Haikuleaks tranforms Wikileaks into Japanese poetry

The new website has created 65 full 17-syllable Haiku poems from the 1,830 leaked diplomatic cables.

By JPOST.COM STAFF

JANUARY 3, 2011 19:22

Wikileaks (photo credit: Associated Press) — Wikileaks

(photo credit: Associated Press)

A new website has taken leaked Wikileaks documents and extracted excerpts from the cables to create the Japanese form of poetry, haiku, which consists of 17 syllables.

Haikuleaks, managed by Tetalab's Fabrice Fource, has created a computer program which automatically identifies haiku in the English text. The poetry itself was not intended. So far, the site has extracted 65 full haiku poems, formatted in a five-seven-five syllable form, from 1,830 leaked diplomatic cables.

A programmer from the website told the The Huffington Post how the site works: "Each candidate haiku line, and then the entire haiku, has to make it through a few heuristics to filter out constructions that are likely to scan awkwardly (like verb phrases split across lines)."

The release of more than 250,000 classified US State Department documents by Wikileaks has exposed new diplomatic revelations between countries around the world. The various cables detail candid impressions from diplomats and world leaders about allies and enemies of the United States.

Here are some of the cables in condensed, Haiku form:

'We have made request after request,' he said, 'Whydoesn't the US respond? 04SANAA2346.txt

This message could be reinforced from the White Houseas appropriate. 09BRASILIA1094.txt

(S) Saleh did not waste time for his usualquid-pro-quo tactics. 05SANAA923.txt

It is not yet clear

whether these can be addressed

before the deadline.

09BRASILIA1342.txt

Also, the changes

would reduce the penalties

for non-compliance.

08BRASILIA1378.txt