The Significance of Haiku in the Poetry of Joan Salvat-Papasseit

Abstract

"Vibracions" y el resto de la poesía escrita por Joan Salvat-Papasseit (1894-1924) basada en la forma poética japonesa del haiku se suele considerar un mero divertimento exotista de carácter menor. En el presente anàlisis se argumenta que Salvat-Papasseit no sólo conocía muy bien la tradición del haiku, sino que esta forma le sirvió com vehículo para expresar las ideas estéticas que empezó a defender en su poesía a partir de 1917. El alto grado de significación de sus haikus pone en evidencia que ocupan un lugar simbólicamente central en su producción poética.

"Vibracions" and all the other poems written by Joan Salvat- Papasseit (1894-1924) based on the Japanese haiku lyrical verse form, have generally been viewed as a mere flirt with exoticism and of minor importance. I contend that Salvat-Papasseit the poet was in fact not only very familiar with haiku poetry, but that through this verse form he found a vehicle to express his own aesthetic ideas which he began to advocate in his poetry from 1917 onwards. The significance of haiku poems is such that one could argue that they are a central symbolic feature of all his poems.