The world as a haiku | Anna Kazumi Stahl | TEDxRíodelaPlata

Through haikus (poems of seventeen syllables), Anna Kazumi-Stahl shows us in her nanotalk (a very short talk) how nature is poetry to discover. Anna Kazumi Stahl is a fiction writer and a doctor in Comparative Literature. She has published two narrative books: "Natural catastrophes", by Editorial Sudamericana, (1997) and the novel "Flowers of a single day", edited by Planeta, in Argentina, Spain, France and Italy (2002). Daughter of a Japanese mother and an American father of German descent, she grew up in New Orleans where the mix of cultures influenced her interests and her writing. She studied Social Sciences and then Literature, receiving the doctorate in 1995, at the University of Berkeley, California. After traveling through Europe, she chose the city of Buenos Aires to live and Castilian Spanish as the language to pour her thoughts, although she also works as a translator. With her short stories she took part in anthologies and local newspapers. She currently works as a literature and writing teacher.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

A haiku is a poem of only 17 syllables.

But what is essential in a haiku?

Its brevity calls the attention,

but its meaning revolves around Kigo,

a reference to nature,
to the season of the year.

The haiku is a way of observing
something specific in nature,

and allowing that detail
to describe ourselves,

in an instant of connection
with our surroundings.

Haiku is like an emotional snapshot
that we compose with our experience.

We have lived these last decades
with the industrial noise,

with pollution and global warming
is under debate.

In the next ten years we will understand

the need for a new sensitivity

towards the natural

as living support of the human kind.

As the means of our ability to perceive

what we can potentially lose,

and what we have to already begin
to understand, praise, love.

Nature is poetry to discover.

That poetry that describes us.

And the new generations
already observe as haiku poets.

(Applause)