Book of the Week: The Clay Moans / Vaietele lutului

Today’s Book of the Week is The Clay Moans (Vaietele lutului), by Romanian poet Laura Vaceanu, a woman who has been at the forefront of the haiku movement in Romania, both as author and editor, since the first flush of creative renewal after the end of Soviet domination. This dual-language publication (Romanian and English) will be of interest especially to readers of Romanian, partly for its intrinsic interest and partly because of the English translations, which are frequently difficult to decipher and prove the value of seeking advice from expert translators. Despite this deficiency, English readers can often see into and enjoy the quality of Vaceanu’s original conceptions.

A rainbow
embraces the sea from one shore
to the other

The beach at noon —
the wave brings at shore
an empty beer bottle

Rare friend —
an old tea service
with few pieces

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

Do you have a chapbook published 2010 or earlier you would like featured as a Book of the Week? Contact us for details.

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