Bird Poop Haiku

I’ve been living in Berlin all this month, but have been taking Japanese lessons from a local instructor so I don’t forget everything. My teacher has a thing for haiku, Japan’s famed poetic miniatures, and ends each lesson with a selection from one of Japan’s great authors. Last week, one of the haiku I learned was:

uguisu ya/mochi ni fun suru/en no saki

RH Blyth translates it like this:

A bush warbler/pooped on the rice-cakes/on the verandah

Brilliant.