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My Haiku for the Rugby World Cup

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Published in Japan Forward 17/10/2019

The Japanese started playing rugby in the late 1890s, just a few decades after the foundation of the Rugby Union in England and the formalization of the rules. So it is no surprise that that the sport, although a minor one compared to baseball or football (“soccer”), has made a significant impact on Japanese culture.

Indeed, Inazo Nitobe, educator and author of Bushido: the Soul of Japan, linked rugby to the samurai code of honour.

“Playing baseball could be likened to picking a pocket,” he wrote in 1911. “To play baseball, you must be able to deceive the opposing team and lead them into a trap…  The British national sport is [rugby] football, and to play football you have to be strong and brave enough to keep the ball without fearing injury. You must keep the ball even if your nose is crooked or your jawbone is fractured…”

Many haiku poems have been written about rugby. Indeed, the word “rugby” has become one of the required “season words,” signifying winter. The poet Seishi Yamaguchi (1901-94) wrote dozens of rugby haiku. Even Shuji Terayama (1935-84) – poet, film-maker and icon of the Japanese counter-culture – produced a couple

In celebration of Japan’s outstanding performance in the 2019 World Cup, here are some  of my original haiku – or, to be precise, senryu, a lighter sub-genre which deals with human affairs, rather than nature, and does not mandate a season word.

 

She jumps to her feet

Shining eyes fixed to the screen

Japan takes the lead

 

The ex-prop forward

With ears like bacon rashers

Wipes tears from his eyes

 

Indeterminate

One bounce of a rugby ball

Changes everything

 

Why a penalty?

I give an explanation

Not knowing myself

 

We die live die live

Summoning the sun to shine

Respect the haka

 

The commentator

Once a brilliant fly-half

Stumbles over words

 

Enormous children

Scolded by the referee

Carry on fighting

 

Colbe’s sudden swerve

Makes them look ridiculous

The small man’s revenge

 

Muddy red jerseys

Sidestepping through memory

The cry of seagulls

 

Adults in their macs

Smell of beer and tobacco

I stand on tip-toes

 

John Dawes JPR

Phil Bennett Gareth Edwards

Sunset streaks the sky

 

A ghostly whistle

In an empty stadium

The final ‘no side’

 

All blossoms will fall

Even the bravest blossoms

Scatter in the wind

 

For those unfamiliar with rugby history, the last section refers to four legendary players from the golden age of Welsh rugby in the 1970s.

Over the next few weeks the Rugby World Cup 2019 will be coming to its climax, so there is still time to enjoy the sport and the associated revelry, as well as the boundless enthusiasm of the fans. The energy they bring to the cities and towns hosting this great event is remarkable and infectious.