It is rare for an author to embark on "bookmaking". The writer from Siófok, Ferenc Bakos, has now undertaken this: not only has he enriched our literature with a new work, but - according to his afterword - he has planned it, typed it, folded it and bound it himself. He did not let his dreams and plans go to waste, and created his new trilogy, Haiku, without the help of a publisher. The author of Csonttollú madarak tele (1975), has seemed to have been silent since his second book, Szindbádia (1993). Only the haiku bouquets that appeared again and again in the Somogy magazine and the radio broadcast of Harmat hull a peóníád, based on the Chinese Taoist philosophy of love, indicated that something was being prepared in the writer's "eastern" workshop.

This time, the author excels in a special genre of poetry: he captures the haiku with his spirit, which captures a moment of life with a syllable count of 5-7-5 in three lines - but it says much more than that. Ferenc Bakos has long been involved in Eastern cultures and is a devotee of haiku; he is one of the founders of the Tokyo-based International Haiku Association, whose multilingual periodical also regularly publishes his writings. The three small volumes of Haiku, bound with string, are a pleasure to hold in your hands; the beautiful cover, the inner paper, the colorful pages and the pictures all show the author's care and sophistication of taste.

The first volume: Centuries of Haiku. Classical and contemporary Japanese haiku in the translation of Ferenc Bakos. In his preface to the work - A pebble, if it falls - Ferenc Bakos presents his ars poetica about haiku. How should we write, translate and read haiku? - gives answers and advice to these questions. Then the poems are arranged chronologically, from the first master of haiku, the 17th century Basho, to contemporary authors, highlighting a characteristic piece from each. Then, under the heading Poetic Bouquets, he publishes three or four selections by a few selected poets. The Twelve Cats by Szató Kazuo is very imaginative, presenting the months of the year, as if as a calendar, through the lives of cats: "Summer is coming, and they.../ are learning a new yawn / from my wife." The translations are very enjoyable, and we suspect that Ferenc Bakos meets the expectations of a good translator cited in the preface: he has a rich experience of orthodox Zen, is able to write poetry in his native language, and has a thorough knowledge of Japanese literature.

The second volume: Rising Moon Shadow is a selection of the author's haiku triplets in English, Japanese, and Hungarian. Its title haiku is: "The shadow of the rising moon - / the fierce / heartbeat of a scarecrow". It is also interesting to see the calligraphy of the Japanese translation. It also includes the English translation of the Nine Haibun published in the last volume.

The third volume: Haiku honfoglászág. The haikus written by Ferenc Bakos in Hungarian. This volume is divided into three parts, thoughtfully and edited. Like the entire book: the three volumes, even three lines of haiku, provide the reader with a sense of completeness. The first part of Haiku honfoglászág is a Calendar for the year 2001. The calendar is divided according to the seasons: the haikus of Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter are surrounded by the pieces of the New Year and the Old Year. This is also connected to the Year of Mourning, in which the author commemorates his deceased mother: "Our mother's coffin - / May's beating light, / bird trill". Then he concludes the series with three haikus entitled Three celestial bodies, one of which was inspired by the solar eclipse of 1999: "During the eclipse, / did you think?, / To the crowing of a rooster!" The setting of the poems in the Kalendárium is - we feel it unspokenly - Hungary. The landscape with the lake, the hillside, the alternation of the seasons, the joyful and painful moments of life are familiar up close, and we even observe the universe, the comet plume from here. This is truly a conquest: of the genre, of the author! "From afar it tempts, / from close it sizzles: / water lily!"

In the second part, Ferenc Bakos shares with us poems about the experiences he experienced during his travels under the title Travel haiku. We can explore the magical regions of Sanskrit, Adriatic, Transylvania, Prague, Malta together with the writer, we can also go there with him in our imagination, and we can identify with the poet's feelings, through him we can also see the diverse landscapes: "A ship's journey to Malta - / my hat is carried by the wind: / a sea sacrifice!"

Ferenc Bakos' haikus and this genre in general are characterized by very strong imagery. When reading a short three-line poem, the idea expressed in it immediately appears in our minds' eyes. This does not mean that a haiku only depicts an image! A haiku does not stop at the image: it captures a moment in life, but this moment is not fixed - it moves on and comes to life in the reader's mind. Everyone sees the basic experience, but no one sees it in the same way. That is why: as many readers as there are haiku.

The third part of the volume is Nine Haibun. The beginning of the haibun is a short, diary-like essay that has a mood-creating function; the prose text prepares the concluding haiku. Ferenc Bakos, adhering to tradition, took the classic Japanese travel haibun as an example when creating his works. The Nine Haibun conveys the author's desert experiences, which are usually the resolution of a crisis situation. The haibun has a double benefit: it resolves the crisis and presents a haiku. A good example of this is the VII. haibun, where the author describes that in April the swallows that are migrating home rest in the area. One night the weather turns cold, and by morning there are bird carcasses lying in the sand. The poet has a special sight: a bird is trying to revive its dead companion, to lift it into the air. The writer lacks the courage or feels unauthorized to take the carcass in his hands and find another resting place for the bird. At this poignant moment, a haiku is born: "Over the bird carcass / a rattling acacia speaks / a church sermon." The volume closes with two travel memoirs: Nippon and The Desert. Ferenc Bakos' desert experience is defining and unique in Hungarian poetry. One of these excellent pieces is: "Desert wind - / when I long to see a person, / I look at my boots."

Haiku is not an easy genre, neither for the writer nor the reader, and moreover - as it is written in the preface - the real haiku is never where we look for it. "A good haiku is just like a pebble thrown into the pond of the reader's consciousness: it sets off gentle waves, it evokes associations from the richness of memory; it invites participation instead of admiration for the poet - so we simply let it fall into us." The reviewer left it anyway, and with a wave of soul-stirring experiences he dared to write this review.

 

Website visitors can also read the author's haiku in the editions of www.terebess.hu (Asia E-store) and www.eol.hu (Webigen). (Private publication, Siófok-Kiliti, 2000)

​

Andrea Vajda

FERENC BAKOS: HAIKU TRIPLE BOOK
Somogy , 2001. Issue 3, pages 282-283.