Home - About Haiku - About Issa - About Me - What's New

534 haiku out of 9486

year unknown

.行灯のかたぴらよりけさの春
andon no katappira yori kesa no haru

to one side
of my paper lantern...
spring's first dawn

Or: "the paper lantern."

I assume that katappira is a combination of kata ("one") and hira, which in Issa's time could refer to anything thin and flat, like paper or leaves. Here, it seems to refer to one face of the paper lantern. Kogo dai jiten (Shogakukan 1983) 1416. This undated haiku is almost identical to one written in 1825, which ends with the phrase, ake no haru ("first of spring").

year unknown

.草の戸やいづち支舞の今朝の春
kusa no to ya izuchi shimai no kesa no haru

at my hut
what will come of it?
spring's first dawn

Shinji Ogawa has pointed out to me that kusa no to is not to be read literally as "grass door," but figuratively as "my hut." Izuchi is an old word that can mean dochira ("whichever") or doko ("wherever"); Kogo dai jiten (Shogakukan 1983) 137.

year unknown

.けさ春と掃まねしたりひとり坊
kesa haru to haku mane shitari hitori-bô

spring's first dawn--
the priest pretending
to sweep

year unknown

.ふしぎ也生れた家でけさの春
fushigi nari umareta ie de kesa no haru

amazing--
in the house I was born
spring's first morning

Since the haiku is undated, we have no way of knowing exactly how long Issa had been absent from his home in Kashiwabara village when he wrote this. Shinji Ogawa notes that he had been away for so long, he must have had many things on his mind, myriad thoughts and memories whirling within--summed up cryptically by the single word, "amazing" (fushigi). In 1816 he writes a similar haiku:

fushigi nari umareta ie de kyô no tsuki

amazing--
in the house I was born
seeing this moon

year unknown

.ふしぎ也生れた家でけふの春
fushigi nari umareta ie de kyô no haru

amazing--
in the house I was born
spring begins today

The haiku has the prescript, "After fifty years' absence, returning to my native village."

year unknown

.塵の身も拾ふ神あり花の春
chiri no mi mo hirou kami ari hana no haru

even for this body of dust
a guardian god...
blossoming spring

This is a rewrite of a haiku of 1816:

konna mi mo hirou kami arite hana [no] haru

even for me
there's a guardian god...
blossoming spring

The revised haiku has the standard seven sound units in the middle phrase, not the eight of hirou kami arite.

In yet another revision, Issa begins with chiri no mi wo.

year unknown

.とてもならみろくの御代を松の春
totemo nara miroku no miyo wo matsu no haru

now begins
the Future Buddha's reign...
spring pines

According to the Shingon sect, Miroku Bodhisattva will become a Buddha far in the future, to save all beings who cannot achieve enlightenment.

year unknown

.庵の春寝そべる程は霞なり
io no haru nesoberu hodo wa kasumu nari

spring at my hut--
tall as a sleeping man
the mist

Shinji Ogawa explains that the phrase, nesoberu hodo wa, means "as much as a lying down person." He paraphrases the haiku: "New spring at my hut...here the mist trails just as low as a lying down person."

year unknown

.初春や千代のためしに立給ふ
hatsu haru ya chiyo no tameshi ni tatsu tamau

spring begins
as it has deigned to do
for a thousand ages

This haiku has the prescript, "In a picture of Mount Fuji." Did Issa include this poem in a haiga (haiku painting)?

year unknown

.はる立や門の雀もまめなかほ
haru tatsu ya kado no suzume mo mamena kao

spring begins--
sparrows at my gate
with healthy faces

Originally, I translated the last phrase, "little faces," since Issa writes, literally, "bean-sized faces" (mamena kao). Shinji Ogawa informed me that mame signifies "healthy" when it is used as an adjective. He adds that "bean-sized face is, however, not totally impossible but less likely."

year unknown

.長閑さや垣間を覗く山の僧
nodokasa ya kakima wo nozoku yama no sô

spring peace--
a mountain monk peeks
through the hedge

Kaki can be translated as "fence" or "hedge." Shinji Ogawa feels that this is a humorous reference to a scene from The Tale of Genji (Chapter 5), wherein Prince Genji peers through a brushwood hedge and catches sight of ten-year old Murasaki. Shinji notes, "In spring, even a mountain monk becomes a Peeping Tom." Issa plays with this same image in another comic haiku, but in this case a cat takes the place of the famous prince; search the archive for "Genji."

year unknown

.舞々や翌なき春を笑ひ顔
mai-mai ya asu naki haru wo warai kao

water spider
on spring's last day...
laughing face

Shinji Ogawa helped with this translation. The mai-mai is also called a "water spinner."

year unknown

.行春や我を見たをす古着買
yuku haru ya ware wo mitaosu furugigai

spring departs--
the old clothes buyer
ignores me

Jean Cholley identifies this as a haiku written in the period 1798-1800; En village de miséreux: Choix de poèmes de Kobayashi Issa (Paris: Gallimard, 1996) 41. In Issa zenshû it is simply listed as an undated poem (Nagano: Shinano Mainichi Shimbunsha, 1976-79) 1.64.

In this self-ironic portrait Issa suggests that he is so ragtag and beggarly-looking, the used clothes merchant looks past him, confident that he has nothing worth buying.

Originally, I translated furugigai as "old clothes seller," but Sakuo Nakamura suggests that "buyer" fits better here: he or she looks with disdain at Issa in his poor-looking clothes.

year unknown

.小烏や巧者にすべる春の雨
ko-garasu ya kôsha ni suberu haru no ame

the little crow
slips so cleverly...
spring rain

This is a rewrite of an 1812 haiku; in the original the crow was a "field crow" (no-garasu).

year unknown

.安堵して鼠も寝るよ春の雨
ando shite nezumi mo neru yo haru no ame

taking it easy
the mouse sleeps too...
spring rain

year unknown

.たびら雪半分交ぜや春の雨
tabira yuki hambun maze ya haru no ame

half of it
is flitting snowflakes...
spring rain

Tabira yuki is an old expression that connotes a light, flitting snow; Kogo dai jiten (Shogakukan 1983) 1019. Winter was long in Issa's snowy, mountainous province.

year unknown

.入道が綻ぬふや春の雨
nyûdô ga hokorobi nuu ya haru no ame

the priest is mending
a rip...
spring rain

year unknown

.春雨や相に相生の松の声
harusame ya ai ni aioi no matsu no koe

spring rain--
growing side by side
the talking pines

This haiku has the prescript: "Congratulations on a new marriage." The "pines' voices" (matsu no koe) refer to the sighing of wind through their branches. Shinji Ogawa notes that aioi means "growing up together" and "growing old together," and so this word is often used in wedding speeches.

Shinji's translation:

spring rain...
voices of pines
standing side by side

year unknown

.春雨や夜も愛するまっち山
harusame ya yoru mo ai [su]ru matchi yama

spring rain--
at night, too, making love
on Mount Matchi

Shinji Ogawa notes that there is a mountain called Matchi, but "Mount Matchi" (matchi yama) is also a pillow word (conventional poetic expression) for "waiting." He believes that there are many love poems associated with Mount Matchi.

year unknown

.夜談義やばくちくづれや春の雨
yo dangi ya bakuchi kuzure ya haru no ame

night sermon
backsliding gamblers...
spring rain

This is a rewrite of an earlier haiku of 1818: "spring rain--/ backsliding gamblers/ and a night sermon." Here, Issa reverses the order of images.

year unknown

.ぼた餅や辻の仏も春の風
botamochi ya tsuji no hotoke mo haru no kaze

rice cake with bean paste
for the crossroads Buddha...
spring breeze

In its original form (1814), this haiku focuses on Jizô, the guardian deity of children. In another version (1819) it focuses on a "Buddha of the thicket" (yabu no hotoke).

year unknown

.春風や供の女の小脇差
harukaze ya tomo no onna no ko wakizashi

spring breeze--
a female servant's
short sword

Shinji Ogawa assisted with this translation. In his original verison of this haiku (1819), Issa pictures "a little servant girl" (tomo no musume).

year unknown

.鬼の面狐の面や春の風
oni no men kitsune no men ya haru no kaze

faces of devils
faces of foxes...
spring breeze

Or: "a devil's face/ a fox's face..."

Shinji Ogawa explains that men in this context means 殿 mask� used in a spring celebration.

year unknown

.笠うらの大神宮や春の風
kasa ura no daijingû ya haru no kaze

inside my umbrella-hat
a charm from Ise Shrine...
spring breeze

Issa is referring to the great Shinto shrine at Ise.

