EU's president to publish haiku collection

Mar 30, 2010, 11:13 GMT

Brussels - European Union President Herman Van Rompuy is to publish a collection of haiku, short structured poems based on a Japanese form, officials in Brussels announced Tuesday.

The ascetic 62-year-old Belgian politician, economist and philosopher, is famed in Brussels for his love of the terse poems. His habit of writing them to comment on everyday scenes has not been derailed by his appointment as the EU's top politician.

His latest composition, posted online on March 20, just days before he hosted a crunch EU summit, runs:

'Thinned out and grown bald, You can now see through the wood All the way to spring'

Van Rompuy is set to present the first anthology of his haiku on April 15, officials in his private office confirmed.

The poems will be published in the original Dutch - his native language - with translations into English, French and Latin.

Van Rompuy has already published six books on esoteric subjects such as 'Christendom: a modern thought' and 'Renewal in head and heart,' but this is his first full-length book of poetry.

His interest in haiku has already sparked imitations, with august publications such as the Wall Street Journal and Britain's Independent immortalizing his appointment with verses of their own.