In an astonishing discovery, anthropologists have identified a new Talmudic tractate. Scholars are astounded by the tractate, which is called Chai-ku, because it contains elements of ancient Japanese culture including several haikus.
A haiku is a traditional Japanese poem consisting of 17 syllables divided into three phrases of five, seven and five syllables respectively. To date, only a few of the Jewish haikus, also known as Jew-kus, have been translated into English.
Her lips near my ear,
Aunt Sadie whispers the name
of her friend’s disease
Testing the warm milk
on her wrist, she sighs softly;
her son is forty
Today I’m a man;
tomorrow I will return
to the seventh grade
After the warm rain
the scent of camellias,
did you wipe your feet?
tomorrow so hot you’ll plotz
five-day forecast, feh!
Quietly murmured
during the Torah reading
Brewers 5, Cubs 2.
The journey of a
thousand miles begins with a
Note: These poems can be found, some in different versions, in David M. Bader’s 1999 book “Haikus for Jews” — and all over the Internet.
Loading ...