Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads

Credits for the image: Background paper and overlay: Vera Lim, glitter flowers: TADA, Fonts: Naked Lunch and Salamander

This one is by Basho, probably one of the best known haiku (or rather hokku, in his case) masters.  Definitely food related, but Basho somehow manages to work in the ubiquitous cherry blossoms and thus creates a beautiful picture. Wish I was there.

Weekend Cooking is hosted by Beth Fish Reads

April is National Poetry Month in the US and Canada. It is "a celebration of poetry first introduced in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets as a way to increase awareness and appreciation of poetry."
Now I’m not one for poetry but maybe I should learn more about this literary form. For this week’s theme, I encourage participants to to help celebrate National Poetry Month by:

• Posting a favorite poem, or
• Reviewing a poem or book of poems, or
• Discussing a favorite poet, or
• Posting a vlog of yourself reading a poem or find a video of someone else reading one, or
• Writing a poem yourself- any form

Or come up with something I haven’t thought of to celebrate and post it on your blog. Let your imagination run wild.

I love Ancient Japanese poetry and haiku. Haiku is a form of traditional Japanese poetry with no title, no rhyme and in three metrical phrases of 5, 7, and 5 moras (sound units). Before Masaoka Shiki came along haiku were called hokku. They became popular in the second half of the 17th century.  When a nobleman entertained in the evening a collaborative poem called Haikai no Renga was created by several poets. The first verse – hokku – had to be done by a renga master and had to follow certain rules, like contain a reference to the time and the host of the evening. Usually this was done by referring to the current season and by honoring the host with an image taken from nature. Matsuo Basho was a master at this and already during his time the hokku became a separate form of poem.

Only in the 19th century Masaoka Shiki gave it the name haiku and made it so popular that it later became known all over the world.

One of my favourite haiku by Shiki is this one:

Oppressive heat —
My whirling mind
Listens to the peals of thunder.

Unfortunately in this translation, as so often, the 5-7-5 isn’t there anymore. A German translation of the same haiku goes like this (and here the translator managed to keep the 5-7-5)

Die Hitze drückend
die Sinne ganz benommen
lausch ich dem Donner.

Here are some links to haiku sites that I recommend (mostly modern haiku):

• A previous blog post of mine about haiku with various links
• Zombie haiku contest
• Haikuforge
• haiQ – a twitter feed, I absolutely love it

Here you can see what other Weekly Geeks say about poetry.

As night succeeds night,

I seek in vain to decide

Where my pillow should go.

How did I sleep on the night

When you appeared in my dream?

Poem by Anonymous from Ariake – poems of loving and longing

Image from Lotushead at Stock Exchange

• Entertainment weekly.com
• Newsarama.com
  This reviewer should have watched the real P&P with Colin Firth. Nobody (who hasn’t read the book) who hasn’t seen that one can judge P&P.

Anyway, the zombies are among us and now they even have entered the haiku scene. Over at Stumbling over chaos I read about a zombie haiku contest held at Historic Fibers. Head on over and have a look at them! There are some really, really good ones among the entries.

And to help you out in case you ever meet one of those disgusting creatures, here are a  couple of books to help you deal with them.

• Zombies: A field guide to the walking dead
• The Zombie Survival Guide: Complete Protection from the Living Dead

• Which are your favorites?
• Which touched your heart the most?
• Which have found their way onto your wish lists or TBR stacks?
• Is there a childhood favorite?
• Have you ever named a pet after an animal from a book or movie?

Oh my, I’m not thrilled with this week’s topic. I have to out myself as someone who’s not too keen on animals or pets and I don’t like books with animals either. Whenever I read a blurb that tells me that an animal plays a key part I give the book a miss. That being said, I’m sure I can come up with a few books that have animals in them (I suppose werewolves or dragons don’t count, do they?).

How about:

How to travel with a salmon by Umberto Eco

Admittedly the salmon is dead and smoked (if I remember correctly), but it used to be a live animal once. I strongly recommend those essays, even if you think Eco is not to your liking.

Then there is…

Felidae by Akif Pirincci

This one is with cats as characters etc.

From amazon editorial reviews: A clever, offbeat thriller in which the sleuth and most of the other main characters are cats, this first novel by Turkish-born Pirincci, who lives in Bonn, won Germany’s prize for best crime novel of the year in 1990. As an allegory on Germany’s Nazi past, it is facile and ambivalent. The detective/narrator, Francis, an irrepressibly curious house cat, deduces that whoever is murdering the neighborhood tabbys has a warped mind and is attempting to breed a "super race" of felines. After discovering a fanatical cult of self-flagellating felines who worship a martyred cat, Claudandus, Francis is aided by Pascal, a cat who uses a computer, in unearthing another clue–the journal of a half-mad professor who performed sadistic laboratory experiments on cats. The corpses of countless feline victims are thrown into a catacomb guarded by the Persian cat Jesaja, a pathetic dupe who prays both to Yahweh (god of the Hebrews) and to "our blessed Prophet," the murderer, believing that he is doing the Lord’s will.

