Highly influential to Sergei Eisenstein’s brand of Soviet montage theory was his love for Japanese theatre, visual art, poetry, and Sino-Japanese ideograms.1
Inspired by the haiga — image and text combining to form a distinct aesthetic experience — this set of haiku proceeds in company with the audiovisual triptych.2
Beyond the Garden
Shame and guilt ripe for harvest -
A dove flies away
Plague and pestilence
image and likeness eclipsed -
Season of weeping
East winds rattling
Silken cocoons of penance -
Yearning for sweet Spring
Bibliography
Eisenstein, Sergei. “The Unexpected.” In Film Form: Essays in Film Theory, translated and edited by Jay Leyda, 18-27. New York: Harcourt, 1949.
Eisenstein, Sergei. “The Cinematographic Principle and the Ideogram.” In Film Form: Essays in Film Theory, translated and edited by Jay Leyda, 28-44. New York: Harcourt, 1949.
Kacian, Jim. “Looking and Seeing: How Haiga Works.” Paper presented at the Haiku Society of America National Meeting, Xavier University, New Orleans, September 15, 2002. https://www.gendaihaiku.com/kacian/haiga.html.
