Comment on magic beneath the forests

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quinacridone@lemmy.ml ⁨4⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ 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?

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