Classical Haiku?
Have you been meaning to brush up on your Latin but keep putting it off because, well, you know, the drain needs unclogging, or the screws in the oddments jar need sorting? Here’s a way you can get back to your classical roots and enjoy it — write haiku in Latin!
Opaca Fronde is a Latin haiku writing project and group founded and directed by Jacopo Rubini (pen-name: Flaminius), professor of Latin Composition at the Pontifical Salesian University of Rome. At the Salesian University, students are taught Latin in Latin, and Rubini, inspired by the president of the Academia Latinitati Fovendae Prof. Dirk Sacré, uses haiku to deepen and develop their fluency.
The project operates online, accepting and evaluating Latin haiku for publication from people all over the world and translating into Latin haiku written and submitted in different languages. A single haiku is published every Monday on the website.
The Project also hosts a periodical podcast named “HaiKast”, where haiku selected to a theme are published and read in Latin, English and Italian by professional speaker Dr. Daria Esposito. All episodes can be found here. You can find Opaca Fronde on Instagram, Facebook, and on their own site, and contact them here.
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This Latin Haiku project is a very important. Thank you to all parties who have
made this possible.
In the Classical period of Japanese haiku, particularly in the haiku of Chi oni, intellectual ideas are important as they were in the classical renga of the XV century Japanese poetry.
I commend this wonderful project.
I would like to sincerely thank all the kind people at The Haiku Foundation and especially Jim Kacian, who proposed this inspiring collaboration between Opaca Fronde and The Haiku Foundation. I mean to speak not only for myself, but for the whole group, when I say this is truly a honor!
Jacopo “Flaminius” Rubini