Book of the Week: A Scarecrow in the Snow

Today’s Book of the Week, A Scarecrow in the Snow, by Serbian poet Aleksandar Pavic, was published by Moment Book in 2000, shortly after Yugoslavia’s attack on the Kosovo independence movement was stopped by NATO bombing. Several of the haiku reflect that period.

Dimitar Anakiev, the so-called “father” of Serbian haiku, described this volume in a review as follows: “Aleksandar Pavic’s collection . . . contains no examples of ‘anti-haiku’ (under the label of haiku), nor weak haiku (the so-called ‘so what’ haiku), false stances nor intellectualizations. I think that I can say this is a rare haiku volume in this country, though as many as fifty books are published under this category per year.”

A slim, but significant haiku publication, in Serbian and English.

 

going nowhere

during the air-raid alarm —

a scarecrow

sleepless night —

the gust of wind

brings a dog’s howl

You can read the entire book in the THF Digital Library.

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Haiku featured in the Book of the Week Archive are selected by THF Digital Librarian Garry Eaton, and are used with permission.