Omniglot - the blog

Here are a few more haiku, in Irish this time, which I found on the Irish Gaelic translation forum. Some of the translations are my own, so may not be entirely correct.

Tá sé in ann dom
Bheith ag foghlaim Gaeilge
Go deireadh an saoil

I have to
be learning Irish
to the end of my days

tá mo shaol go breá
ag foghlaim le mo chairde
aon anam amháin!

my life is so nice
learning with my good friends here
one soul together

An crann úll lasmuigh
lán le torthaí na gréine
M’obair féin romham

The apple tree outside
full of fruit of the sun
My own work is done

céard a réaltacht í
ach titim agus éirí
an bhfuil a fhíos againn?

what’s reality
but falling and then rising
do we know for sure?

Here’s one I just composed in Welsh

cymaint o ieithoedd
yn gwthio am le gwag
yn fy mhen

so many languages
jostling for space
in my head

As I’m sure many of you know, haiku (俳句) are short Japanese poems made of of 17 syllables usually in 3 lines of 5, 7 and 5 syllables. The only Japanese haiku I can remember is:

古池や　(furu ike ya)
蛙飛びこむ　(kawazu tobikomu)
水の音 (mizu no oto)

An old pond
a frog jumps in
splash!

There are many other English versions of this famous haiku by Matsuo Bashō (松尾芭蕉) here. It’s amazing the number of different ways such a seemingly simple poem can be translated.

Haiku are not only written in Japanese. Non-Japanese haiku don’t always have exactly 17 syllables, but they usually a similar structure to the Japanese ones. Here are a few examples I came across recently in Scots:

Reid cluds lemin
at keek-o-day - refleckit
in the cray glaur

Red clouds glowing
at sunrise - reflected
in the pigsty mud

Hauf-road up the glen
a daurk wee lochan -
a cran tentie

Halfway up the glen
a dark little loch -
a heron watchful

Birlin doon
the rowth o gean blume
taigles a bummer

Swirling down
the plenteous cherry blossom
delays a bee

Do you know of any haiku in other languages? Or have you written any yourself?