HAIKU IN SPAIN: CATALAN
Catalonia (written as Catalunya in the Catalan language, and as Cataluña in the Spanish language) is an autonomous community in the northeastern part of Spain. The official languages are Catalan, Spanish, and the Aranese dialect of Occitan. The Catalan language is spoken in northeastern Spain and the Balearic Islands as well as the principality of Andorra. First contacts with haiku in Catalonia were made through the publication of translations from English of the imagist poets in 1920 and from French of parts of Paul-Louis Couchoud’s work the following year. In the early 1920s a number of established poets began to experiment with haiku-like verses, but the first true haiku in Catalan was probably written by Josep María Junoy. Today there are a number of poets writing and publishing their work in Catalan but such events as Catalan haiku anthologies and organizations are just beginning.