Shinji Ogawa helped me to understand Issa's meaning. Literally, the poet has Ise Shrine under his umbrella-hat; actually, this is a lucky charm which he purchased at Ise Shrine.

year unknown

.春風に吹れた形や女坂
haru kaze ni fukarete nari ya onnazaka

the spring breeze pushes
somebody
down the slope

Onnazaka is a gentle slope.

year unknown

.春風に吹れ序の湯治哉
haru kaze ni fukare tsuide no toji kana

while the spring breeze blows
a healing
bath

year unknown

.春風や芦の丸屋の一つ口
harukaze ya ashi no maruya no hitotsu-guchi

spring breeze--
the round reed hut's
one door

year unknown

.春風や歩行ながらの御法談
haru kaze ya aruki nagara no ôhôdan

spring breeze--
the priest gives his sermon
walking along

year unknown

.一つ葉の中より吹や春の風
hitotsuba no naka yori fuku ya haru no kaze

out of the dyer's-weed
it blows...
spring breeze

Shinji Ogawa notes that hitotsuba is the name of a weed: "a dyer's-weed."

year unknown

.霞とや朝からさはぐ馬鹿烏
kasumu to ya asa kara sawagu baka karasu

in spring mist
from morning on a ruckus...
foolish crow

Or: "foolish crows."

year unknown

.たっぷりと霞と隠れぬ卒塔婆哉
tappuri to kasumu to kakurenu sotoba kana

well hidden
by the spring mist...
grave tablet

There are two definitions for sotoba: (1) a Buddhist shrine constructed to contain Buddha's ashes, used in memorial services for the dead; (2) a wooden grave tablet; Kogo dai jiten (Shogakukan 1983) 946. Sakuo Nakamura and Gabi Greve believe that Issa has the second meaning in mind when he uses this term. In my first translation, I read the nu in kakurenu as a negative: "not quite hidden." Shinji Ogawa tells me, in this case, nu makes the perfect tense: "hidden."

year unknown

.袖あたり遊ぶ虱の彼岸哉
sode atari asobu shirami no higan kana

heading for my sleeve
to play...
spring equinox louse

year unknown

.春の日の入所なり藤の花
haru no hi no iri-tokoro nari fuji no hana

the setting place
for the spring sun...
wisteria blossoms

Shinji Ogawa explains that haru no hi in this context means "the spring sun," not "the spring day." I have revised my translation accordingly.

1789

.木々おのおの名乗り出たる木の芽哉
kigi ono-ono nanori idetaru ko no me kana

every tree
with its calling card...
spring buds

Literally, Issa is saying that every tree is giving a self-introduction with its emerging buds.

1789

.象潟もけふは恨まず花の春
kisagata mo kyô wa uramazu hana no haru

even Kisa Lagoon
isn't hateful today...
blossoming spring

Before the earthquake of 1804, Kisa Lagoon (Kisagata) was, in Shinji Ogawa's words, "beautiful ... like a miniature archipelago." Shinji sees in this haiku an allusion to a sentence in Bashô's Oku no hosomichi ("Narrow Road to the Far Provinces"): "Matsushima is smiling, Kisagata grieving." Though Bashô uses the word, uramu, it does not mean "hateful" but rather "melancholy" (the literary meaning of uramu). Shinji paraphrases, "Though Bashô called it 'melancholy,' Kisagata is not melancholy today because of the blossoming spring."

Makoto Ueda notes that this haiku shows the playful humor typical of the Katsushika school that influenced Issa in his early years; Dew on the Grass: The Life and Poetry of Kobayashi Issa (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2004) 14.

1791

.華の友に又逢ふ迄は幾春や
hana no tomo ni mata au made wa ikuharu ya

my blossom comrades
when next we meet...
how many springs from now?

Or: "my blossom comrade." Since the kind of "blossom" (hana) is not specified, Issa means cherry blossoms. Shinji Ogawa explains that the phrase, hana no tomo ("blossoms' friend[s]"), signifies a friend, or friends, from whom Issa is departing during the blooming spring. Jean Cholley agrees with this interpretation in his French translation: ("mes amis sous les fleurs" ("my friends under the blossoms"); En village de miséreux: Choix de poèmes de Kobayashi Issa (Paris: Gallimard, 1996) 31.

1792

.行春の町やかさ売すだれ売
yuku haru no machi ya kasa uri sudare uri

spring ends in the town--
umbrella-hat, bamboo blind
vendors

Shinji Ogawa notes that this haiku parodies an earlier one by Ôemaru: yûdachi ya edo wa kasa uri ashida uri, which might be translated, "Cloudburst/ in Edo umbrella-hat vendors/ wooden sandal vendors." See Issa zenshû (Nagano: Shinano Mainichi Shimbunsha, 1976-79) 2.50, note 6; and Maruyama Kazuhiko, Issa haiku shû (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1990; rpt. 1993) 15, note 17. Shinji believes that Issa's haiku, being a parody, is not art. I think that the fact that Issa playfully alludes to a previous poem in a present moment does not, in itself, disqualify the haiku as a work of art.

1792

.春風や尾上の松に音はあれど
haru kaze ya onoe no matsu ni ne wa aredo

spring breeze--
the pine on the ridge
whispers it

The expression wa aredo suggests that something is happening in contrast to an existing situation; Kogo dai jiten (Shogakukan 1983) 88. Shinji Ogawa paraphrases, "The spring breeze is so gentle I can hear the sounds created by it only from the pine tree on the ridge."

Sakuo Nakamura believes that onoe is not "ridge" but Onoue: a place name: "The pine tree is in the shrine called Onoue no Matsu that appears in an old Noh song." The editors of Issa zenshû, however, indicate that the pronunciation is onoe, not onoue; (Nagano: Shinano Mainichi Shimbunsha, 1976-79) 1.74.

1793

.花じゃぞよ我もけさから三十九
hana ja zoyo ware mo kesa kara san jû ku

blossoms--
from this morning on
39 springs to go

Issa wrote this haiku during New Year's season of 1793, at age 31. He reckoned that he had 39 more springs to look forward to before reaching the age of 70.

1793

.嬌女を日々にかぞへる春日哉
taoyame wo hi-bi ni kazoeru haru hi kana

pretty girls multiply
day by day...
spring days!

Shinji Ogawa helped with this translation.

1794

.雑煮いはふ吾も物かは旅の春
zôni iwau ware mo monoka wa tabi no haru

I too celebrate
with zoni...
spring journey

Zôni, glutinous rice cakes with vegetables, is enjoyed in the New Year's season. Monoka, usually written with a different kanji than the one that Issa uses here, can mean nante a negative expression; Kogo dai jiten (Shogakukan 1983) 1634. I believe that Issa's meaning is: "Why don't I also celebrate with zôni as I set off on my spring journey?" If I'm understanding him, the negative is conveying a positive.

1795

.乞食も護摩酢酌むらん今日の春
konjiki mo gomazu kumuran kyô [no] haru

even beggars toast
with sesame sake...
first of spring

I originally thought that this was a scene at a Shinto shrine. I was misled by the kanji with which Issa writes the word, goma; he uses the characters that signify "holy fire" instead of those that mean "sesame seeds." Shinji Ogawa set me straight. He adds that kumu, in this context, means "drink." The ending -ran changes the verb into a conjecture ("they may or may not be drinking"). In my re-translation, I use the verb "toast" in its simple, present tense, but Issa more exactly is saying, "perhaps even beggars may toast..." In English, the "perhaps" and "may" weaken the poem, so I've left them out.

The word kotsujiki is the old pronunciation of the word "beggar" in this haiku. However, Sakuo Nakamura writes that "Issa usually didn't like to use such a snobby word. He liked to use local accent to form his characteristic haiku style." Sakuo grew up in the same language area as Issa and feels confident that Issa would have pronounced the word, konjiki.

1795

.くっさめは我がうはさか旅の春
kussame wa ware ga uwasa ka tabi no haru

"Ah-choo!"
is someone gossiping about me?
spring journey

Shinji Ogawa explains that there is a belief in Japan that when a person sneezes, this indicates that someone is talking about him or her.

1795

.なべ一つ柳一本も是も春
nabe hitotsu yanagi ippon mo kore mo haru

one kettle
one willow tree...
this too is spring

This haiku celebrates the first day of spring, which was the first day of the year in the old Japanese calendar.

1795

.長閑や雨後の縄ばり庭雀
nodokeshi ya ugo no nawabari niwa suzume

spring peace--
after rain, a gang war
garden sparrows

Shinji Ogawa clarifies the meaning of this haiku. He explains, "The word nawabari (to stretch a rope) means the 'turf' for mobsters." He translates the second and third phrases, "a turf war among the garden sparrows."

1795

.長閑しや雨後の畠の朝煙り
nodokeshi ya ugo no hatake no asa kemuri

spring peace--
the rained-on field's
morning smoke

1795

.起て見れば春雨はれず日も暮れず
okite mireba harusame harezu hi mo kurezu

waking up--
the spring rain hasn't cleared
the day hasn't ended

This haiku appears in Issa's 1795 travel journal, Saigoku kikô ("Western Provinces Travelogue").

1795

.春雨や独法談二はいかい
harusame ya hitori hôdan ni haikai

spring rain--
one Buddhist sermon
two haiku

This haiku appears in Issa's 1795 travel journal, Saigoku kikô ("Western Provinces Travelogue").

1795

.春風や順礼共がねり供養
harukaze ya junrei-domo ga nerikuyô

spring breeze--
pilgrims on their way
to rites for the dead

A powerful juxtaposition of life and death. This haiku refers to nerikuyô: a memorial service held at Pure Land Buddhist temples to celebrate the coming of Amida Buddha to welcome spiritis of the dead; Kogo dai jiten (Shogakukan 1983) Kogo dai jiten (Shogakukan 1983) 1286.

1795

.寝ころんで蝶泊らせる外湯哉
ne-koronde chô tomaraseru soto yu kana

lying down
with a visiting butterfly...
outer hotspring

This haiku has the prescript, "Close by Dogo Hot Spring." The hot spring Issa enjoyed that day was an open air pool of overflow water just to the west of Dogo Spa in Matsuyama. Issa didn't realize that the pool was intended for horses and cows, not people. I thank Takashi Kasegawa, president of the Shiki Museum in Matsuyama, for helping me to grasp this poem. Shinji Ogawa helped translate the prescript.

1799

.今さらに別ともなし春がすみ
imasara ni wakare tomonashi harugasumi

leaving now
is especially hard...
spring mist

Makoto Ueda notes that Issa used this haiku in an elegiac haibun on the death of his friend, Ôkawa Ryûsa; Dew on the Grass: The Life and Poetry of Kobayashi Issa (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2004) 40-41.

