Day five

by Mark Young

Today the

postman brought

me a haiku

from Issa.

Under the

new anti-

terror

legislation

it had to be

translated into

English before

delivery.

Nineteen syllables

in literal translation.

Excess postage was charged.

From Falsely Goethe, Otoliths Books, 2007 (available on Amazon). The truth is, literal translations from Japanese typically result in fewer syllables in English than the number of sounds in Japanese, so the facts of this poem seem to be questionable, without seeing whatever haiku might have inspired this poem.