“, The Haibun as Heuristic, the Cosmopolitan of the Middle,” by Raymond de Borja
Citation
de Borja, Raymond. “, The Haibun as Heuristic, the Cosmopolitan of the Middle,.” Squarespace. Raymond de Borja, 13 Nov. 2025, https://raymonddeborja.squarespace.com/blog/-the-haibun-as-heuristic.
Quotes
- species:
- themes:
Collations
de Borja on haibun
I am drawn to the haibun, as a diaristic form, and as an apt heuristic for contemporary modes and conditions of travel.
In my haibun, the figure of the cosmopolitan of the middle attempts an experience of place—peering through the spectral image, sifting through layers of mediation to find not the authentic experience awash in Benjamin’s aura, but the nagging reminder of a 10 a.m. EST conference call.
I turn to the haibun as a form of travel writing capable of various modes of attention: A descriptive, narrative, but also possibly drifting and digressive mode of prose; and a still, incisive, resonant mode of haiku.
This marked a shift in the focus of haibun, away from sentimental, diaristic reflections filled with nostalgia for capital and courtly life, toward the contemplative engagement with nature that Bashō embodied.
de Borja on haiku
Despite certain master practitioners’ injunctions to keep to the immediate and the present, haiku contains multiple temporalities: histories, palimpsests, and allegories of place in the utamakura
the experience of time as engendered by actual ways of life (as opposed to the abstract, homogenous, and empty time in dominant strains in Western thought) in the seasonal references of the kigo
and the sharp torque or the fluid sense of expansion in the cutting word of the kireji
What is contained in its compact form is not the stillness of a present moment, but its resonance.
Haibun as a heuristic
In his introduction to Bashō’s travel journals, David Landis Barnhill refers to the sense of nature in Bashō’s poem as adverbial. Neither an essence to be discovered nor a category, but something that shapes action, or intuitively guides, our thinking and exploration, in a way, a heuristic.
A poem, with its capacity for the adverbial, shapes language as a sense-making, thought-feeling apparatus, opening a heuristic, cognitive space.
Literature notes
Prompts
Cosmopolitan ::: Global citizen
The first cosmopolitan. :: Diogenes
Per de Borja, since Diogenes may haven't left the Greek-speaking world, what did his cosmopolitanism meant?
1.
2. Renunciation of the values of the polis.
?
Embrace of peripheral ways of living.
Per de Borja, since Diogenes may haven't left the Greek-speaking world, what did his cosmopolitanism meant?
- Embrace of peripheral ways of living.
?
Renunciation of the values of the polis.
Per de Borja, Diogenes' version of cosmopolitanism was proto-anarchic.
Per de Borja, the main characteristic of Diogenes' proto-anarchic cosmopolitanism was drift.
Some contemporary privileged versions of Diogenes' nomad.
1.
2. Backpacker
3. Neoliberal citizen of the world
?
Digital nomad
Some contemporary privileged versions of Diogenes' nomadic cosmopolitan.
- Digital nomad
- Neoliberal citizen of the world
?
Backpacker
Some contemporary privileged versions of Diogenes' nomad.
- Digital nomad
- Backpacker
?
Neoliberal citizen of the world
Versions of Diogenes' nomadic cosmopolitan in Walter Benjamin's favored figures.
1.
2. Prostitute
3. Dandy
?
Gambler
Versions of Diogenes' nomadic cosmopolitan in Walter Benjamin's favored figures.
- Gambler
- Dandy
?
Prostitute
Versions of Diogenes' nomadic cosmopolitan in Walter Benjamin's favored figures.
- Gambler
- Prostitute
?
Dandy
Type of cosmopolitanism de Borja explores in his poems. :: Cosmopolitanism of the middle
The middle class cosmopolitan that de Borja explores in his poem was formed in the spaces of the global south by outsourced technology work.
Why is de Borja's cosmopolitan of the middle carry dialectical potential?
- Present-day pervasiveness
- Lived contradictions
The word travel derives from middle English and Old French travail, which means to work.
Literal translation of utamakura (歌枕). :: "poem pillow"
What does utamakura (歌枕) mean? :: Place name in Japanese poetry that carries specific symbolism.
Why is utamakura (歌枕) called "poem pillow"? :: It is where the poem rests or is inspired.
Per de Borja, what is a haiku's timeframe? :: Multiple, not just present
What does kigo mean? :: Season word in haiku
What does kireji mean? :: "cutting word" that acts as a pause or punctuation in haiku
Per de Borja, what is contained in a haiku is not the stillness of a present moment but its resonance.
Compare travel during the Nara and Heian periods and travel during the Edo period in terms of safety. :: Edo period travel was safer
How did the focus of haibun changed from the Nara and Heian periods to the Edo period? :: From nostalgia for capital and courtly life to contemplation in nature.
Why did de Borja call the haibun a heuristic? :: It guides thinking and exploration.