Baby’s First Haiku (Only 1st part’s in Japanese)

Click to hear the cicadas's song

アイルランドには蝉がいないから、帰国したら、この記録したオーディオは貴重な思い出になるだろう。

いつもこの鳴き声を聞いたら　「きっと、日本の夏だ.！」と僕は思います。

今朝、代官山で蝉を聞いて急に感動して俳句を作ろうと思った。

どうぞ読んでください。始めての俳句だから批判しないでください!!

立ち木から

蝉の鳴き声

夏は詩（うた）

俳句を英語に訳して同じく五七五の三句になった。よかったじゃないですか!!!

From where the trees stand

The song of the cicadas

Summer’s a poem

Sorry for that first bit was all in Japanese. I’m trying to challenge myself and make this a bilingual blog.

Today, was a great day. One of those days where I fall in love with living in Japan all over again.

I was walking in Daikanyama, one of my favourite areas in the centre of Tokyo. It’s a bit like Paris with a Japanese twist. Lots of fashionable people and places, cool cafes and restaurants, and tree-lined streets hiding wonderful new discoveries.

Anyway, I passed this park and all of a sudden paid attention to the beautiful singing of the cicadas. I guess because my mind has been on going home of late, I suddenly thought, ‘You know I’m really going to miss this whenever I leave Japan. This sound is just Japanese summer to me.’

I was actually all moved and for the first time in my life got the inspiration to write a poem. I swear this has never happened to me before. I though Mr O’Leary’s (R.I.P.)tyrannical English classes when I was twelve had cured me of any artistic bent.

But I went to a great little coffee shop, got a beer (for Dutch courage) sat in the window and had my first ever Haiku composed in about ten minutes. My father would be so proud. Who knew that under all the pragmatic cynicism beat the sensitive heart of a poet.

I’m actually really proud of myself, too. Why? Not just because of the poem itself, but because when I was translating it to English I found a way to keep the original meaning and the correct meter : A Haiku should be a three-line poem with a five-syllable, seven-syllable, five-syllable pattern.

Would somebody please give me a translating job? Stat. Who cares if I’m not qualified: I rock!

So if you look back up the top you can see it in bold in English. For those who are interested, here is the phonetics for the Japanese version:

Ta-chi-ki-ka-ra

Se-mi-no-na-ki-go-e

Na-tsu-wa-u-ta