珈琲に朝日の差した床の皺

コーヒー に　あさひ の さした　とこ の しわ


Morning light spills
upon the crumpled sheets
coffee slurping.


NACOS tips for writing English haiku

When considering the juxtaposition for your haiku, remember that your goal is to paint a vivid, yet incomplete picture. The reader will fill in the missing details, but the details you provide should play well with each other and resonate, thus creating a definite emotion or image.

A further note on translated haiku –

Often, to make the same concept sound good in different languages, a different approach is required. I translated my own poem into Japanese with Michiko’s help, and in so doing found that it only really worked if the meaning were changed slightly. Yet, the feeling remains the same. For some of the translations of Oike-san’s poetry on this site, I have had to do something similar. Even if you don’t see yourself translating anything, still consider how our language plays a role in shaping our ideas as we communicate them.




Frustrated by Michiko: Illustrated by Michiko