L'épée en main
Dos à la porte d'airain
Il nous protège serein
—
Solstice d'hiver
En cette nuit de Saint-Jean
La Lumière renaît
—
Those are haikus. Masonic haikus. Written in French.
In English, the first one says,
The sword in hand
Back with the bronze door
It protects us serene
And the second one translates as,
Winter solstice
In this night of Midsummer's Day
The Light reappears
Haikus are a style of Asian poetry. The rules for writing a haiku are simple. There must be 17 syllables — five in the first line, seven in the second, and five again in the third.
There are three lines. The first and third lines of a haiku are each a total of five syllables. The second line is seven syllables.
Example ('|'s are used to separate syllables):
Line 1: Vis | it | this | web | site
Line 2: Sub | mit | your | Ma | son | ic | words
Line 3: It's | a | lot | of | fun!
I got this idea from Blog Maçonnique, a French-speaking Masonic blog, which posted this idea yesterday. Let's have a contest. Post your best Masonic-themed haiku in the comments section at the end of this article. After we collect several, maybe we'll even have a poll to decide which one's the best, and we'll try to get it published somewhere more impressive than here.
Here's my first attempt:
Square and compasses
Enclosing the letter G
What do they mean now?
And some more that came to mind:
Donuts and coffee.
Open, pray, pledge, talk, close, go.
Except when there's work.
Blind and poor I came.
I found Light but not enough
To keep me coming.
Seven thirty now.
The Master raps his gavel.
Close the door, Tyler.
It must have been fun
Writing Masonic haikus.
I've done it all night.
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