• quinacridone
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      7 months ago

      I rather like this one…

      wearily she waves

      the white flag of surrender

      cobwebbed butterfly

      —Tracy Davidson from here

      Pawprints fade, empty

      Silence fills the empty space

      Love lives on, always

      From here

      I sometimes feel that the classic haiku are let down by some translations, and the fact there are Japanese words that don’t translate across very well or at all.

      I have a soft spot for this one

      The old pond,

      A frog jumps in:

      Plop!

      Translated by Alan Watts from here

      It’s interesting to see how each translation differs, and tries to put into English something that is probably untranslatable…also…

      pond

      frog

      plop!

      Translated by James Kirkup

      ‘The sound of water’ ‘kerplunk’ ‘splashing the water’ ‘leap, splash’ ‘water note’ …just don’t capture it for me

      Do you know any that are decent?