1804
.春立や四十三年人の飯
haru tatsu ya shi jû san nen hito no meshi
spring begins--
forty three years
fed by strangers
Literally, the food is "rice" (meshi). In traditional Japan the first day of the year was also the first day of spring. On that day--not the birthday--a year was added to a person's age. Shinji Ogawa helped me to grasp Issa's meaning in this haiku. Literally, the poem ends, "people's rice" (hito no meshi), which I formerly translated, "human food." Shinji explained that hito in this context means "unrelated persons," and so the haiku alludes to the poet's long, bitter exile from his native village.
All translations © 1991-2010 by David G. Lanoue, rights reserved.