Jack Kerouac expounds on Haiku

[Will Dockery]

Haiku instructions from Jack Kerouac...

http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4260/the-art-of-fiction-no-41-jack-kerouac

"Haiku? You want to hear haiku? You see you got to compress into three short
lines a great big story. First you start with a haiku situation—so you see a
leaf, as I told her the other night, falling on the back of a sparrow during
a great big October wind storm. A big leaf falls on the back of a little
sparrow. How you going to compress that into three lines? Now in Japanese
you got to compress it into seventeen syllables. We don’t have to do that in
American—or English—because we don’t have the same syllabic bullshit that
your Japanese language has. So you say: “Little sparrow”—you don’t have to
say little—everybody knows a sparrow is little because they fall so you
say'..." -Jack Kerouac

Excerpted for example, discussion and educational fair use purposes...
guidelines from the top shelf.

[Will Dockery]

Haiku instructions from Jack Kerouac...

http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4260/the-art-of-fiction-no-41-jack-kerouac

"Haiku? You want to hear haiku? You see you got to compress into three short
lines a great big story. First you start with a haiku situation—so you see a
leaf, as I told her the other night, falling on the back of a sparrow during
a great big October wind storm. A big leaf falls on the back of a little
sparrow. How you going to compress that into three lines? Now in Japanese
you got to compress it into seventeen syllables. We don’t have to do that in
American—or English—because we don’t have the same syllabic bullshit that
your Japanese language has. So you say: “Little sparrow”—you don’t have to
say little—everybody knows a sparrow is little because they fall so you
say'..." -Jack Kerouac

Excerpted for example, discussion and educational fair use purposes...
guidelines from the top shelf, worth another view.

[Will Dockery]

Haiku instructions from Jack Kerouac... for David Carothers, who asked about
the American version...

http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4260/the-art-of-fiction-no-41-jack-kerouac

"Haiku? You want to hear haiku? You see you got to compress into three short
lines a great big story. First you start with a haiku situation—so you see a
leaf, as I told her the other night, falling on the back of a sparrow during
a great big October wind storm. A big leaf falls on the back of a little
sparrow. How you going to compress that into three lines? Now in Japanese
you got to compress it into seventeen syllables. We don’t have to do that in
American—or English—because we don’t have the same syllabic bullshit that
your Japanese language has. So you say: “Little sparrow”—you don’t have to
say little—everybody knows a sparrow is little because they fall so you
say'..." -Jack Kerouac

Excerpted for example, discussion and educational fair use purposes...
guidelines from the top shelf.

...

[Will Dockery]

Haiku instructions from Jack Kerouac...

http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4260/the-art-of-fiction-no-41-jack-kerouac

"Haiku? You want to hear haiku? You see you got to compress into three short
lines a great big story. First you start with a haiku situation—so you see a
leaf, as I told her the other night, falling on the back of a sparrow during
a great big October wind storm. A big leaf falls on the back of a little
sparrow. How you going to compress that into three lines? Now in Japanese
you got to compress it into seventeen syllables. We don’t have to do that in
American—or English—because we don’t have the same syllabic bullshit that
your Japanese language has. So you say: “Little sparrow”—you don’t have to
say little—everybody knows a sparrow is little because they fall so you
say'..." -Jack Kerouac

This looks like a haiku kind of day, so let's hear from the master.

:)

Excerpted for example, discussion and educational fair use purposes...
guidelines from the top shelf.

[Will Dockery]

"Me", look up Jack Kerouac and get back to me.

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Haiku instructions from Jack Kerouac...

http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4260/the-art-of-fiction-no-41-jack-kerouac

"Haiku? You want to hear haiku? You see you got to compress into three short
lines a great big story. First you start with a haiku situation—so you see a
leaf, as I told her the other night, falling on the back of a sparrow during
a great big October wind storm. A big leaf falls on the back of a little
sparrow. How you going to compress that into three lines? Now in Japanese
you got to compress it into seventeen syllables. We don’t have to do that in
American—or English—because we don’t have the same syllabic bullshit that
your Japanese language has. So you say: “Little sparrow”—you don’t have to
say little—everybody knows a sparrow is little because they fall so you
say'..." -Jack Kerouac

Excerpted for example, discussion and educational fair use purposes...
guidelines from the top shelf.

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