French-Language Haiku Contest Award Ceremony

On April 27, the award ceremony of the French-language Haiku Contest was held at the Flanders Fields Museum in Ypres, and was attended by Ambassador Hayashi. The contest is an initiative held every year since 2009 by a teacher’s association which teaches how to compose haiku’s, and is part of French-language education in Dutch-language regions. This year’s theme was “peace”. The award ceremony was held in Ypres, a city which had been the site of fierce battles during the First World War, and was called the “City of Peace” after its reconstruction. About 100 persons attended the ceremony, among whom the Mayor of Ypres, Ms. Talpe, city officials, students and teachers.
Mayor Talpe gave a welcome address, followed by a presentation by the President of the Haiku Contest Mr. Leroy about the steps in the process of composing a haiku. Ambassador Hayashi stated that haiku originated from the hearts of Japanese as an interaction with nature, in praise of its beauty. The Ambassador furthermore said that nowadays, people anywhere in the world have become familiar with haiku, with the choice of subtle words to exactly express the subject as a universal characteristic. The composition of haiku in French is a good example of that.
Following the speeches, awards were given to 12 haiku’s, and the Japanese Ambassador’s Award went to Mr. Maarten Ebraert, who received a commemorative plaque from the Ambassador. The award winning work is as follows:

Colombes de Paix
Portant des coquelicots
Annoncent la fin

Doves of Peace
Carrying poppies
Announcing the end