1802

.茹汁の川にけぶるや春の月
yudejiru no kawa ni keburu ya haru no tsuki

a river of broth
is steaming...
spring moon

Here's what I picture: Issa is looking at a river that resembles "broth" (yudejiru) with steam rising from it.

1802

.昼風呂の寺に立也春がすみ
hiru furo no tera ni tatsu nari harugasumi

from the temple's
noon bath rising...
spring mist

1803

.頭巾とる門はどれどれ花の春
zukin toru kado wa dore-dore hana no haru

removing my skullcap--
at everywhich gate
spring blossoms

Or: "removing his skullcap"--a gesture of respect and deep appreciation for the blossoms.

1803

.身じろぎのならぬ家さへ花の春
mijirogi no naranu ie sae hana no haru

even at my penned-in
house...
spring blossoms

Or: "a penned-in house." Issa doesn't state that it is his, though this can be inferred. Shinji Ogawa translates mijirogi mo naranu as "cannot-move-around" or "narrow spot." When he wrote this haiku, he lived in Edo, today's Tokyo. His tenement house was "penned in" by other buildings.

1803

.明ぼのの春早々に借着哉
akebono no haru haya-baya ni karigi kana

at dawn
I start the spring...
borrowed clothes

This haiku has the prescript, "Without clothes." The first day of spring was New Year's Day in the old Japanese calendar.

1803

.万歳よも一ッはやせ春の雪
manzai yo mo hitotsu hayase haru no yuki

begging actors
play one more song!
spring snow

This haiku refers to begging actors who make their rounds during the New Year's season. Shinji Ogawa translates hitotsu hayase: "play one more round of music!"

1803

.紫の袖にちりけり春の雪
murasaki no sode ni chiri keri haru no yuki

scattering onto
my purple sleeves...
spring snow

Or: "his" or "her purple sleeves."

1803

.膳先に雀なく也春の雨
zen saki ni suzume naku nari haru no ame

at my dinner tray
a sparrow chirps...
spring rain

Or: "sparrows." Shinji Ogawa explains that a zen (dining tray) is about one foot by one foot with five-inch legs.

1803

.春の雨よ所の社もめづらしき
haru no ame yoso no yashiro mo mezurashiki

spring rain--
elsewhere the shrines
are wonderful

Evidently written during a visit to a Shinto shrine.

1803

.焼餅に烏の羽や春の雨
yakimochi ni karasu no hane ya haru no ame

a crow's feather
on the toasted rice cake...
spring rain

1803

.春の風草深くても古郷也
haru no kaze kusa fukakute mo kokyô nari

spring breeze--
though deep in the grasses
my home village

Shinji Ogawa explains, "The phrase, kusa fukakute mo kokyô nari means 'even though it痴 in thick grass, it is my native village'." Issa's sentiment, he adds, is similar to that of the English verse, "Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home."

1803

.京見えてすねをもむ也春がすみ
kyô miete sune wo momu nari harugasumi

seeing Kyoto
I massage my shins...
spring mist

The "capital" (miyako) was Kyoto in Issa's day. This is where the emperor and his court lived. Political and military power was centered in the Shogun's city of Edo, today's Tokyo.

1803

.小田の雁一つとなりて春いく日
oda [no] kari hito[tsu] to narite haru iku hi

the rice field geese
all head north...
a lucky spring day

Iku hi is an old expression for a lucky day upon which Shinto festivals were held; see Kogo dai jiten (Shogakukan 1983) 107. As Shinji Ogawa notes, Issa is punning with it, since it also means "a going day" or "day of departure," which is connected to the geese. He paraphrases, "the geese in the rice field/ are going to the northern country as a flock/ a lucky spring day!"

1803

.山水の溝にあまるや田麦刈
yama mizu no mizo ni amaru ya ta mugi kari

leftovers in the mountain
spring's ditch...
barley harvest

Mugi is a generic term that refers to several grains: wheat, barley, oats, and rye.

1804

.又土になりそこなうて花の春
mata tsuchi ni narisokonaute hana no haru

once again
I've managed not to die...
blossoming spring

Shinji Ogawa explains that tsuchi ni narisokonaute ("I failed to become mud") is a way of saying, "I didn't die." Issa has lived through another winter.

1804

.わが春は竹一本に柳哉
waga haru wa take ippon ni yanagi kana

my spring--
a bit of bamboo
and a willow sprig

Issa refers to the traditional pine-and-bamboo decoration (kadomatsu) on New Year's Day, the first day of spring in the old Japanese calendar. His own decoration is characteristically without frills: just a single stick of bamboo and a sprig of willow leaves.

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.

1804

.春立やよしのはおろか人の顔
haru tatsu ya yoshino wa oroka hito no kao

spring begins--
in Yoshino the faces
of fools

Yoshino is a famous place for viewing the cherry blossoms.

1804

.親里へ水は流るる春辺哉
oya-zato e mizu wa nagaruru harube kana

to my home village
the water flows...
springtime

This is a homesick haiku written while Issa was living in Edo (today's Tokyo), far from his "parental village" (oya-zato).

Makoto Ueda speculates that Issa came upon a stream that was flowing in a northwesterly direction: toward his native village in the mountains. Of course, since water can't flow uphill, there's a bit of humor in the haiku to balance the nostalgia; Dew on the Grass: The Life and Poetry of Kobayashi Issa (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2004) 56.

1804

.長閑さや去年の枕はどの木の根
nodokasa ya kozo no makura wa dono ki [no] ne

spring peace--
last year which tree root
was my pillow?

Now that spring has returned, Issa is ready for a delicious nap.

1804

.春の日や水さへあれば暮残り
haru no hi ya mizu sae areba kure nokori

the spring day's
remnants...
only in the water

According to Jean Cholley, Issa wrote this haiku in Katsushikano, a neighborhood of today's Tokyo known as Katsushika. It was one of the poet's favorite walking places, with plenty of ponds and streams. At dusk, even though the sky was already dark, glimmers of twilight lingered on the surfaces of water; En village de miséreux: Choix de poèmes de Kobayashi Issa (Paris: Gallimard, 1996) 235, n. 25.

1804

.春の夜や瓢なでても人の来る
haru no yo ya fukube nadete mo hito no kuru

spring evening--
he comes out to pet
the gourd

Is the proud gardener Issa?

1804

.川見ゆる木の間の窓や春の雨
kawa miyuru ko no ma no mado ya haru no ame

watching the river
through a window of trees...
spring rain falls

In my first translation, I had the view of river and rain "through window and trees." Sakuo Nakamura pictures "a window of trees." This makes sense to me.

1804

.酒ありと壁に張りけり春の雨
sake ari to kabe ni hari keri haru no ame

"Sake for sale"
a sign on a wall...
spring rain

A slice-of-life image. Shinji Ogawa explains that sake ari ("sake is here") is a statement on a sign that has been pasted (hari keri) on a wall.

1804

.春雨で恋しがらるる榎哉
harusame de koishigararuru enoki kana

because of spring rain
the dear nettle tree
is missed

According to Shinji Ogawa, harusame de signifies "due to the spring rain," and koishigararuru enoki denotes a "nostalgically beloved nettle tree," in other words, a nettle tree that is no longer here. Is Issa implying that he cut down the tree but regrets it, now that he needs a rain shelter?

1804

.春雨になれて灯とぼる薮の家
harusame ni narete hi toboru yabu no ie

becoming inured
to spring's rain...
lamp-lit house in the trees

Shinji Ogawa offers this translation:

Getting used to
the spring rain,
The house in the woods is lighted.

1804

.春雨の中に立たる榎哉
harusame no naka ni tachitaru enoki kana

standing tall
in the spring rain...
nettle tree

1804

.春雨やけぶりの脇は妹が門
harusame ya keburi no waki wa imo ga kado

spring rain--
at the edge of the spray
my dear one's gate

In my first translation, I rendered keburi literally as "smoke," but this word can also signify a type of mist or spray. I think the latter word captures Issa's image. Imo ("sister") is a literary word for "dear one"--an intimate term that a man uses to refer to his beloved; Kogo dai jiten (Shogakukan 1983) 454.

1804

.春雨や雀口明く膳の先
harusame ya suzume kuchi aku zen no saki

spring rain--
a sparrow begs
by my dinner tray

The sparrow opens its mouth; one assumes it is begging for a handout. Shinji Ogawa explains that a zen (dining tray) is about one foot by one foot with five-inch legs.

1804

.春雨や火もおもしろきなべの尻
harusame ya hi mo omoshiroki nabe no shiri

spring rain--
a delightful fire
under the kettle

1804

.昼過の浦のけぶりや春の雨
hiru sugi no ura no keburi ya haru no ame

steam on the bay
past midday...
spring rain

1804

.ほうろくをかぶって行や春の雨
hôroku wo kabutte yuku ya haru [no] ame

walking along
a baking pan on his head...
spring rain

Or: "her head." One of the most important aspects of haiku is that much is left ambiguous, unspoken, undefined. Ludmila Balabanova writes, "Haiku isn't a perception shared by the author, but an invitation to the reader to achieve his own enlightenment" (World Haiku Association speech, Tenri Japan, October 2003). Is the person walking along a child? An adult? Issa? I prefer to picture a child, but this choice is left to each reader to decide. Whoever we imagine, the makeshift umbrella-hat raises a smile. The delight of seeing a baking pan in this unexpected place, worn as a hat, is justification enough for the poem--a sketch from life that isn't straining to reveal deeper meaning. The image is simple, but the feeling it evokes, one of springtime joy, resonates in our hearts. Raindrops patter on the pan; the person under it--child, man, woman or Issa--strides forward unabashed.

