Thursday, June 4, 2026

utsukushi ya shо̄ji no ana no ama no gawa

For language learners like me, these no-verb haiku are useful! And this one is just so elegant: look at the の...の...の... which is just impossible to do in English. There's also nice sound play with ana and ama. I might translate it this way (and yes, I added a verb in English!):

so beautiful!
hole in the shoji —
river in the sky.

うつくしやしようじの穴の天の川
utsukushi ya shо̄ji no ana no ama no gawa

utsukushi ya
    beautiful ya!
shо̄ji no ana no
    screen's hole's
ama no gawa
    sky's river

うつくし utsukushi ~ beautiful, beloved. also; utsukushii, うつくしい.
や ya
しようじ shо̄ji ~ shoji
の no
ana ~ hole
の no
ama ~ sky
の no
kawa (gawa) ~ river
天の川 ama-no-gawa ~ Milky Way




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