Haiku in non-Japanese haiku or by modern writers of Japanese "free-form" haiku. The best-known Japanese haiku is Bashō's "old pond": This separates into "on" as: Translated: Another haiku by Bashō: This separates into "on" as: Translated: This haiku by Bashō illustrates that he was not always constrained to a 5-7-5 "on" pattern. It contains 18 "on" in the pattern 6-7-5 ("ō" or is treated as two "on".) This separates into "on" as: Translated: This haiku by Issa illustrates that 17 Japanese "on" do not always equate to 17 English syllables ("nan" counts as two "on" and "nonda" as three.) This separates
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