Carpe Diem Special (3rd guest) Herman van Rompuy's 2nd "inaugurate spring"

Dear Haijin, visitors and travelers,

Welcome at a new episode of Carpe Diem Haiku Kai. I first have to mention something before I introduce the second haiku by Herman van Rompuy. I recently got a comment by Kala Ramesh according her second special "tangled thoughts" which I published several days ago. It turns out that two of the used tanka were not written by her, however they were listed under her name, so I decided to remove the both tanka which were not of her. It's a sloppy mistake, but I thought they were written by her, because they were listed under her name. My excuses for this mistake and maybe infringement of rights of the real poets of the tanka.

Okay ... back to today's CD Special by Herman van Rompuy, former president of Belgium and former president of the EU. As I told you all in the first CD Special by him I haven't got permission yet to use his haiku, however I think he is okay with it, because he didn't respond. If there is a problem please let me know.

The haiku for your inspiration today is a wonderful one and it brought nice memories back to haiku by Basho and haiku which I wrote myself. The first haiku which came in mind was Basho's "old pond", that renown haiku:

old pond
a frog jumps in
sound of water

© Basho (Tr. Chèvrefeuille)

Yamabuki (Yellow Rose)

And this one by myself:

rippling water

as frogs jump into -

yellow roses bloom 

© Chèvrefeuille

But also this one with another theme:

what a surprise!

as I kneel next to the old pond

dragonflies mating

© Chèvrefeuille

Maybe you remember that turned this haiku into a haiga:

What has this to do with the haiku by Herman van Rompuy? Well ... let me tell you:

In his haiku he talks about a ditch in which toads are mating in spring. So the images in his haiku brought me the haiku as above shown.

Here is his haiku for your inspiration and my response on it:

in a nearby ditch
toads mating passionately
inaugurate spring

© Herman van Rompuy 

Well ... did I say to much? A beautiful haiku and I think you can follow my associations with this haiku.

a young couple

discovers the beauty of love

in a poor lit alley

© Chèvrefeuille

I think this haiku (or do I have to call it senryu) is created with the same images as in the haiku by Herman van Rompuy, but I only changed it to the "spring of youngsters who fall in love for the very first time and are discovering the beauty of love".

This episode is NOW OPEN for your submissions and will remain open until October 17th at noon (CET). I will (try to) post our next episode, beads (in honor of Jane), later on. For now ... have fun!