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WHC Contests

ANNOUNCEMENT

SENRYU IN ENGLISH COMPETITION
R. H. Blyth Award 2003 [WHC]

"My way of joking is to tell the truth. It's the funniest joke in the world."
.................George Bernard Shaw 1856-1950, John Bull's Other Island (1907)

Dear Senryu Lovers of the World,

Like many other things, GBS put in the best way what I want to say, this time about the R. H. Blyth Award 2003: Senryu.

One man's "sense of humour" is another man's poison and humour seldom crosses national, cultural and linguistic barriers. However, when we are in difficulty why not ask the great man himself, Blyth?

"... 'Humour' means joyful, unsentimental pathos that arises from the paradox inherent in the nature of things...Poetry and humour are thus very close; we may say that they are two different aspects of the same thing...Humour is laughing at all things; in Buddhist parlance, seeing that 'all things are empty in their self-nature', and rejoicing in this truth...senryu, like Cassius, 'look quite through the deeds of men'...A really good senryu [...], echoing in the mind 'long after it is heard no more.'..."    ....(Randomly quoted, in a most unacademic manner, from his 'Japanese Life and Character in Senryu')

"...I now think [...] that humour, in its broadest meaning, and as including or rather suffusing poetry, is the real thing..."....... (From the preface to 'Humour in English Literature', 1959)

His classification of different kinds of humour in senryu is one of the best. There can be more kinds added (e.g. current topics humour or satire, lavatory or bawdy humour) but for this competition the Blyth list should be an adequate help (They should be fairly obvious but for detailed explanation read the book itself):

1. Grim Humour

2. Tragic Humour

3. Irony

4. Linguistic Humour

5. Kindly Humour

6. Shakespearean Humour

7. Humour of Exposed Pretence

8. Humour of Indirectness

9. The Humour of Stupidity

10. Parody

This year's R. H. Blyth Award is devoted to senryu but not in the sense it is practiced outside Japan. The details of this important competition will follow. It is a serious attempt with potentially widespread influence but conducted in a humorous manner. For those who may not know exactly what is required, a kind of pathfinder is pasted at the end, though what is mentioned there is not a definitive condition of the contest. Respond to the Blyth Award challenge now with a smile on your face and a twinkle in your eyes, since after all wit is the soul of brevity, i.e. life.  Enjoy. I mean both life and senryu!

Guidelines:

Overview:  R. H. Blyth's appreciation of Eastern sense of humour, particularly that of Japan, was profound. The essence of Japanese senryu is this sense of humour. This year the World Haiku Club presents senryu as the chosen field of the R. H. Blyth Award.

Category: Senryu but not according to any definitions which are postulated outside Japan. Those works which follow them will not be considered. The main feature must be humour in all its manifestations. There is no particular restrictions as to form, style, subject matter or any other conventions so long as humour is the main thing.

Standards & Quality: Highest standards and quality will be sought in this Competition.

Language:  English (senryu written in any other languages must be translated into English. Please, therefore, aim at top-quality translation. Other languages will not be considered)

Eligibility: Open to everybody in the world. Your works must be new, original, unpublished and not being considered elsewhere. By submitting them, you shall be deemed to have agreed to give permission that the works may be published in the announcement, publication or any other use which WHC deem fit, including World Haiku Review. The copyrights shall revert to the authors once their works are published. Any work in breach of these requirements, or of any other normal practice of international haiku contests, including those under WHC, which the organisers deem reasonable, will be rejected and prizes awarded will be rescinded.

Submission of Works and Fees: You can submit up to 10 senryu. The fees are: US$ 8, Euro 8, or Yen 1,000 for the first three senryu (it will be the same if you submit only one or two senryu) and additional: 1, US$ 2, Euro 2 or Yen 500 for each subsequent senryu. No other currencies will be accepted. (e.g. in US$, 10 senryu would be: $8 for the first 3 plus $2 x 7 = $14, making the total fees $ 22)

Payment in cash (sending banknotes by normal letter post) is the preferred method to avoid high bank commission costs (no problems have been experienced so far, but make sure to put the banknotes within at least two sheets of your folded letter paper) but this will be at the sender's risk. Otherwise, obtain International Money Order in British pounds, or sterling cheque drawn at UK banks, payable to "World Haiku Festival". (Please make the denomination in British pound sterling)

Type your works, your first names, your SURNAME (in capital letters), address, tel/fax, e-mail address, haiku pen name, if any, with a brief bio. If you add a brief account about each senryu, that would be useful. (How you lay your poems on paper may not necessarily be observed in the event of publication for technical reasons.)

