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 stimulated the writing of haiku in English. The Japanese-American scholar and translator Kenneth Yasuda published "The Japanese Haiku: Its Essential Nature, History, and Possibilities in English, with Selected Examples" in 1957. The book includes both translations from Japanese and original poems of his own in English, which had previously appeared in his book titled "A Pepper-Pod: Classic Japanese Poems together with Original Haiku". In these books Yasuda presented a critical theory about haiku, to which he added comments on haiku poetry by early 20th-century poets and critics. His translations apply a 5–7–5 syllable count in English, with the first and