Conventional wisdom has it that the Japanese don't much go in for satire. But today's announcement of this year's winners in the salaryman senryu poetry contest suggests they have a perfectly developed barbed tongue.
The annual contest, run by the insurance firm Dai-ichi Life, offers salaried and non-salaried Japanese men and women the chance to reflect on their lives and take a verbal swipe at others - all in the space of 17 syllables.
Unlike haiku, which are inspired by the natural world, senryu deal with human nature, from demanding bosses to nagging or neglectful spouses.
This year's winner was chosen from tens of thousands of entries, with the top ten given pride of place today on Dai-ichi's website, complete with illustrations.
For an even better visual representation of the genre, Japan Probe has helpfully posted links to local TV coverage of the top three poems, which deal, in ascending order, with a dog in distress, electrically heated toilets and Nintendo brain games.
But the Japanese don't have a monopoly on snappy, self-effacing verse. To help - or perhaps hinder - readers, here's one I made earlier, written in haste (that's my excuse, anyway) and (this is important) at a location eight hours ahead of GMT.
Call it a correspondent's senryu:
Sun gone, cooker on
Grilled tuna and steaming rice
My editor calls
OK, so that won't win any prizes - but I'm sure Guardian Unlimited readers can do better. Remember, your senryu should be made up of three lines, of five, seven and five syllables. And, notwithstanding the above example, try and make us laugh.
