Haiku the 5-7-5 pattern. Although the word ""on"" is sometimes translated as "syllable", one "on" is counted for a short syllable, two for an elongated vowel or doubled consonant, and one for an "n" at the end of a syllable. Thus, the word "haibun", though counted as two syllables in English, is counted as four "on" in Japanese (ha-i-bu-n); and the word ""on"" itself, which English-speakers would view as a single syllable, comprises two "on": the short vowel o and the . This is illustrated by the Issa haiku below, which contains 17 "on" but only 15 syllables. Conversely, some sounds,
Haiku in English four lines (sometimes known as "haiqua") or longer have been written, some of them "vertical haiku" with only a word or two per line. These poems mimic the vertical printed form of Japanese haiku. The translator Nobuyuki Yuasa considered four lines more appropriate in his translations, being closest to the natural conversational rhythm of the colloquial language of haiku, also that three lines did not carry the weight of hokku and found it impossible to use 'three lines' consistently for his translations. The contemporary poet John Martone has written a vast number of vertical haiku. Haiku have also appeared in