English Original
war crime
he puts a gun to his head
and kills them all
Kamesan's World Haiku Anthology on War, Violence and Human Rights Violation, 2017
Garry Eaton
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
戰爭罪行
他用槍指著自己的頭
然後殺死他們所有的人
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
战争罪行
他用枪指着自己的头
然后杀死他们所有的人
Bio Sketch
Garry Eaton was a Canadian poet from British Columbia. He started writing haiku in 2006 and was published occasionally in the major haiku magazines. He volunteered as the digital librarian for The Haiku Foundation Digital Library.
The haiku opens with an abstract, institutional phrase, “war crimes” (L1), which is cold, legalistic, and impersonal. The phrase evokes headlines, tribunals, and moral outrage rather than individual experience. L 2, “he puts a gun to his head,” conventionally signals suicide; however, L 3, “and kills them all,” complicates this expectation. Read psychologically, “them” may refer not to external victims but to the dead—ghosts or intrusive memories—suggesting that the subject is a PTSD sufferer attempting to silence the voices in his mind.
ReplyDeleteThe haiku’s strength lies in its sudden shift in perspective. It presents a brutal image implied by the institutional language of L1 without explicit moral commentary, forcing the reader to reassess causality and intent in the final line. The tone remains stark and nonjudgmental, aligning with the modern haiku tradition’s emphasis on “sketching from life”: offering an image or moment as it is, rather than explaining it.
In doing so, it forces the reader to supply the emotional weight themselves. In short, the haiku functions as a tightly wound ethical and psychological paradox—brief, disturbing, and resonant well beyond its length.