This haiku is one of the "essential" 188 picked by the translator. back next

1804

.山の鐘も一ッひびけ春の雨
yama no kane mo hitotsu hibike haru no ame

clang once more
mountain temple bell!
spring rain

Literally, it is a "mountain bell" (yama kane), but Issa's readers Japanese readers understand that this refers to the bell of a Buddhist temple. Originally, I had the bell "ring," but Shinji Ogawa advises, "A Japanese mountain bell (or temple bell) is so huge that it rather peals than rings." I then changed it to "clang"--a stronger, louder sound, though the temple bells that I heard in Japan sounded more like BONGGGGGGGgggggg!

1804

.我松もかたじけなさや春の雨
waga matsu mo katajikenasa ya haru no ame

my pine tree too
is grateful...
spring rain

1804

.小盥の貫すは青し春の風
ko-darai no nukisu wa aoshi haru no kaze

the little tub's
braided bamboo is green...
spring breeze

Nukisu is a mat of woven bamboo used in hand-washing. Shinji Ogawa explains that the greenness of the bamboo means it is a newly-made screen. "When the bamboo is fresh, it carries a green color, and the color changes to yellow after a month or so."

1804

.春風の吹かぬ草なし田舎飴
haru kaze no fukanu kusa nashi inaka ame

not a blade of grass
untouched by the spring breeze...
country jelly

An odd juxtaposition.

1804

.春風や黄金花咲むつの山
harukaze ya kogane hana saku mutsu no yama

spring breeze--
golden flowers in bloom
on Mount Mutsu

1804

.松苗も肩過にけり春の風
matsu nae mo kata sugi ni keri haru no kaze

the pine saplings
over shoulder-high...
spring breeze

1804

.かくれ家も人に酔けり春の山
kakurega mo hito ni yoi keri haru no yama

secluded house--
even here, crowd-sick
spring mountain

Originally, I thought that someone was getting drunk in this haiku, but Shinji Ogawa set me straight. The phrase hito ni yoi keri, he explains, means "felt sick from the jostling of a crowd" or "got sick from overcrowding." Is Issa suggesting, then, that he has too many house guests--perhaps fellow poets who have come to enjoy his spring mountain?

1804

.老僧のけばけばしさよ春の山
rôsô no kebakebashisa yo haru no yama

the old priest
in his fancy clothes...
spring mountain

1804

.髪虱ひねる戸口も春野哉
kami-jirami hineru toguchi mo haru no kana

pinching head lice
in a doorway...
spring fields

1804

.初蛙梢の雫又おちよ
hatsu kawazu kozue no shizuku mata ochi yo

spring's first frog--
another drop falls
from the twig

I believe that the water drops are falling onto the perturbed frog's head.

1804

.うそうそと雨降中を春のてふ
uso-uso to ame furu naka wo haru no chô

nervously
through the raindrops...
spring butterfly

Uso-uso can mean "uneasily" or "full of anxiety"; Kogo dai jiten (Shogakukan 1983) 196.
Michael Hebert writes, "Unease or anxiety is an 'unskillful' mental state in Buddhist thought. In the past scholars translated dhukka as suffering, as in the Four Noble Truths: 1. Life is suffering. I have read modern scholars who note that the word dhukka is based on a root word that means a wheel out of balance, and infer that instead of suffering, something more akin to unease, unsatisfactoriness is a better understanding of the meaing of the word. Perhaps Issa is empathizing with the anxious butterfly, knowing that he too, is anxious?"

1804

.手のとどく山の入日や春の蝶
te no todoku yama no irihi ya haru no chô

the mountain sunset
within my grasp...
spring butterfly

Or: "spring butterflies." French translator Jean Cholley chooses the plural here; En village de miséreux: Choix de poèmes de Kobayashi Issa (Paris: Gallimard, 1996) 55.

1804

.通り抜ゆるす寺也春のてふ
tôrinuke yurusu tera nari haru no chô

a shortcut through
the temple with permission...
spring butterfly

1804

.とぶ蝶や溜り水さへ春のもの
tobu chô ya tamari mizu sae haru no mono

flitting butterfly
even stagnant water
a spring thing

1804

.湖の駕から見へて春の蝶
mizuumi no kago kara miete haru no chô

from a palanquin
at the lake, watching
spring butterflies

Some noble personage sits in the palanquin, enjoying the spring scene.

1804

.前の人も春を待しか古畳
mae no hito mo haru wo machishi ka furu-datami

did others sit here too
waiting for spring?
old tatami mat

1804

.麦の葉は春のさま也なく千鳥
mugi no ha wa haru no sama nari naku chidori

"The field of barley
so spring-like!"
sings the plover

As in a similar haiku of the same year (referring to evening in the barley field), Issa leaves to the reader's imagination the identity of the speaker of the first two phrases: Issa or the plover. In both cases, I like to think that the plover is the speaker, hence the quotation marks.

Mugi is a generic term that refers to several grains: wheat, barley, oats, and rye.

1805

.わが春やたどん一つに小菜一把
waga haru ya tadon hitotsu ni ona ichi wa

my spring--
one charcoal ball
and a bundle of greens

1805

.欠鍋も旭さす也是も春
kake nabe mo asahi sasu nari kore mo haru

a cracked kettle
and the rising sun...
this too is spring

This haiku celebrates the first day of spring, which was the first day of the year in the old Japanese calendar.

1805

.はつ春も月夜となるや顔の皺
hatsu haru mo tsuki yo to naru ya kao no shiwa

the new spring
turns moonlit night...
my wrinkled face

Or: "his" or "her."

1805

.初春も月夜もよ所に伏家哉
hatsu haru mo tsuki yo mo yoso ni fuseya kana

spring's beginning
and bright moon are elsewhere...
my humble hut

Or: "the humble hut." Issa doesn't specify that it is his, but this is strongly suggested. Elsewhere, spring and moon are being celebrated, not in Issa's hut under a cloudy sky.

1805

.ちぐはぐの下駄から春は立にけり
chiguhagu no geta kara haru wa tachi ni keri

the offbeat clomping
of clogs...
must be spring!

1805

.春立や草さへ持ったぬ門に迄
haru tatsu ya kusa sae mottanu kado ni made

spring begins--
even for a gate
without grass

Perhaps the gate is Issa's. Other yards are blessed with fresh green grass on this first day of spring, not the poet's.

1805

.葎家も春になりけり夜の雨
mugura ya mo haru ni nari keri yoru [no] ame

spring comes too
to the weed-thatched house...
evening rain

The thatch in question is mugura, which some translators render as "goose-grass." Maruyama Kazuhiko defines it simply as zassô, "weeds"; see Issa haiku shû (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1990; rpt. 1993) 288, note 1537.

1805

.揚土のいかにも春の日也けり
agetsuchi no ikanimo haru no hi nari keri

the earth mound's
part of it indeed...
a fine spring day

I have a hunch that Issa could be referring to a grave mound with the term, agetsuchi ("earth mound"), but Shinji Ogawa notes that "some gardens have earth mounds to make the view interesting."

1805

.破風からも青空見ゆる春日哉
hafu kara mo ao-zora miyuru haru hi kana

even from the gable
clear blue sky...
a spring day

1805

.春の日を背筋にあてることし哉
haru no hi [wo] sesuji ni ateru kotoshi kana

exposing my spine
to the spring sun...
this year

1805

.春の日を降りくらしたる都哉
haru no hi wo furikurashitaru miyako kana

on the spring day
all day, rain...
Kyoto

The "capital" (miyako) was Kyoto in Issa's day. This is where the emperor and his court lived. Political and military power was centered in the Shogun's city of Edo, today's Tokyo.

1805

.春の日や暮ても見ゆる東山
haru no hi ya kurete mo miyuru higashi yama

spring day--
visible even after sunset
Higashi Mountains

According to Sakuo Nakamura, Higashiyama ("Eastern Mountains") is the collective name for a number of mountains located between Kyoto and Lake Biwa: a total of 36 peaks, one of which is the temple mountain, Hieizan.

Shinji Ogawa assisted with this translation.

1805

.雨がちに都の春も暮る也
amegachi ni miyako no haru mo kururu nari

in falling rain
in Kyoto too
dusk of spring

The "capital" (miyako) was Kyoto in Issa's day. This is where the emperor and his court lived. Political and military power was centered in the Shogun's city of Edo, today's Tokyo.

1805

.顔染し乙女も春の暮る哉
kao someshi otome mo haru no kururu kana

for the painted faced
maiden too...
spring dusk

Cynthia writes, "The clock is ticking for the young woman, who is in the dusk of her season of youthful beauty."

1805

.下京の窓かぞへけり春の暮
shimogyô no mado kazoe keri haru no kure

counting the windows
of Shimogyo Town...
spring dusk

Shimogyô in Issa's time was a place near Kyoto. Today, it is one of Kyoto's 11 wards.

1805

.松に藤春も暮れぬと夕哉
matsu ni fuji haru mo kurenu to yûbe kana

for the wisteria in the pine, too
spring's dusk
this evening

1805

.木兎の面魂よ春の暮
mimizuku no tsuradamashii haru no kure

the little owl
makes a face...
spring dusk

The owl in question is a feather-toed scops-owl (mimizuku).

1805

.舞々や翌なき春を顔を染て
mai-mai ya asu naki haru wo kao wo somete

water spider
on spring's last day
blushing

In one manuscript, Issa prefaces this haiku with the comment, "Third Month's end." In the old lunar calendar, summer began on the first day of Fourth Month. The mai-mai is also called a "water spinner."

1805

.大和路や翌なき春をなく烏
yamato-ji ya asu naki haru wo naku karasu

road to Nara--
a crow caws
at spring's last day

The phrase yamato-ji means "road to Nara," not "road of Japan," as I originally translated it. I thank Shinji Ogawa for this correction. Nara was Japan's capital before Kyoto.

