Ye’ll hae tae ken the name o this form o poetry tae get the lauch.
Coo’s eild ee luiks doun
foo hope tae see green farin!
Green watter. Joy! Aye.
Translate:
eild: barren, no longer producing milk.
You will have to know the name of this form of poetry to get the laugh.
Cow’s barren eye looks down
by means hopeful to see green food!
Green water. joy! Not.
i:ld
The Scottish Word: eild with its definition and its meaning illustrated and captioned with the word used in context in the Scots language and in English.
I was made to laugh by a Tweet by @DasGiftBerlin who posted a photograph of a cow atop a crag and simply captioned the image ‘Haiku’.
Inspired, I had a go at writing one in Scots.
Add Your Own Haiku.
Create a Haiku in Scots of your own and add it in the comments if you want.
Structure of a Haiku.
To make a haiku write three lines using as near as you can a 5-syllable, 7-syllable, 5-syllable format.
The third line should be a contrast or a surprise in some way that is different from the first two lines.
Does the whole thing together add up to interesting associations or kindle novel ideas?
Traditionally haiku are nature based.
Haiku Help.
I consulted these two helpful sites on how to write Haiku before I attempted my own. The Writing Cooperative, very short but informative. And Creative Writing Now, with Haiku how to’s, and examples.
The Negative Aye.
My rubbish Haiku featured above relies on the Scots aye to be used in the negative sense. Aye mostly means yes but can sometimes mean no or intend the words preceding it to be regarded in the negative.
For instance. When a Scot says. “That’s your funny joke, Aye.” It means it was rubbish and are you going to do something about it.
Also “Aye Right” two positives normally, can in the right context do a double reverse and turn into two strong negatives – “No you’re wrong”. It’s commonly used in Scots but not a thing in most other languages.