Senryu – lotus illuminated = lotus illuminé

Senryu – lotus illuminated = lotus illuminé

Bahá’i temple  
all humankind lotus
illuminated



temple Bahá’i 
l’humanité lotus
illuminé

Richard Vallance

Set in the Andean foothills, just beyond Santiago, Chile, the Bahá’i Temple of South America is a domed, luminous structure echoing the rolling typography of the mountains where it is located.

This senryu is based on the famous quote of Bahá’u’lláh (1817-1892), founder of the Bahá’i religion, whose name means “The Glory of God”, as follows:

“The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens.”  

What is a senryu? 

A Senryu (also called human haiku) is an unrhymed Japanese verse consisting of three unrhymed lines of five, seven, and five syllables (5, 7, 5) or 17 syllables in all. A Senryu is usually written in the present tense and only references to some aspect of human nature or emotions, or a Japanese poem similar in structure to haiku, but more concerned with human nature, and is often humorous or satiric -- usually in three lines of seventeen kana.   This senryu is concerned with human emotion, or more accurately, human spirituality. It is not meant to be humorous or satirical. Unlike haiku, senryu do not contain season words = kigo. 

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