable notices greeted Stewart’s work in the United States.  Lauding the gallery of 33 paintings that accompanied the 320 haikus in the volume, the Los Angeles Times deemed Fireflies “one of the most beautiful books of the year.”  There was substance as well as style between the covers.
 
Arranged in four chapters to follow the seasons, a work by Sodō under the title “The Recluse” begins the chronology:
 
In my 10-foot bamboo hut this  spring,
There is nothing:  there is everything. [1]
 
Stewart was not defying convention by choosing to title the poems, or by using a rhyming couplet in his translations, or by exceeding 17 syllables.  There was no convention in 1960 on the presentation of a haiku in English. 
 
“The curious thing about these miniatures is that there is no sense of containment, seemingly no sense of limitation to  the vaulting and sometimes transcendent concepts which grow out of such a tiny seed of words,” wrote the Times.  “There are infinite riches in this tiny room.” [2]
 
To journey through the year:
 
MORE THAN FORGIVEN
 
Plum-blossoms give their fragrance still to him
Whose thoughtless hand has broken off their limb.
                                                                           --Chiyo-ni
 
RETURN OF THE DISPOSSESSED
 
The same old village: here where I  was born,
Every flower I touch—a hidden thorn.
                                                                           --Issa
 
DANCERS OF OLD KYOTO
 
The geisha flirt their fans; their sashes trail;
Like goldfish undulating fins and tail.
                                                                           --Getto
 

IRONICAL                                                                                                                      
How hot the pedlar, panting with his pack
Of fans—A load of breezes on his back!
                                                                           --Kakô

 
AFTER THE DEATH OF HER LOVER
 
Sitting or lying, still I wake.  How wide
The net is now, with no one at my side!
                                                                           --Ukihashi
  
DOUBLE-EDGED
 
Into the darkness which a lightning-streak
Has slashed, recedes the wild night-heron’s shriek.
                                                                           --Bashô
 
CONTRARY-WILLED
 
Struggling to walk against this windy rain,
My wild umbrella drives me back again.
                                                                           --Shisei
 
THE VOICE OF SNOW
 
That flight of egrets, if they gave no cry,
Would be a streak of snow across the sky.
                                                                           --Sôkan [3]
 
“The poems are remarkable for their compression and for a certain quality of illusiveness,” said the Indianapolis News, “yet there is present a lyricism, a kind of gentle singing that delights the ear.” [4]
 
Stewart’s use of the couplet in his translations did not pass without complaint.  “The problem of translating haiku into couplets is that they lose their openness,” wrote Vera F. Haile of the San Francisco Examiner.  “Stewart maintains that couplets are the only form suitable to retain the music of haiku poetry (all translators of haiku seem to go to great lengths to defend the form they choose) but the music of a couplet too often is a tinkling melody without depth or resonance.” [5]
 
Another California reviewer foresaw a fight looming and ducked out of the way.   “Whether the couplet is the most appropriate form is a matter for combative scholars,” the Sacramento Bee said. [6]
 
No one disputed the art selected for the volume.
 
 

Mountain Temple in Spring by Suzuki Koson

River Breeze by Ishikawa Kinichirô

Autumn in a Mountain Village by Ishikawa Kinichirô

 
 

Wintry Grove Under a Waning Moon by Suzuki Rimpû [7]

 

A wide-ranging essay on the essence of haiku occupies about a third of the book’s 150 pages of text on folded leaves.  Stewart expects a lot from the writer of haiku, and his advice is as valuable today as it was in 1960.  “The spontaneous conception and impromptu expression required for a successful haiku are…a supreme test of poetic concentration, conciseness and clarity.  The eye must always be on the object: the poet nowhere to be seen.” [8]
 
For its historical perspective as well as its continued relevance, A Net of Fireflies deserves a place on anyone’s haiku bookshelf.  It is well worth the modest effort and cost to obtain a copy from the second-hand market.  Ignore any paperback reprint; find a first-edition version, one with  the green box cover as shown at the top of this article.  The purchaser will not be disappointed.
 

---

[1] Stewart, Harold, A Net of Fireflies:  Japanese Haiku and Haiku Paintings, Tokyo, Charles E. Tuttle Company, 1960, 13
[2] The Los Angeles Times, January 10, 1961, III-5
[3] Stewart, Fireflies:  More than Forgiven, 14; Return of the Dispossessed, 30; Dancers of Old Kyoto, 45; Ironical, 55; After the Death of Her Lover, 72; Double-Edged, 78; Contrary-Willed, 96; The Voice of Snow, 104
[4] The Indianapolis News, February 11, 1961, 2
[5] The San Francisco Examiner, February 12, Highlight, 7
[6] The Sacramento Bee, January 8, 1961, L14
[7] Stewart, Fireflies:  Mountain Temple, 21; River Breeze, 42; Autumn in a Mountain Village, 67; Wintry Grove, 100.  Artwork in the public domain.
[8] Ibid, 123—124

Russell Streur
 
Holder of two awards for excellence from the Georgia Poetry Society, Streur is the author of Fault Zones (Blue Hour Press, 2017) and his work is included in the anthology of Georgia poetry Stone, River, Sky (Negative Capability Press, 2015).  He is currently the editor of the on-line eco-poetic journal, Plum Tree Tavern, located at https://theplumtreetavern.blogspot.com/

A version of this article was originally published in Seashores, Volume 10, April 2023.