English Original
empty field --
scarecrow watches
scarecrow
Scaring Crow, 2022
Adjei Agyei-Baah
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
空曠的田野 --
稻草人注視著
稻草人
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
空旷的田野 --
稻草人注视着
稻草人
Bio Sketch
Adjei Agyei-Baah (June 29, 1977 -- December 18, 2023) was the co-founder of the Africa Haiku Network and The Mamba and author of afriku: haiku and Senryui from Ghana, 2016, Finding the Other Door, 2021 and Scaring Crow, 2022.
L1 sets a stark, quiet scene while Ls 2&3 shift the scarecrow from object to subject.
ReplyDeleteAt first the image of Ls 2&3 feels like a normal one; then the final word/L3 makes it uncanny.
Who—or what—is being watched? The field? Us? Another scarecrow? The haiku doesn’t explain, and that ambiguity is powerful.