The limeraiku is a form of poetry devised by Ted Pauker, consisting of a haiku in which five of the syllables (usually the ends of the three lines plus two more) rhyme in the pattern of a limerick. He gives an examplae:
There's a vile old man
Of Japan who roars at whores:
‘Where's your bloody fan?’
-Ted Pauker
Some authors have written limeraiku in an identical or very similar format, introducing the subject with "There's ...", choosing a place-name to rhyme with (cf. the stereotyped opening for limericks "There (once) was a ... from ..."), and dividing the second line as 3+2+2 syllables:
There's a latent queer
Of Tangier who brays at gays:
‘I'm hetero, dear.’
- Tim Hopkins
There's a cut-price whore
Of Cawnpore who hails all males:
‘Bed, Mattress - or Floor?’
- Pascoe Polglaze
There's a man at Crewe
station who buggers muggers
so well there's a queue.
- E. O. Parrott
Others have varied the form, changing the position within the lines of the five rhyming syllables, abandoning place-names as a source of rhymes, even forsaking the seemingly all-pervasive sexual humour in favour of historical or political themes:
John Keats rose at dawn,
Still forlorn, too chaste to taste
The amorous Brawne.
- Nick Enright
A limeraiku
needs two rhymes (used five times)
plus wit (which I blew).
- Anitra Freeman
(References:
* E. O. Parrott, The Penguin Book of Limericks, Penguin Books 1983
* A. Davie, The Limeraiku, an introduction,
http://www.nospine.net/jellyfish/002_11.asp * A. Freeman, Spontaneous Exercise: rhyme vs. rhythm,
http://www.anitraweb.org/kalliope/limeraiku.htmlPoet Thamizhanban,a prominent Tamil poet ,who is still ruling the literary world in Tamilnadu,by his supreme poetic skills,has brought out a volume of Limeraiku poems ,the first of its kind,in Tamil.
Instead of five rhymes,he prefers two rhymes,which appear in the first and third lines.
His thought-provoking poems are always a challenge to the translators.
As an ardent admirer and constant reader of his poems I ventured to translate some of the poems from the volume titled"Cleopatras of Chennimalai".Chennimalai is the native place of Thamizhanban.
Translations need not be craetive treasons,always.
I have done my best in transfering the sense of the poems.
Our beloved poet Thamizhanban,uses rhymes twice in every poem,in the first and third lines.
The linguistic and cultural barriers never allow anybody to present the original form of a poem in its source language after translating in the target language.
Hope you may enjoy my translations.
Monotanous life in forest
Deer and Rabbit wanted rest and haunted
In children's songs, they found a place,the best!
The wind lost its wings
Took rest In the bird's nest,swinging,
It stayed a while,puzzling?
A bird lost its life;
The heights it reached,while alive,
Wept with unending tears.
Fly away with birds
But forget that you are a man.
You don't need wings like birds.
'Bernard never recieved any bribery'
To pronounce such a witness
John recieved a bribery.
Smoke leads to death
Drinking also kills us
Selling them gives us wealth.
© ilakkuvanar., all rights reserved.
