Lishanu means 'tongue' in the language of ancient Babylon, where,
according to the story of the Tower of Babel, all humanity once
'spoke with one tongue'. One of the journal's chief goals is to
foster intercommunal understanding and communication among haikai
poets and readers from differing linguistic backgrounds. It is a
space for us to read and share haikai from divergent environments,
breaching linguistic and cultural barriers. Lishanu can be a place
where we all learn from each other, as every exposure to new
approaches and styles can only serve to stimulate us, as poets and
readers, and to increase understanding of each others' cultures. It
is our hope that Lishanu will help promote haikai in a truly
international way.
SUBMISSION REQUIREMENTS:
All haikai texts must be bilingual,
i.e. English and (at least) one other language. Please send up to
ten haiku or senryu, and up to five haibun or renku, in the body of
your email and in an attached Word (or RTF) document. While
we prefer work which has not been bilingually published before, if
it is of sufficient quality we will consider previously published
items (please provide details of prior publication).
We will consider including your notes on the
translation process and its challenges relevant to the verse in
question, if they are of interest to the reader, and assist in
understanding.
At the moment we are limited to alphabetic
writing systems, e.g. Latin (this alphabet), Cyrillic, Arabic and
Hebrew. We plan to expand our capabilities to include Japanese in
the future.
Subject to volumes, we are happy to assist
in 'polishing' the English translations of selected pieces.
Haiga:
Please send up to five haiga in .jpg or .gif format, maximum
file size 300 Kb, maximum dimensions 550 pixels width, 550
pixels height. The English translation may be integrated into
the image, or may accompany it separately.
Essays:
We are happy to consider your essays in English (or bilingual)
dealing with questions of translation and linguistic issues in
haikai.
Reviews:
We welcome your reviews in English of recent bilingual haikai
publications, or of those dealing with linguistic issues in
haikai.
Deadline for receipt of submissions for the
inaugural issue has now passed. Closing date for submissions for
Issue #2 is 31 October 2005. Send all submissions to
editor AT lishanu DOT com
(substituting @ for AT and . for DOT) including a short biography,
and name of translator. Subject to volumes, we intend a response
time of less than four weeks.
PUBLICATIONS:
NEW...........