1805

.小田の鶴又おりよかし春の雨
oda no tsuru mata oriyokashi haru no ame

rice field crane
again, come on down!
spring rain

Shinji Ogawa explains that oriyokashi means, "come down, please!"

1805

.黒門の半分見へて春の雨
kurumon no hambun miete haru no ame

the Black Gate
just half visible...
spring rain

The "Black Gate" (kuromon) is the main temple gate of Kan-eiji in the Ueno district of Edo (today's Tokyo).

1805

.春雨や家鴨よちよち門歩き
harusame ya ahiru yochi-yochi kado aruki

spring rain--
ducks waddle-waddle
to the gate

Why are the ducks congregating at the gate to a house? Is it Issa's house and gate, and do the ducks expect to be fed there? Or are they just waddling about happily under the spring rain? Issa presents the essential image; it's up to the reader to contemplate and enjoy it.

This haiku is one of the "essential" 188 picked by the translator. back next

1805

.春雨や膳の際迄茶の木原
harusame ya zen no kiwa made cha no kibara

spring rain--
to the dinner tray's edge
the tea grove

Shinji Ogawa explains that a zen (dining tray) is about one foot by one foot with five-inch legs.

1805

.春雨や蛤殻の朝の月
harusame ya hamaguri-gara no asa no tsuki

spring rain--
the morning moon
is a clam shell

Issa wrote this haiku on the first day of Third Month,1805. Interestingly, in his journal Bunka ku chô ("Bunka Era Haiku Collection"), he notes that it was a sunny day. Perhaps this rainy scene is imagined. See Issa zenshû (Nagano: Shinano Mainichi Shimbunsha, 1976-79) 2.276.

1805

.春風の闇にも吹くや浦の家
haru kaze no yami ni mo fuku ya ura no ie

the spring breeze
blows in the dark...
house on the shore

In my first translation, I imagined that the spring breeze was reaching into the darkness within the house. Shinji Ogawa believes that Issa is painting with a "slightly wider brush": the breeze blows in the dark of night.

1805

.春風や土人形をゑどる也
haru kaze ya tsuchi ningyô wo wedoru nari

spring breeze--
the clay doll
gets some color

Someone is painting a clay doll, the freshness of the color accentuating the feeling of springtime.

1805

.棒先の茶笊かわくや春の風
bô saki no chazaru kawaku ya haru no kaze

on the tip of the pole
the tea strainer dries...
spring breeze

As Makoto Ueda points out, A tea strainer (chazaru) is made of bamboo. It needs to be dried in the sun to prevent it from becoming moldy; Dew on the Grass: The Life and Poetry of Kobayashi Issa (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2004) 138.

1805

.浅川や鍋すすぐ手も春の月
asa kawa ya nabe susugu te mo haru no tsuki

shallow river--
on hands rinsing a kettle
spring moon

1805

.春の月さはらば雫たりぬべし
haru no tsuki sawaraba shizuku tarinubeshi

spring moon--
if I touched it
it would drip

The suffix -beshi indicates that the action of the verb is probable: a guess on the poet's part; see Kogo dai jiten (Shogakukan 1983) 1469. Lucien Stryk's translation is a bit more hyperbolic than Issa's original: "raise a finger/ and it drips"; The Dumpling Field: Haiku of Issa (Athens Ohio: Swallow Press, 1991) 11. Issa wrote this on the 23rd day of Second Month. According to his journal, it rained that day, so perhaps the poem was inspired by the damp weather. Literally, he is saying, "If I touched the spring moon, water would drip from it, I bet."The wetness of the moon and the fanciful idea of touching it and making it drip combine in one of Issa's most imaginative and unforgettable images.

1805

.春の月軒の雫の又おちよ
haru no tsuki noki no shizuku no mata ochi yo

the spring moon
in a raindrop from the eaves...
falls again

1805

.夜明ても朧也けり角田川
yoakete mo oboro nari keri sumida-gawa

even at dawn
spring haze hovers...
Sumida River

The word "even" (mo) suggests that the haze has lasted all night.

1805

.青苔や膝の上迄春の虹
ao-goke ya hiza no ue made haru no niji

green moss--
all the way to my lap
spring's rainbow

1805

.盗する烏よそれも春がすみ
nusumi suru karasu yo sore mo harugasumi

thieving crow!
under a cloak
of spring mist

Or: "crows."

Shinji Ogawa notes that yo in this context means, "indeed." The expression sore mo means, "adding to that." Thus, he paraphrases, "thieving crow/ adding to that/ spring mist," or, "thieving crow/ the accomplice/ spring mist."

1805

.柱をも拭じまひけり春霞
hashira wo mo fuki-jimai keri harugasumi

the post is wiped
all clean...
spring mist

1805

.陽炎や笠の手垢も春のさま
kagerô ya kasa no teaka mo haru no sama

heat shimmers--
umbrella-hat's handprints too
a sign of spring

Sakuo Nakamura believes that the finger-smudged umbrella-hat might be Issa's own; it makes the poet think of starting his spring travels.

1805

.家形に月のさしけり春の水
ie nari ni tsuki [no] sashi keri haru no mizu

moonlight halos
the house...
spring water

The seasonal reference of this haiku is to the warm waters of springtime. Issa is looking at a reflection of the moonlit house in the water. Even though "spring water" is ambiguous in English, I think it works better in the translation than "springtime water" or "water of spring."

1805

.桜咲く春の山辺や別の素湯
sakura saku haru no yamabe ya betsu no sayu

cherry blossoms
on the spring mountain...
special-made hot water

1805

.口明て春を待らん犬はりこ
kuchi akete haru wo matsuran inu hariko

its mouth open
waiting for spring?
paper dog

An inu hariko is a papier maché dog. I added the question mark to the second line because Issa's original is speculative: the dog "may be waiting" (matsusuran).

1805

.春待や雀も竹を宿として
haru matsu ya suzume mo take wo yado to shite

waiting for spring
sparrows also make a home
in the bamboo

Or: "a sparrow." The "also" (mo) seems to refer to Issa.

1805

.春の夜のおもはくもあり夜の霜
haru no yo no omowaku mo ari yoru no shimo

expecting a night
of spring...
night frost

A haiku of disappointment.

1806

.長閑しや梅はなくともお正月
nodokeshi ya ume wa naku [to] mo o-shôgatsu

spring peace--
no plum blossoms yet
this First Month

The throngs that will flood the countryside to view the plum blossoms have not yet arrived.

1806

.我宿もうたたあるさまや御代の春
waga yado mo utata aru same ya miyo no haru

even my house
is all decked out...
the emperor's spring

Miyo no haru refers to the first day of a new calendar year of the imperial reign. Perhaps Issa, uncharacteristically, has decorated his home for the occasion. Utata is an old word that can mean iyo-iyo ("more and more") or hidoku ("severely, terribly"); Kogo dai jiten (Shogakukan 1983) 198.

1806

.君が世やよ所の膳にて花の春
kimi ga yo ya yoso no zen nite hana no haru

Great Japan!
with your dinner trays
spring blossoms

"Great Japan" is my translation of kimi ga yo, a phrase that refers to the emperor's reign and begins the Japanese national anthem.

Shinji Ogawa explains that a zen (dining tray) is about one foot by one foot with five-inch legs. He suspects that haiku may have been composed by Issa as a token of his appreciation for a dinner invitation. Yoso in this context means, "not my place" or "not belonging to me."

1806

.相持の橋の春めく月よ哉
aimochi no hachi no harumeku tsuki yo kana

on Aimochi Bridge
spring has sprung...
bright moon

Aimochi means, literally, "Mutual Aid." Shinji Ogawa explains that, despite the "ridiculous luxuty" of the war lords and the shogun, many bridges (such as this one) were built with donations from the people.

1806

.山守や春の行方を箒して
yamamori ya haru no yukigata wo hôki shite

forest ranger--
he sweeps away spring
with a broom

This haiku commemorates the last day of spring. Shinji Ogawa writes, "I can imagine the forest ranger sweeping away colorful flower petals."

1806

.行春の空はくらがり峠哉
yuku haru no sora wa kuragari tôge kana

departing spring's
sky turns dark...
mountain pass

1806

.二葉から朝顔淋し春の霜
futaba kara asagao sabishi haru no shimo

down to two leaves
the lonely morning-glory...
spring frost

1806

.あさぢふや逆に寝てさへ春の雨
asajiu ya gyaku ni nete sae haru no ame

shelter in the reeds--
even when I turn over
spring rain

Asajiu means a place where asaji, a sort of miscanthus reed, is growing; Kogo dai jiten (Shogakukan 1983) 24-25. Issa's shelter must be open on the sides; when he changes his sleeping position, he still sees (and feels?) the spring rain.

1806

.春雨のめぐみにもれぬ草葉哉
harusame no megumi ni morenu kusaba kana

not missing
the spring rain's blessing...
blades of grass

1806

.春雨や千代の古道菜漬売
harusame ya chiyo no furu michi nazuke uri

spring rain
on an ancient road...
the pickle vendor

The vendor is selling pickled vegetables (nazuke).

1806

.春雨や窓も一人に一つづつ
harusame ya mado mo hitori ni hitotsu-zutsu

spring rain--
there's one window
per person

A comic, slice-of-life haiku. Every person, up and down the block, is stuck inside, watching the rain. What emotions are they feeling? Joy? Irritation? Boredom? Issa leaves this unsaid, and, really, the emotions of the watchers in their windows don't matter. What matters in the scene, its controlling reality, is the spring rain itself, falling from the sky and splashing the street.

