|
oliver sudden
|
 |
« on: 12:31:02, 09-02-2007 » |
|
One of my Christmas prezzies was David Bader's entertaining tomelet One Hundred Great Books in Haiku. I'm sure you can work out what he's on about. Indeed perhaps you have it too. I won't quote one of his because anything I can come up with will seem a bit ordinary unless I deliberately quote one of his less fine ones which would sort of defeat the purpose. But anyway. Operas in haiku anyone to while away the time? I'll have a bash at Wozzeck. Poor oppressed bastard Kills wife, self, and leaves behind Poor oppressed bastard. I'm sure those of you cleverer with words than I am will soon come up with something cheerier.  |
|
|
|
« Last Edit: 12:48:41, 09-02-2007 by oliver sudden »
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Flay
|
|
« Reply #1 on: 13:15:01, 09-02-2007 » |
|
Old man gets the hump
When duke seduces daughter
His revenge revenged
No points for guessing the opera
|
|
|
|
« Last Edit: 13:46:38, 09-02-2007 by Flay »
|
Logged
|
Half full? Half empty? Who cares, it's delicious!
|
|
|
|
autoharp
|
|
« Reply #2 on: 14:11:26, 09-02-2007 » |
|
Didn't Milhaud do this sort of thing in the 1920s ?
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Soundwave
|
|
« Reply #3 on: 15:29:41, 09-02-2007 » |
|
Bewitched Scot with vile wife Kills King with bloody knife Cries "Lay on" and loses life.  |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
Ho! I may be old yet I am still lusty
|
|
|
|
Flay
|
|
« Reply #4 on: 18:06:45, 09-02-2007 » |
|
Simple fisherman Apprentice boy’s died again Not my fault – honest!  |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
Half full? Half empty? Who cares, it's delicious!
|
|
|
|
richard barrett
Guest
|
|
« Reply #5 on: 01:12:38, 10-02-2007 » |
|
harpist loses moll
follows her to hell and back
don't look round! - too late
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Anna
Guest
|
|
« Reply #6 on: 01:30:13, 10-02-2007 » |
|
Laura I am leaving you
George O this is so goddam complexicated Laura, how maybe syllabubles do I need? Is a Haiku like that damned raw fish called Suzuki?
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Flay
|
|
« Reply #7 on: 01:44:50, 10-02-2007 » |
|
Laura I am leaving you
George O this is so goddam complexicated Laura, how maybe syllabubles do I need? Is a Haiku like that damned raw fish called Suzuki?
Anna, that ain't a bloomin' haiku! What happened to the 5-7-5? Come on, you know it makes sense....  |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
Half full? Half empty? Who cares, it's delicious!
|
|
|
|
oliver sudden
|
|
« Reply #8 on: 08:33:11, 10-02-2007 » |
|
For those who don't have Bader's highly recommended volume perhaps it would be useful to know that he often manages to work in an amusingly semi-appropriate allusion to the traditional practice of including in one's 5+7+5 syllables a reference to the passage of the seasons. As in his haiku version of Newton's Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica:
Cherry bossoms fall
with Force equal to Mass times
Acceleration.
In this spirit I humbly offer you:
Courtesan loves Alf
Alf's Dad says no loose women
Camelia withers.
|
|
|
|
« Last Edit: 10:03:12, 10-02-2007 by oliver sudden »
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Mary Chambers
|
|
« Reply #9 on: 10:15:04, 10-02-2007 » |
|
Ollie, to me "camellia" is four syllables, so that makes too many.
"Those who understand Japanese are strong in their insistence that haikus in our tongue are less than a pale shadow of the home-grown original. English, as a stress-timed language, cannot hope to reproduce the effects of syllable-timed Japanese." (From Stephen Fry's book on the mechanics of verse, "The Ode Less Travelled", which I am amusing myself with at the moment.)
I don't speak Japanese, so I rather enjoy them. Not sure that I can write one, though.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
oliver sudden
|
|
« Reply #10 on: 11:22:16, 10-02-2007 » |
|
I can get through camelia in three syllables if a verse line depends on it. Otherwise you can have:
...Violet fades away.
Of course there violet needs to be in two syllables. But just for me three syllables would be an unlovely way to say it. Although so would be Ca-me-li-a for me. Never mind. What would Aussies know?
I think it's Dorothy Sayers' translation of Inferno in which she points out that the possibility English offers to elide syllables is something versifiers such as Shakespeare have always relied on. (Home art gone and ta'en thy wages.) Even though it's rather tricky in Italian.
Anyway:
Woman's pow'r is sex -
Till Ripper Jack proves that Sword
Mightier than Pen is.
|
|
|
|
« Last Edit: 23:53:18, 10-02-2007 by oliver sudden »
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Soundwave
|
|
« Reply #11 on: 17:01:48, 10-02-2007 » |
|
In my ignorance was not aware of 5-7-5.
This is a little better, I hope.
Hard Scot with vile wife
Kills his King with bloody knife
McDuff takes his life.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
Ho! I may be old yet I am still lusty
|
|
|
|
George Garnett
|
|
« Reply #12 on: 23:30:26, 10-02-2007 » |
|
Gawain should have sussed
A Green Knight's a pest for life
Not just for Christmas
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
oliver sudden
|
|
« Reply #13 on: 23:50:10, 10-02-2007 » |
|
Contrabassoon, Sudden is most honoured that his humble and unworthy topic should have brought you out of hiding with most magnificent haiku!
<bows deeply>
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
oliver sudden
|
|
« Reply #14 on: 10:48:59, 11-02-2007 » |
|
Gods, dwarfs steal some gold
Greed drowns them in flood and fire
As you were, ladies.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
