The Reality of Writing Haiku in English

I’m sorry to burst your hope bubble, but you can’t write a genuine Japanese haiku in English, even if you slavishly follow the 5-7-5 rule of syllables. That’s because in Japanese the idea of syllable is replaced by something called an On. The simplest way to think of the On is it signifies a change in the position of the mouth and tongue when saying a word. In English, the word Joy is one syllable; but it contains two Ons. Japanese haiku is written as 5-7-5 Ons, not syllables.

The biggest emphasis of a haiku is its white space, the part left unsaid. Think of a haiku as two parts, a fragment and a whole that when combined creates a third unspoken image or world. Leave the 5-7-5 syllable count to the school kids learning, and free yourself to write a genuine English language haiku.

Reviews

[Tumi]

Wow, I think i just learnt something New
thanks for that as well, will make my findings