This haiku is one of the "essential" 188 picked by the translator. back next

1806

.笠程の窓持て候春の風
kasa hodo no mado mochite soro haru no kaze

through a window big
as an umbrella-hat...
spring breeze

1806

.春の風垣の雑巾かわく也
karu no kaze kaki no zôkin kawaku nari

spring breeze--
the mop on the fence
drying

Kaki can be translated as "fence" or "hedge."

1806

.春の風草にも酒を呑すべし
haru no kaze kusa ni mo sake wo nomasu-beshi

spring breeze--
let the grass also
drink sake!

Is the wind blowing over Issa's cup, or is he generously sharing a bit of his sake with the grass?

Shinji Ogawa notes that the word beshi, in this context, indicates a strong suggestion : sake wo nomasu-beshi = "let (the grass) drink sake or have (the grass) drink sake."

1806

.山寺や春の月夜の連歌道
tera yama ya haru no tsuki yo no renga michi

temple mountain--
under a spring moon heading
to a poem party

At the party poets will make a renga of linked verses. Shinji Ogawa comments, "The meaning of renga michi is a haiku road or a road to a poem party."

1806

.宵々や軒の雫も春の月
yoi-yoi ya noki no shizuku mo haru no tsuki

every evening
in raindrops from the eaves...
spring moon

1806

.片袖はばらばら雨や春がすみ
kata sode wa bara-bara ame ya harugasumi

on one sleeve
rain pitter-patters...
spring mist

On one side of the poet ("one sleeve") rain is falling. Issa might imply that the spring mist is located on the other side--in the direction of his other sleeve.

Shinji Ogawa pcitures the scene: "The rain hit one side of the poet due to the direction of the wind. Inferring from the expression bara-bara ("pitter-patter"), I think that Issa might be wearing a paper raincoat: paper clothing reinforced with some sort of oil. It is known that in Issa's day such raincoats were used and handy, especially for the travelers like Issa."

1806

.春がすみ鍬とらぬ身のもったいな
harugasumi kuwa toranu mi no mottaina

spring mist--
not taking up a hoe
a shameless loafer

Issa is referring to himself, for, as Shinji Ogawa reminds us, he was born as a farmer's first son who, at this point in his life, did not farm. Mi no mottaina, a shortened form of mi no mottainai, means to feel ashamed or guilty, Shinji says. He believes that Issa feels a guilt pang, loafing while others work hard with their hoes in the misty field. While this may be true, I imagine Issa saying the poem with a smile. In a perverse way, he takes pride in his laziness.

1806

.かつしかや雪隠の中も春のてふ
katsushika ya setchin no naka mo haru no chô

in Katsushika
even in the outhouse...
a spring butterfly

Katsushika is an area of land east of Sumida River--a riverside suburb of Edo (today's Tokyo); see Maruyama Kazuhiko, Issa haiku shû (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1990; rpt. 1993) 33, note 109.

1806

.春ぞとてしぶしぶ咲し椿哉
haru zo tote shibu-shibu sakushi tsubaki kana

springtime
yet it blooms reluctantly...
the camellia

1807

.さかゆきに神の守らん御代の春
sakayuki ni kami no mamoran miyo no haru

may the gods grant
prosperity!
the emperor's spring

Miyo no haru refers to the first day of a new calendar year of the imperial reign. Sakayuku means to become prosperous or to continue to be prosperous; Kogo dai jiten (Shogakukan 1983) 685.

1807

.はつ春やけぶり立るも世間むき
hatsu haru ya keburi tateru mo seken muki

spring begins--
I send up my smoke
like everyone else

Shinji Ogawa translates the last phrase of this haiku, seken muki as seken nami: "average, as people do."

Robin D. Gill writes that seken-muki here means "for appearance's sake" and thinks it means: "he does it although he'd rather be snoozing than making tea."

1807

.我門や芸なし鳩も春を鳴
waga kado ya gei nashi hato mo haru wo naku

at my gate
the artless pigeon too
sings "It's spring!"

1807

.けぶりさへ千代のためしや春の立
keburi sae chiyo [no] tameshi ya haru no tatsu

even the smoke
rises anciently...
spring begins

This haiku has the prescript, "Mount Fuji." Shinji Ogawa assisted with this translation, noting that the smoke rises "in the ancient way." The smoke seems something old indeed, rising just as it has for "one thousand ages" (chiyo).

1807

.沙汰なしに春は立けり草屋敷
sata nashi ni haru wa tachi keri kusa yashiki

with no cards or letters
spring has begun...
thatched house

The house is most likely Issa's. Shinji Ogawa explains that sata nashi means "without news from acquaintance(s)." Spring has arrived "letter-less" or "news-less."

1807

.鶯の東訛りも春辺哉
uguisu no azuma namari mo harube kana

the nightingale sings
with a country twang...
springtime

Issa is alluding to a Kasai accent. A subway stop in Greater Tokyo today, in Issa's time Kasai was a farming village east of Edo.

1807

.ついついと草に立たる春日哉
tsui-tsui to kusa ni tachitaru haru hi kana

rising over
the swishing grasses...
spring sun

In my first translation of this haiku I read tsui-tsui as tsui to, meaning "suddenly." However, commenting on a different poem, Shinji Ogawa suggests that Issa is using this word onomatopoetically to express the swishing sound of a canoe's paddle in water. In light of Shinji's comment on that poem, I've decided to rethink (and re-translate) this haiku and all others that contain this phrase.

Robin D. Gill points out that the Nihon kokugo daijiten defines tsui-tsui as an offshoot of tsui-to, meaning "straight up and rising up high from." He would have the spring sun "sprout up" from the grass.

1807

.春の日やついつい草に立安き
haru no hi ya tsui-tsui kusa ni tachi yasuki

spring sun--
over the swishing grasses
gliding up

In my first translation of this haiku I read tsui-tsui as tsui to, meaning "suddenly." However, commenting on a different poem, Shinji Ogawa suggests that Issa is using this word onomatopoetically to express the swishing sound of a canoe's paddle in water. In light of Shinji's comment on that poem, I've decided to rethink (and re-translate) this haiku and all others that contain this phrase.

1807

.春の雪せまき袂にすがりけり
haru no yuki semaki tamoto ni sugari keri

spring snow
on my narrow sleeves...
clinging

Or: "his" or "her sleeves." There is a cultural dimension to this haiku that is lost in translation. Shinji Ogawa explains, "The expression tamoto ni sugari or 'clinging to the sleeve' is a typical gesture in the theater for a lover's departure. I think it is Issa's humor to depict the spring's unwillingness to depart. The phrase semaki tamoto implies the work clothes or poor man's clothes."

1807

.春の雪地祭り唄にかかる哉
haru no yuki chi matsuri uta ni kakaru kana

spring snow sprinkles
the earth god's
festival song

This haiku refers to a song sung in honor of earthly deities; see Issa zenshû (Nagano: Shinano Mainichi Shimbunsha, 1976-79) 2.392, note 3. Gabi Greve adds, "In Japan, purification ceremonies are performed before the commencement of all important events and functions. When a new home or building is to be constructed, a groundbreaking ceremony, which is called 'earth pacifying ceremony' (jichinsai) is performed to pacify the earth deity and to purify the spot where construction will be carried out."

1807

.古郷や餅につき込春の雪
furusato ya mochi ni tsukikomu haru no yuki

my home village--
rice cakes soaked
with spring snow

One of many haiku in which Issa "grumbles" about his snowy home in the mountains, where New Year's signals spring in name only.

1807

.木母寺の夜を見に行春の雨
mokuboji no yoru wo mi ni yuku haru no ame

going to see
Mokubo Temple's evening...
spring rain

1807

.山里は常正月や春の雨
yama-zato wa jô shôgatsu ya haru no ame

for the mountain village
the usual First Month...
spring rain

1807

.春風がならして行くぞ田にし殻
haru kaze ga narashite yuku zo tanishi-gara

the spring breeze
whistles through...
pond snail shells

1807

.春風に箸を掴んで寝る子哉
haru kaze ni hashi wo tsukande neru ko kana

in spring's breeze
clutching chopsticks
the sleeping child

This haiku paints a peaceful scene: a sleeping child clinging to a pair of chopsticks as the spring breeze wafts over. Why does the child hold chopsticks? Was he or she perhaps eating with them before nap time? Or is the child very small, too small to use these grown-up utinsels? In this case, the chopsticks are a favorite toy that the child refuses to relinquish, even in sleep. On a symbolic level, they might represent the promise that one day his or her hands will be large and coordinated enough to eat with them, and so they are a hint of the future to which the child is, now, happily oblivious.

This haiku is one of the "essential" 188 picked by the translator. back next

1807

.ぼた餅に宵の春風吹にけり
botamochi ni yoi no haru kaze fuki ni keri

over rice cakes and jelly
the good spring breeze
blows

1807

.雉子なくや気のへるやうに春の立
kiji naku ya ki no heru yô ni haru no tatsu

the pheasant's cry sounds
half-hearted...
spring begins

1807

.貧乏人花見ぬ春はなかりけり
bimbônin hana minu haru wa nakari keri

for the poor
there's not a spring
without blossoms!

1807

.正月の来るもかまはぬほた火哉
shôgatsu no kuru mo kamawanu hotabi kana

paying no heed
that spring is coming...
the wood fire

Literally, Issa says, "First Month" (shôgatsu). In the old lunar calendar First Month signaled the beginning of spring.

1808

.藪並や貧乏草も花の春
yabu nami ya bimbôgusa mo hana no haru

stand of trees--
even from poor grasses
flowering spring

Since yabu means "thicket," yabu nami might be translated as a row of trees or bushes. Makoto Ueda pictures the latter; Dew on the Grass: The Life and Poetry of Kobayashi Issa (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2004) 61.

