French Puppet Show, 1963 © Alfred Eisenstaedt./Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images.
“Unfortunately, contemporary English may not now be a satisfactory register for haiku, since English has become detached from its social roots in any particular community, as a result of globalisation. It has been argued by some poets that English has now become spiritually exhausted as a poetic language, as a result of its adaptation for utilitarian purposes. Comparisons between renderings in Scots and English of haiku by Japanese masters suggest that versions in literary Scots have an energy and frisson that harmonise well with the true spirit of haiku. Accordingly, the following 36 haiku have been rendered in Scots, a register which has a long record for poetry of a high order.”