Send your works with your payment by snail mail to: Headquarters, The World Haiku Club, Leys Farm, Rousham, Bicester, England OX25 4RA. In addition, send the same works also by e-mail to: WHC.takiguchi@susumu.freeserve.co.uk

Deadline:  to reach us by Sunday 31 August 2003

Judges: TBA

Announcement of the result: The results will be announced either on 28 October, the day of Blyth's death, or on 3 December, Blyth's birthday, or on another occasion if and when it arises. There will be the winner, two runners-up, and seven honourable mentions. No individual enquiries regarding works submitted will be answered.

Award: The R. H. Blyth Award will be conferred to the winner. No prize is considered at the moment for the rest of the best ten, except for the honour of selection.

Publication: The best ten and some other works of merit will be published in World Haiku Review, the WHC's world-wide comprehensive haiku magazine, and will also be widely shown via WHC's lists and other communication network.

***

A PATHFINDER FOR THE R. H. BLYTH AWARD 2003-SENRYU

1) The broadest framework is "humour" in the broadest sense, or in all senses. 

"..., the liveliest effusions of wit and humour are conveyed to the world in the best chosen language." (Northanger Abbey, ch. 5, Jane Austen 1775 - 1817)

2) The FORM can be based on that of existing haiku or senryu, only freer. Broadly, it should be "brief" and have some kind of "rhythm" and "style";

3) The intention is to make someone smile/laugh in various ways;

4) It could be roughly divided into (a) good, elegant and sophisticated humour; (b) low humour; (c) ridicule and mockery, i.e. poignant humour. In each, there can be brilliant senryu or bad ones.

(a) good, elegant and sophisticated humour: witticism, stroke of wit, jeu d'esprit, sally, bon mot, epigram, pun, punning, play upon words, banter, sophistry, all said in a refined, sophisticated and subtle way;

(b) low humour: joke, low joke, broad jest, facetiousness, jocularity, jocosity, jocularity, vis comica, trifling, flippancy, tom-foolery, slapstick, fun, frivolity;

(c) ridicule and mockery: derision, poking fun, mockery, self-mockery, biting wit, cruel humour, satire, scoffing, flippancy, sniggering, crank, quirk, banter, leg-pulling, chaff, buffoonery, clowning, foolery, irony, sarcasm, barbed shaft, backhanded compliment, caricature; "Ridicule is the only honourable weapon we have left." (The Desegregation of Art, 1971, by Muriel Spark (1918 - )

5) SUBJECT MATTER (anything that causes laughter)

1) Human beings: ourselves, others, people, politicians, men in authority;

2) Human behaviours, phenomena and institutions: societies, communities, nation, establishments, tradition and practice etc., etc.;

3) Nature: animal kingdom, natural phenomena

4) Just about anything else where humour is found

---

Only a few examples of good senryu:

In the whole village

The husband alone
Does not know of it.

In the beautiful woman,
Somewhere or other
His wife finds flaws.

Going to desert her child,
She gives it
All the milk she has.

'Shut up the house carefully'
Before you go to bed,'
He repeats, going off to burgle.

What a beautiful character!
He gives up his seat to someone, --
When he gets off.

while she remains choosy
about her future husband, a willow tree
has turned wooden mortars

if his self-conceit
is removed, no one is left
to love him

After the greetings are over,
He becomes
Cold-eyed again.

When Buddha was born
He immediately
Blew his own trumpet.

instead of scolding the wife,
praise words were said about
the bride next door

bowing from inside his train
to those bowing back on the platform --
he still bows to cows in the field

having told every member
of the family never to forget it again,
I forgot to lock the door myself

a country
where you, if you write a senryu,
could be arrested


which is harder, getting
blood out of a stone, or
senryu out of you?

Smiling like a river or willow
(sen=river, ryu=willow),

Susumu

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