Tracing the Origins of Haiku in Hyangga — Korea Haiku Read Through the Layers of Memory and Time

Tracing the Origins of Haiku in Hyangga— Korea Haiku Read Through the Layers of Memory and Time An, Soo-hyun(Literary Critic) Discussions surrounding the origins of haiku have long been situated within the internal genealogy of Japanese literature. The progression from waka to renga, then to haikai, and finally to haiku, has generally been understood as a relatively stable tradition (Earl Miner, Japanese Linked Poetry: An Account with Translations of Renga and Haikai Sequences, Princeton University Press, 1979). However, this genealogy remains largely confined to textual continuity and does not sufficiently account for the sensory structures and temporal consciousness through which the poetic form operates. When the origin of poetry is understood not as a succession of forms but as an organization of sensibility, haiku can be reconsidered from a different perspective. That is, when we foreground the question of how temporal duration expands within a brief linguistic structure, how meaning is deferred, and how perception becomes stratified, it becomes necessary to seek its prototype in a deeper and older stratum of East Asian poetics—namely, hyangga. At this point, it is essential to reconsider the conventional understanding that confines hyangga exclusively to Silla literature. Hyangga has typically been labeled as “Silla hyangga,” yet this designation may stem from the uneven preservation of extant sources. Rather than viewing hyangga as the exclusive cultural property of a single dynasty, it should be expanded and understood as a shared poetic sensibility that developed across the ancient Korean peninsula as a whole. From this perspective, hyangga is not merely a historical genre but a poetic form structured to suspend emotion and meaning within time (Kim Wanjin, Hyangga and Goryeo Songs, Seoul National University Press, 1996). For instance…