Haiku such as "kyo" () may look like two syllables to English speakers but are in fact a single "on" (as well as a single syllable) in Japanese. In 1973, the Haiku Society of America noted that the norm for writers of haiku in English was to use 17 syllables, but they also noted a trend toward shorter haiku. Shorter haiku are very much more common in 21st century English haiku writing. Some translators of Japanese poetry have noted that about 12 syllables in English approximate the duration of 17 Japanese "on". Also in translations four lines is more appropriate for
Haiku matter. The loosening of traditional standards has resulted in the term "haiku" being applied to brief English-language poems such as "mathemaku" and other kinds of pseudohaiku. Some sources claim that this is justified by the blurring of definitional boundaries in Japan. Subsequent to Paul-Louis Couchoud’s popularisation of the form in France through his essays and translations, the next major haiku collection to appear there was the sequence of war poems by , "Cent visions de guerre" (1916). Later haiku by him were included among the work of the twelve published together in the "Nouvelle Revue Française" (No. 84, September 1920),