Haiku Quotation
A three-line, seventeen-syllable Japanese verse quoted as a self-contained observation — the shortest respectable literary quote in most Western anthologies.
A haiku is a Japanese verse form of three lines and, traditionally, seventeen sound units (roughly seventeen English syllables), usually including a seasonal reference (kigo) and a cutting word (kireji) that pivots the poem. Bashō, Buson, and Issa are the great classical names; modern haiku is written in dozens of languages and takes many liberties with the count. In quotation culture, the haiku matters because it is one of the shortest forms of literary writing that is still treated as a whole poem, not an extract, when quoted.
Quoting a haiku requires care that longer quotations do not. Because the poem is so compact, small typographic choices — line breaks, capitalisation, punctuation, whether or not to italicise — change the reading noticeably. English translations vary widely; a haiku attributed to Bashō in an inspirational post is almost certainly one of several English versions, and naming the translator is not pedantry but honesty.
The haiku's popularity in modern quotation is also a warning about the genre's imitators. A great deal of what circulates online as 'a haiku' is a three-line English sentence that has been arranged to look like one. If a line is presented as a haiku, check both the syllable count and the source. Better to quote a genuine translation of a classical haiku with the translator credited than to misattribute a modern imitation to a seventeenth-century master.
“An old silent pond… / A frog jumps into the pond— / Splash! Silence again.”
Keep reading the glossary
How faithfully a translated quote preserves the meaning and music of the original.
Word-for-word — quoting exactly as the original was spoken or written.
A short, eye-catching quote lifted from an article and displayed in large type for emphasis.
An indirect reference to another text, person, event, or work — often quoted.