For several years, I've been writing my haiku primarily in Esperanto, but posting them with English translation. I write haiku principally for myself -- the reaction that other people might have to them has always been secondary for me. I started writing them in Esperanto because it gave me a chance to stretch my linguistic abilities in Esperanto. I continue writing them because I've come to appreciate the opportunity to reflect thoughtfully on nature and my experience. I shared them in both Esperanto and English because... Well... I guess I imagined that authors of English-language haiku might express interest in my haiku. But I haven't seen that.
I have had positive comments about having both English and Esperanto in my books -- mainly from people interested who were learning Esperanto. But the recent review of senokulvitre got me to question the value of posting bilingually. The quality is almost always uneven: haiku often turn on the particular way you can render something in language and really don't translate well. You can translate the words, but you can rarely translate the haiku. So, as an experiment, I've quit trying to translate my haiku into English.
No complaints so far...
- Steven D. Brewer's blog
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