There are a lot of Japanese haiku using onomatopoeic words or mimetic
words. I think it's hard to translate these haiku.
For example,
mizu-makura
gabari to samui
umi ga aru
Saito Sanki
mizu-makura: a water pillow
gabari to: mimetic word, "gabari to" is an unusual word.
Maybe Sanki made a new word. But I can feel
suddenness from the sound of "gabari to".
samui:cold
umi:sea
aru: there is(/are)
(*) It's a well-known haiku in Japan.
The situation of this haiku is ( in my imagination :));
Sanki had a high fever, so he slept using a water pillow.
There were several pieces of ice in it. Sanki was half
conscious. When pieces of ice made a low sound, he
felt as if he were in a cold sea ( with icebergs ).
The mimetic/onomatopoeic word "gabari to" have
the power to make me imagine the above situation.
Perhaps there is no word in English like "gabari to".
Of course, there must be a lot of English mimetic/
onomatopoeic words not to be translated into
Japanese words.
Just my thought, inspired by Marc's haiku.
Hiromi