1808

.貧乏草愛たき春に逢にけり
bimbô-gusa medetaki haru ni ai ni keri

my poor grass
sees in the happy
new spring

Issa's grass isn't green or lush, not appropriate for spring's first day.

1808

.春立と猿も袖口見ゆる也
haru tatsu to saru mo sodeguchi miyuru nari

a new spring
and a monkey!
viewed through my cuff

1808

.春立や我家の空もなつかしき
haru tatsu ya waga ya no sora mo natsukashiki

spring's begun--
the sky over my house too
like old times

Natsukashiki has no exact English equivalent. It usually connotes the feeling of something dear or fondly remembered--a sort of sweet nostalgia.

1808

.喰つみも子隅の春と成にけり
kuitsumi mo ko sumi no haru to nari ni keri

stockpiling rice
for Little New Year's...
little nook of spring

This haiku refers to the rice used in a rice-and-bean gruel that is eaten on Little New Year's: First Month, 15th day.

1808

.としよりの今を春辺や夜の雨
toshiyori no ima wo harube ya yoru no ame

now it's a springtime
befitting old men...
evening rain

1808

.春の日や雪隠草履の新しき
haru no hi ya setchin zôri no atarashiki

spring day--
the outhouse sandals
are new

1808

.角田川どこから春は暮るるぞよ
sumida-gawa doko kara haru wa kururu zoyo

Sumida River
from whence will spring's dusk
come?

1808

.春の夜や一の宝の火吹竹
haru no yo ya ichi no takara no hifukitake

spring evening--
the bamboo fire-feeding pipe
is a treasure

Bamboo pipes (hifukitake) were used to build fires; Kogo dai jiten (Shogakukan 1983) 1408.

1808

.壁の穴幸春の雨夜哉
kabe no ana saiwai haru no amayo kana

hole in the wall--
"blessed" spring's
night rain

With the rain coming inside, spring doesn't seem quite so "blessed" or "fortunate" (saiwai).

1808

.春雨やかまくら雀何となく
harusame ya kamakura suzume nan to naku

in spring rain
Kamakura's sparrow's...
how they sing!

Kamakura is one of Japan's ancient capitals, on Sagami Bay southwest of Tokyo.

1808

.古郷や草の春雨鍬祭
furusato ya kusa no harusame kuwa matsuri

home village--
spring rain on the grass
Hoe Festival

I haven't found information on "Hoe Festival" (kuwa matsuri): was it an actual celebration in Issa's native village, or is it a joking reference to the fact that all hoeing must stop during the rain?

1808

.膳先に夜の春風吹にけり
zen saki ni yoru no haru kaze fuki ni keri

to my dinner tray
evening's spring breeze
comes wafting

Shinji Ogawa explains that a zen (dining tray) is about one foot by one foot with five-inch legs.

1808

.吹下手の笛もほのぼのかすみ哉
fuki-beta no fue mo hono-bono kasumi kana

a poorly played flute
faintly, faintly...
spring mist

1808

.初蝶の一夜寝にけり犬の椀
hatsu chô no hito yo ne ni keri inu no wan

spring's first butterfly
sleeps one night...
dog's bowl

In his translation Lucien Stryk adds a detail that Issa implies but doesn't state: after sleeping the butterfly "scoots off"; The Dumpling Field: Haiku of Issa (Athens Ohio: Swallow Press, 1991) 17.

1808

.春の蝶牛は若やぐ欲もなし
haru no chô ushi wa wakayagu yoku mo nashi

spring butterflies--
the cow has no desire
to be young again

Or: "spring butterfly." A humorous haiku. The grumpy old cow contrasts nicely with the youthful, lively butterflies (or butterfly). Wakayagu is an old word that means "to become youthful" or "to be young again"; Kogo dai jiten (Shogakukan 1983) 1757.

1808

.湯けぶりにふすぼりもせぬ月の顔
yu keburi ni fusubori mo senu tsuki no kao

not looking smoky
through hot spring steam...
face of the moon

In the original the moon is viewed through "hot bath steam" (yu keburi), but Issa indicates in a prescript that he was visiting the Kusatsu hot spring. See Maruyama Kazuhiko, Issa haiku shû (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1990; rpt. 1993) 114, note 546. Fusuboru is an old word for "smoky"; Kogo dai jiten (Shogakukan 1983) 1439.

Shinji Ogawa notes that "the phrase fusubori moseu means 'does not even look smoky'." Even though hot spring steam is rising, the face of the moon doesn't appear smoky.

1809

.正月は後の祭や春の風
shôgatsu wa ato no matsuri ya haru no kaze

missing the boat
for First Month...
spring breeze

In my original translation, I read ato no matsuri literally, but Shinji Ogawa notes that "after the festival" is an idiom for being too late for something, "missing the boat." In other words, the spring breeze has finally arrived but later than First Month, which in the Japanese calendar marked the beginning of spring.

1809

.朝笑いくらに買か花の春
asa warai ikura ni kau ka hana no haru

morning's laugh--
"How much do they cost,
spring's blossoms?"

The answer, of course, is "Nothing!" A silly, yet profound, question. The opening phrase, "morning's laugh" (asa warai) might be taken to mean, "morning's joke" or "first joke of the morning."

1809

.家なしの身に成て見る花の春
ie nashi no mi ni natte miru hana [no] haru

now with homeless eyes
I see it...
blossoming spring

A fire swept through Edo on New Year's Day 1809. Issa's house was destroyed, and so he was literally seeing the new spring with the eyes of a homeless person. I thank Shinji Ogawa for helping me to improve this translation.

1809

.家なしの此身も春に逢ふ日哉
ie nashi no kono mi mo haru ni au hi kana

for this homeless body
of mine, spring's
first day

A fire swept through Edo (old Tokyo) on New Year's Day, 1809, destroying Issa's house. In the old lunar calendar, New Year's Day was the first day of spring.

1809

.春の行夜を梟の小言哉
haru no yuku yo wo fukurô no kogoto kana

at spring's last night
the owl
is nagging

1809

.行春にさしてかまはぬ烏哉
yuku haru ni sashite kamawanu karasu kana

paying no attention
to the departing spring...
crows

Or: "the crow."

Issa, human and a poet, knows that it is spring's last day and is ready to write about it. The crows pay no attention to this fact. They go on being crows.

1809

.神棚は皆つつじ也春の雨
kami-dana wa mina tsutsuji nari haru no ame

the little shrine
is all azaleas...
spring rain

The flowers have enveloped the little Shinto shrine. In the native Japanese religion of Shinto, Nature is sacred, with in-dwelling gods (kami-sama). The fact that the shrine is almost invisible among the flowers suggests many things. Are the flowers themselves, in a spontaneous act of reverence, decorating the shrine, in which case their blossoms can be viewed as acts of prayer? Or, do the flowers represent the living god of the shrine, to which Issa is bowing, with a grateful smile, as he writes the poem? Or...?

Shinji Ogawa explains, "The plant, tsutsuji, is normally translated as 'azalea.' In a park, azaleas are maintained as three-foot-high bushes."

1809

.けふもけふも同じ山見て春の雨
kyô mo kyô mo onaji yama mite haru no ame

today too
looking at the same mountain...
spring rain

1809

.春雨や土のだんごも遠土産
harusame ya tsuchi no dango mo tômiyage

spring rain--
mud-dumplings too
gifts from afar

Or: "a mud-dumpling too/ is a gift from afar."

1809

.春雨や人の花より我小薮
harusame ya hito no hana yori waga ko yabu

spring rain--
better than the flowers of others
my little thicket

Shinji Ogawa paraphrases, "My little thicket is more important than others' flowers."

1809

.春風の夜も吹也東山
haru kaze no yoru mo fuku nari higashi yama

the spring breeze
blows all evening too...
Higashi Mountains

According to Sakuo Nakamura, Higashiyama ("Eastern Mountains") is the collective name for a number of mountains located between Kyoto and Lake Biwa: a total of 36 peaks, one of which is the temple mountain, Hieizan.

1809

.春風や草よりかわく犬張子
haru kaze ya kusa yori kawaku inu hariko

spring breeze--
drying in the grass
a paper dog

An inu hariko is a papier maché dog

1809

.春風や柱の穴も花の塵
haru kaze ya hashira no ana mo hana no chiri

spring wind--
even in the pillar's hole
pollen

Normally, I translate haru kaze as "spring breeze," but this haiku suggests a forceful "wind."

1809

.春風や夜にして見たき東山
harukaze ya yo ni shite mitaki higashi yama

spring breeze--
on a night journey to see
Higashi Mountains

According to Sakuo Nakamura, Higashiyama ("Eastern Mountains") is the collective name for a number of mountains located between Kyoto and Lake Biwa: a total of 36 peaks, one of which is the temple mountain, Hieizan.

Literally, Issa is saying that he or someone "wants to see the Higashi Mountains at night." My translation pictures this as a "night journey" to see them.

1809

.春風や夜も市立なにはがた
harukaze ya yoru mo ichidachi naniwagata

spring breeze--
even at night a market stand
on Naniwa Bay

Or: "market stands." Naniwa is an old name for Osaka and its vicinity; Kogo dai jiten (Shogakukan 1983) 1227. Naniwagata (Naniwa Bay) is an old name for Osaka Bay.

1809

.梅が香やそもそも春は夜の事
ume ga ka ya somo-somo haru wa yoru no koto

plum blossom scent--
I tell you spring
is a night thing

Somo-somo is an expression used when one is beginning to explain something. English equivalents include, "well," "to begin," and "in the first place..."; see Kogo dai jiten (Shogakukan 1983) 953.

