WHC Renku Seminar
Haikuforum Seminar on "Traditional" Renku in English
Q & A: 4a

Paul MacNeil

A question was posed: "What is the meaning of link and shift in renku?"

...establishing sufficient linkage (thus avoiding derailment of readers' momentum), and making substantial shifts (thereby avoiding narrative, which narrows the scope, and thus the impact of the work. Most certainly these traditional requirements are clear, and are not affected by syntactical differences between languages.

[- Herold and Jorgensen]

Answer:

It is an important question about two of the most important words in a renku vocabulary.

Renku is linked verse. By tradition a string or group of verses alternates. three and two lines long, beginning with three and ending with two. Think of it as a chain -- hence the word link. Each verse or stanza touches only two others (except the ends of the chain). Just how the words and images of one verse link to the one above can be accomplished in many ways. Later in the Seminar, some more detail will be covered as there are many types of links. In installment #2, I gave a sample renku, A Fox Circles, and in #'s 3 and 4 explained the links (among other points) for half of the renku at a time. With 12 verses, there are 11 different links, bonds between each successive pair of verses. Several kinds of technique to link were done.

Example, the first pair of verses, from #2:

yellow leaves--
the fox circles
a sunlit field

...............- fg


she tightens sterile lids
on jelly jars

...............- pwm

...the association between these two stanzas is something being turned. The fox is moving in circles; the jar lid is being tightened in a circle. Also the jar and lid are round -- a circle. This unites only these two verses. If done well, no other pair of stanzas in the renku will have the same link, round, twisting, or circling.

Shift as I have used it and the renku judges (Herold and Jorgensen, that you excerpted in your question) use it is to move away from one verse to a subject matter or situation that is different, unique. Two verses together may be a bit close, depending on the actual link, but after an intervening verse, no two links of the chain touch each other. The subject of the stanza will have shifted. Thus each verse will both link AND shift. Variety results. Originality and variety are to be prized in renku. In general, to jump, to leap, to be nimble as you shift is a goal.

Most cordially, - Paul (MacNeil)