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Journal of Undergraduate Research

Keywords

haiku, Taneda Sant¨ka, Japanese, English, poetry

College

Family, Home, and Social Sciences

Department

Asian and Near Eastern Languages

Abstract

Apart from an all too brief period of popularity during the early ’80’s, the poetry of Taneda Sant©ka (1882-1940) has languished in relative anonymity. He has yet to enjoy the household-name status of fellow haijin like Bash©, IkkyÅ, Ry©kan, et al. This strikes me as inexcusable and yet somehow expected. The life of Sant©ka was defined more by its defeat, rejection, and loneliness than by its triumph, acceptance or fellowship. What amazed me when I first came upon his work (and continues to amaze me now) was how, despite alcoholicism, poverty, malnutrition, suicidal dementia, emotional desolation and loneliness so sharp it pierced him to the soul, he retained within himself the capacity to experience Beauty so powerfully, so purely as to be ineffable. And yet, Sant©ka did find words for it, confusing, revealing, troubling, solacing words. In his peregrinations, emotional and physical, we find ourselves uniquely centered, grounded, exquisitely aware of both anguish and joy. His poetry embodied traditional Zen qualities like simplicity (wabi), solitude (sabi), and impermanence (muj©), but at the same time was capable of explosive emotional force.

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