13 1/2 lives of Captain Bluebear by Walter Moers
Walter Moers is extremely funny and this is one of the funniest books ever. Tears were streaming down my face half the time I was reading, I laughed so hard.

From amazon editorial reviews: This novel opens with the title character’s first memory: as a cub floating in the ocean with a nutshell for a life raft, he heads straight for a giant whirlpool threatening to suck him down. After he’s rescued by a boatload of Lilliputian pirates, Bluebear enters into a life (or 13½ lifetimes) filled with humor and adventure. Each life has a different challenge to overcome, pitting him against the likes of headless giants and storytelling contests. The book is one part Norton Juster’s The Phantom Tollbooth and two parts Douglas Adams’s The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Each adventure mixes fantasy, science fiction, and fables in a satirical cocktail that readers can’t help but gulp down. The quirky writing is definitely strong enough to carry itself, but Moers includes several black-and-white illustrations that enhance the whimsy. With so many little side trips in Bluebear’s narrative, the story might frustrate those who prefer straight-line plots. But this is the kind of tale that readers have to just sit back and enjoy, wherever it takes them. The ending does tie the loose threads together. A wild, fun-filled ride.

Animal Farm by George Orwell

Everybody knows Animal Farm, so I don’t need to say a thing.

Other than that I try to stay away from animals as much as possible. The only exception might be Issa’s haiku which deal with animals a lot. One of my favourites is this one:

the lover cats
bluntly go
their separate ways

When I read that one for the first time it was in German, and translations of haiku vary a lot. Even different translators of the same language come up with totally different stuff, translators from different languages even more so. When I looked for the English translation at first I didn’t even recognize the haiku as the one I was looking for, . But I think it is the right one.

The German meaning would be something along the lines of “Cats in love, go home, looking smug”. Different, huh? It doesn’t even convey the same atmosphere, but I still like it.

As to films: The film that I’m going to watch voluntarily that has an animal as a main character has yet to be made. Wait a minute, not true, I did watch “Babe” and found it dead cute.

So as an inspirational photo it’s appropriate to post one of a pig, a cute one at that.

Photo by gravito at Stock Exchange, edited with a couple of actions from Photolicious.

Here you’ll find more Weekly Geeks participants.

I already mentioned computer haiku once in a previous post. Today I’m listing a few of my favourite computer haiku. Programmers or who ever comes up with error messages might want to take a look and get some inspiration.

 Credits. for this page: paper: M. Fenwick, pictures:
Stock exchange, sloppy snippet: Emily Farnworth, Fonts: Orator,
Anarchy, Arsis, diploma, Avquest

Chaos reigns within.
Reflect, repent, and reboot.
Order shall return.
Suzie Wagner

Login incorrect.
Only perfect spellers may
enter this system.
Jason Axley

ABORTED effort:
Close all that you have.
You ask way too much.
Mike Hagler

Yesterday it worked
Today it is not working
Windows is like that
Margaret Segall

No keyboard present
Hit F1 to continue
Zen engineering?
Jim Griffith

Serious error.
All shortcuts have disappeared.
Screen. Mind. Both are blank.
Ian Hughes

First snow, then silence.
This thousand dollar screen dies
so beautifully.
Simon Firth

For a new PC,
Center of my universe,
I abandon all.
Bob Ruby II

Server’s poor response
Not quick enough for browser.
Timed out, plum blossom.
Rik Jespersen

wind catches lily
scatt’ring petals to the wind:
segmentation fault
Nick Sweeney

Everything is gone;
Your life’s work has been destroyed.
Squeeze trigger (yes/no)?
David Carlson

Seeing my great fault
Through darkening blue windows
I begin again
Chris Walsh

Printer not ready.
Could be a fatal error.
Have a pen handy?
Pat Davis

See more Thursday 13 participants over at Thursday 13. 

Here are some great haiku pages.

First some of the traditional stuff:
Haiku of Issa
Haiku of Shiki
Haiku of Basho
Here you can see the differences in translations depending on the translator. Interesting! I prefer R.H. Blyth’s interpretation in every case. Of course I have no idea about the original they were interpreting.

Computer haiku
Microsoft error messages would be so much nicer to read if they came in that format.

Erotic haiku:
Nerve haiku, part II
Haiku by Nerve staff members

A review of "True Blood" in haiku form:
True Blood

Do you know any cool haiku sites or great haiku?  Share them in the comments section, please! I always love to discover new haiku. 

(credits for scrapbook page: template: Nina, set 15; Michelle Coleman – Written in the stars; Photo corner: M. Fenwick – Firecracker; Fonts: Arrière Garde, Citizen Dick)