Not So Frequently Asked Questions
This is the section where I answer the questions nobody has been
writing in and asking repeatedly. If you would actually like to ask a
question that nobody has asked yet, please send it to
hdnr@floodgap.com.
* What does hitori dake no renga mean?
Literally, "one person alone's renga," or, more freely, "one-man
linked verse."
I introduce the concept in #1: "One Man Poetry."
* What is renga?
Renga and renku (also referred to as haikai no renga) are Japanese
"linked poems," a form of collaborative linked verse.
Traditionally these poems were, as the description implies, done
by multiple poets, one giving a prompt, and another a response.
These poems were classically using a five sound unit/seven sound
unit/five sound unit stanza (technically morae in Japanese, a
distinction we'll talk about) for the first stanza (the hokku) and
a 7-7 sound unit second stanza called the waki. Subsequent stanzas
have their own special terms, but these first two are obligatory.
There are certain customs and traditions about how the various
stanzas of formal renga should be formed, which I haven't strictly
observed here; the 5-7-5 stanza, of course, has taken on a life of
its own and is today the well-known modern haiku. There is more
about the technical construction of formal renga in Wikipedia.
* If renga is collaborative, how can this be renga?
Solitary renga like this one have always existed, though strictly
speaking they would be part of the more general category of tanka.
However, I have endeavoured (wherever possible) to keep the
prompt-response format with sharp division between the stanzas and
preserve the flavour of a true collaborative renga (in this case
reminiscent of multiple personality disorder), plus infect these
poems with the gleefully austere doggerel style that especially
characterizes haikai no renga (for a particularly snarky vulgar
example, see the renku Wikipedia entry). For that reason, these
poems are best rated PG.
* Your syllabification is weird. (Or wrong.)
No, it isn't (I don't think). One problem is that English speakers
who don't understand the difference between morae and syllables
will run multiple phonemes together into valid English syllables
when there are a greater number of actual Japanese morae. For
example, most English speakers would see haiku as two syllables,
haiy-KOOH, but in Japanese it would be three morae ha-i-ku.
Similarly, most English speakers would see n as part of the coda
of a syllable, rendering renga as REN-gah, but in Japanese it also
has three morae re-n-ga.
You'll notice I have avoided defining what a mora actually is, and
in fact nobody has a good formal definition (this is me speaking
as someone with a Bachelor's in linguistics) except to say that
they are not syllables as we think of them in English. In fact,
syllables may have one or multiple morae.
The modern English haiku form gets around this problem by using
syllables as the sound unit, which virtually all English speakers
can instinctively parse, but syllabification between dialects
naturally can vary. For example, idea in my particular idiolect
(Californian with an Australian national mother) has three
syllables. Since I'm the poet, my diction is always the correct
one by definition, darn you all, but where there is likely to be
contention I will use diereses to mark off syllables. For Japanese
words where morae should be counted instead, I have parsed them
out for the reader. However, if I have made a mathematical error,
I would appreciate the correction.
* I love your work. I would like to reprint it. Possibly even send
you money. Maybe.
HDNR is under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 license. In a
nutshell, this means you have implicit permission to redistribute
*my original work*, or to screw around with it, provided you give me
credit and aren't doing it for money.
Blogs and stuff like that are also okay, even if you are making
money on the blog (you big fat liar), as long as you aren't
charging people to look at it and credit is given. A link back is
appreciated and so is hosting a copy of the panel on your own
server. I'd like to hear about it, of course, but you still
have my implicit blessing. Send it to hdnr@floodgap.com.
If you are doing it for money, like merchandise you intend to sell
or a newspaper with paid circulation or some such thing, I'll
probably still let you do it assuming you're not putting them into
a book and selling them as an item (unless you give me a big piece
of the action), but you will need to get permission from me first
by mailing hdnr@floodgap.com and depending on your circulation
and use I may ask for a formal arrangement to be made.
I put *my original work* in *bold* for a reason: in some of these
panels I use artwork that is the copyrighted property of other
people. I believe this use to be appropriate and legal under the
concept of fair use in the United States for purposes of social
commentary, but that doesn't mean your use will be construed the
same and I can't give permission for images I didn't own in the
first place. For panels using those images, permission for their
use will need to be secured separately, if required, and you will
need to make the judgment call for yourself to determine if it is.
If you aren't sure about the sources for something I've done, I
will be happy to tell you.
* Are you Japanese?
No.
* Do you spend too much time listening to J-Pop?
Probably. Mostly anime OSTs though.
All art and verse except where noted are copyright 2008, Cameron
Kaiser. All rights reserved.
Certain images may be copyrighted by other parties and appear here
under fair use in the spirit of social commentary. They remain the
property of their respective holders.