Challenge Tuesday – 34 (if you squint)

I know this one is a bit of a cheat, but I looked back at the challenge and it says ‘books’ not ‘novels’ so I’m going with it. It’s all I have to offer anyway!

Book 34 – The British Museum Haiku, edited by David Cobb.  This is a beautiful book of about 70 haiku by writers spanning five centuries, presented in Japanese (calligraphy as well as transliterated), with English translations.  The haiku are accompanied by some glorious images from the British Museum’s Japanese art collection.

I love haiku, as a form of poetry and as an example of cultural differences in the way ‘traditional’ poetry is composed.  I also love Japanese calligraphy and brush painting, so this book is a literary and visual gift, to me.  The opening notes on style and form of haiku, and the way seasons can be structured and inferred in the writing, were short but incredibly enlightening and have made me want to try this form of writing again, with more knowledge behind me.

It didn’t take long to read – I sat and read it over a single lunch break – but some of the haiku have really stayed with me, and there are a couple I’d like to put up in my office at work so I have something beautiful there every day.

I adored this book and I will be dipping into it over and over again, finding new inspiration and new understanding each time.

I just wish I’d read it properly before!

Happy reading,

EJ

🙂