Tuesday, 18 June 2013

Haiku: *Everything* lost in translation

*

The lamest translation of the lamest poem ever written in the history of the world:

The old pond,
A frog jumps in:
Plop!


Matsuo Basho translated (ahem) by Alan Watts

from

http://www.bopsecrets.org/gateway/passages/basho-frog.htm

*

Are there any good Haiku in translation? I've read an inordinate number of the blimmin things, since I came across them heavily recommended by JD Salinger - and never found one that rose even to the level of mediocrity as a poem.

*