But it is doing / so on its own timetable, / a slow timetable.

December 28, 2010 6:59 PM

HaikuLeaks Cable is poetry 65 haikus in 1830 cables

more like senryu amirite

posted by unknowncommand (13 comments total)

Getting late, but this

post seems resonant and fun,

too long, did not read.
posted by vrakatar at 8:52 PM on December 28, 2010

English verse aspiring to haiku should meet three criterion:

• Three lines with the classic 5,7,5 syllabic structure
• A reference to a season either directly or obliquley as weather imagery
• A "turn" in the last line: a startling juxtaposition or shift in narrative perspective

Only one of these meets the second, and that barely. None meet the third. This is a neat exercise coding, but as poetry it's shoehorned doggerel.
posted by clarknova at 9:58 PM on December 28, 2010 [1 favorite]

Neat, but the source links on the page go to a Git repository that doesn't seem to actually contain the excerpted parts. It just appears to have the first few lines of each file. Maybe I'm doing it wrong?
posted by Kadin2048 at 9:59 PM on December 28, 2010

I spot a couple that don't even hit the syllable counts.
posted by JHarris at 10:42 PM on December 28, 2010

clarknova, as the OP pointed out, these are more Senryū. However, these are Haiku in the popular imagination of Westerners, for whom I assume this site is intended.*

Anyway, I liked the idea, and these are fun. In particular:

Instead, he gulped three
  cans of Coca-Cola while
inhaling his food.

Datapoint: My girlfriend is half-Japanese and was unfamiliar with Senryū.
posted by doublehappy at 1:12 AM on December 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

Rather liked this one:

Post will be open
today for emergency
services only.
posted by Virtblue at 2:42 AM on December 29, 2010

Clarknova, these 'haikus' haven't been written by a persona as a synopsis of individual cables. Instead, haikufinder has just processed the text, looking for sentences that can be separated into 5, 7 then 5 syllable sections by inserting line-breaks in fairly reasonable positions. Since we wouldn't expect diplomats to include true haikus in their cable, it would be surprising if the program found many.


Neat, but the source links on the page go to a Git repository that doesn't seem to actually contain the excerpted parts. It just appears to have the first few lines of each file. Maybe I'm doing it wrong?

It seems to vary: "They do not know when those attacks might occur or what form they will take" is found in the linked text, but "As is typical, the Pope stayed above the fray and did not comment" is not.
posted by James Scott-Brown at 2:54 AM on December 29, 2010

Rather liked this one:

Post will be open
today for emergency
services only.

This one makes me want to rewrite pretty much every single warning sign ever into haiku form.
posted by doublehappy at 3:37 AM on December 29, 2010

This one makes me want to rewrite pretty much every single warning sign ever into haiku form.

Fingers in machine
like poplar leaves in autumn
will soon fall away.
posted by eriko at 5:50 AM on December 29, 2010 [10 favorites]

Now THAT'S haiku!
posted by clarknova at 6:27 AM on December 29, 2010

Sorry.

Metafilter: a neat exercise coding, but as poetry it's shoehorned doggerel.
posted by nevercalm at 6:32 AM on December 29, 2010 [1 favorite]

Yeah, this is obviously not intended to be Actual Composed Poetry, it's just fun to see context-free, haiku-sounding excerpts from the cables. The ones where the line breaks make "sense" are the ones I like best.

They do not know when
  those attacks might occur or
what form they will take.

Parts of the country
  are often cut off by snow
and avalanches.

Therefore, he added,
  we must prepare carefully,
out of the spotlight.

The three officials
  have informed their capitals
but have no response.

(which I didn't intend to be read together when I copied them, but on preview I like them together) and my favorite so far:

He has written books,
  but most critics understand
that is not his gift.

(About President Alan Garcia of Peru, if you were curious.)
posted by mendel at 1:32 PM on December 29, 2010

Sol Melia owns
and operates 24
hotels in Cuba.
posted by clavdivs at 2:33 PM on December 29, 2010