BRUSSELS — A longtime haiku fan, European Council President Herman Van Rompuy not only likes reading the traditional poems but also loves to write them in his native Dutch.
Van Rompuy, elected in November as the first permanent president of the European Council, published his first collection of haiku earlier this month. He is visiting Tokyo this week to attend an annual summit between Japan and the European Union.
The former Belgian prime minister astonished friends last year when, at an international news conference, he read out his own haiku on Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg sharing the EU presidency: Drie golven rollen (Three waves rolling) Samen de haven binnen (Together into the harbor) Het trio is thuis' (The trio is home)