1810

.老が身の値ぶみをさるるけさの春
oi ga mi no nebumi wo saruru kesa no haru

taking stock
of this old body...
spring's first dawn

Jean Cholley notes that Issa wrote this haiku at the beginning of his 48th year, which was considered an advanced age at the time. His New Year's visitors look him over appraisingly as they present their felicitations; En village de miséreux: Choix de poèmes de Kobayashi Issa (Paris: Gallimard, 1996) 238, note 45.

1810

.大江戸や芸なし猿も花の春
ôedo [ya] geinashi-zaru mo hana no haru

great Edo--
even for a monkey without tricks
spring blossoms

Edo is today's Tokyo. Is the "monkey" Issa?

1810

.下京や闇いうちから花の春
shimogyô ya kurai uchi kara hana no haru

Shimogyo Town--
in the dark before dawn
spring blossoms

Shimogyô in Issa's time was a place near Kyoto. Today, it is one of Kyoto's 11 wards. Commenting on a haiku that contains the same expression, kurai uchi kara, Shinji Ogawa notes that uchi in this context means not inside of a space but inside of time. Kurai uchi thus signifies 澱efore dawn� or 妬t is still dark in the morning.�

1810

.身一つも同じ世話也花の春
mi hitotsu mo onaji sewa nari hana no haru

for my life too
help arrives...
spring blossoms

1810

.我庵や菜の二葉より花の春
waga io ya na no futaba yori hana no haru

my hut--
just two green leaves
my blossoming spring

1810

.門々の下駄の泥より春立ぬ
kado-gado no geta no doro yori haru tachinu

muddy clogs
at the gates reveal...
it's spring!

1810

.長の春今尽る也角田川
naga no haru ima tsukiru nari sumida-gawa

the long spring
finally at an end...
Sumida River

1810

.若雀翌なき春をさわぐ也
waka suzume asu naki haru wo sawagu nari

the young sparrows
clamor at spring's
last day

1810

.行灯で畠を通る春の雨
andon de hatake wo tôru haru no ame

crossing the field
with a paper lantern...
spring rain

1810

.春雨や魚追逃す浦の犬
harusame ya uo oi-nogasu ura no inu

in spring rain
chasing the elusive fish...
dog on the shore

1810

.春雨や盃見せて狐よぶ
harusame ya sakazuki misete kitsune yobu

spring rain--
showing a sake cup
calling foxes

In Japanese folklore the fox is a powerful spirit. Here, someone has set out an offering of sake and is calling for a "lucky" fox...or fox god. Sakuo Nakamura writes that this is a scene at Inari Shrine (inari = "fox").

1810

.春雨や少古びし刀禰の鶴
harusame ya sukoshi furubishi tone no tsuru

in spring rain
a bit bedraggled...
Tone River crane

The editors of Issa zenshû provide a note indicating that tone refers to a river; (Nagano: Shinano Mainichi Shimbunsha, 1976-79) 3.30, note 3.

1810

.鳩の恋烏の恋や春の雨
hato no koi karasu no koi ya haru no ame

pigeons mating
crows mating...
the spring rain falls

1810

.t風の夜にして見たる我家哉
harukaze no yo ni shite mitaru waga ya kana

seeing it
on a spring breeze night...
my house

Issa wrote the haiku in Second Month, 1810. At the time he was attempting to settle an inheritance dispute with his stepmother and half-brother; the dispute would drag on for two more years. Perhaps, in this haiku, he is longing to be back in his family home.

1810

.春風や残らず晴しらかん達
harukaze ya nokorazu hareshi rakan-tachi

spring breeze--
completely gone now
the holy men

The "holy men" (rakan-tachi) are Buddhist arhats ... those who have attained enlightenment. Why have they "completely cleared away" (nokorazu hareshi)? Is the weather so nice that arhats who wish to tame their flesh have left for harsher places?

1810

.春風やはや陰作るかきつばた
haru kaze ya haya kage tsukuru kakitsubata

in the spring breeze
already casting shadows...
irises

A summer flower, the irises in this haiku are off to an early start, already casting shadows in the springtime.

1810

.かすむぞよ松が三本夫婦鶴
kasumu zoyo matsu ga sambon meoto-zuru

in spring mist
three pines, two cranes
husband and wife

1810

.うす菫桜の春はなく成ぬ
usu sumire sakura no haru wa nakinarinu

straggly violets--
the cherry blossom spring
has passed

In a similar haiku, written the same year (1810), the "camellia spring" (tsubaki no haru) has passed.

1810

.花菫椿の春はなくなるぞ
hana sumire tsubaki no haru wa nakunaru zo

violets blooming--
the camellia spring
has passed

In a similar haiku, written the same year (1810), the "cherry blossom spring" (sakura no haru) has passed.

1811

.正月の町にするとや雪がふる
shôgatsu no machi ni suru to ya yuki ga furu

spring's first month
in the town...
snow falling

Literally, Issa doesn't mention "spring" in this haiku, but this is implied, since "First Month" (shôgatsu) is the beginning of spring in the old Japanese calendar. In his mountainous province of Shinano (present-day Nagano Prefecture), the weather is hardly springlike.

1811

.今朝の春四九じゃもの是も花
kesa no haru shi jû ku ja mono kore mo hana

first spring morning
my 49th year
of blossoms

In the traditional Japanese way of counting age, Issa turned 49 on New Year's Day of 1811. New Year's Day marked the beginning of spring in the old calendar.

1811

.けさ程やちさい霞も春じゃとて
kesa hodo ya chisai kasumi mo haru ja tote

this morning
just a tiny bit of mist...
it's springtime!

1811

.我春も上々吉よ梅の花
waga haru mo jôjôkichi yo ume no hana

my spring
is lucky, lucky!
plum blossoms

1811

.春立や夢に見てさへ小松原
haru tatsu ya yume ni mite sae ko matsu-bara

spring's begun--
I even dream about
the grove of young pines

1811

.正夢や春早々の貧乏神
masayume ya haru haya-baya no bimbô-gami

my dream comes true--
this spring my god
the god of the poor

This comic haiku refers to the first dream of the new year. Issa has dreamed of the God of Poverty, so when he wakes up and finds himself still dirt-poor, he declares it a "dream come true" (masayume).

1811

.月さして一文橋の春辺哉
tsuki sashite ichi mon hashi no harube kana

moon shining
on a one-penny bridge...
springtime

1811

.長閑しや酒打かける亦打山
nodokeshi ya sake uchi-kakeru matchi yama

spring peace--
smash goes the sake bottle
on Mount Matchi

1811

.鳩鳴や大事の春がなくなると
hato naku ya daiji no haru ga nakunaru to

a pigeon coos--
"That great thing, spring
has passed!"

1811

.ゆさゆさと春が行ぞよのべの草
yusa-yusa to haru ga yuku zoyo nobe no kusa

swish-swish
spring is departing...
field of grass

Earlier, I posted a freer translation:

swish-swish
the grass waves goodbye
to spring

This version was influenced by Issa's human treatment of plants in other poems, but in the present one the grass isn't overtly waving goodbye. It's simply waving, and the reader is left to interpret this movement as the reader wishes. I use the phrase "swish-swish" to capture the swishy sound of the original (yusa-yusa). Shinji Ogawa notes that the haiku refers more directly to the zigzagging motion of the grass in the wind. He offers a more literal translation:

Zigzag-zigzag
goes the spring...
Field grasses

1811

.鳥どもよだまって居ても春は行
tori domo yo damatte ite mo haru wa yuku

hey birds!
even if you shut up
spring would go

This haiku commemorates the last day of spring. Shinji Ogawa corrected my first translation. He offers this literal paraphrase: "Hey you, noisy birds! You don't have to chase the spring out. The spring will go away even if you keep quiet."

1811

.野大根烏のかがし春の雨
no daikon karasu no kagashi haru no ame

warding off crows
in the radish field...
spring rain

Kagashi is roasted animal flesh intended to keep a field safe from pests such as crows. Here, spring rain serves as the kagashi warding off the birds; see Kogo dai jiten (Shogakukan 1983) 329.

1811

.萩の葉に鹿のくれけり春の雨
hagi no ha ni shika no kure keri haru [no] ame

in bush clover
a deer hides out...
spring rain

1811

.春雨に大欠する美人哉
harusame ni ôakubi suru bijin kana

in the spring rain
a big yawn...
pretty woman

1811

.春雨や小島も金の咲くやうに
harusame yak o-jima mo kane no saku yô ni

spring rain--
a little island too
blooms golden

1811

.春雨や是は我家の夜の松
harusame ya kore wa waga ya no yoru no matsu

spring rain--
here's my house's
evening pine

A pine tree goes perfectly with a spring shower. Is Issa addressing the rain, asking it to fall on his pine, too?

1811

.春雨やつつじでふきし犬の家
harusame [ya] tsutsuji de fukishi inu no ie

spring rain--
thatched with azaleas
the doghouse

Shinji Ogawa explains, "The plant, tsutsuji, is normally translated as 'azalea.' In a park, azaleas are maintained as three-foot-high bushes."

1811

.春雨や貧乏樽の梅の花
harusame ya bimbôdaru no ume no hana

spring rain--
in an old keg
a plum tree blooms

The "old keg" (bimbôdaru) might also be translated "poor keg," suggesting that it belongs to a poor man--perhaps Issa. Amid someone's poverty, the potted plum tree blooms...gloriously.

1811

.人のいふ法ほけ経や春の雨
hito no iu hôhokekyô ya haru no ame

someone recites
the Lotus Sutra...
spring rain falls

1811

.春風や東下りの角力取
haru kaze ya azuma kudari no sumôtori

spring breeze--
going down to the east
a sumo wrestler

The wrestler is traveling toward the eastern part of Japan (azuma).

1811

.春風や牛に引かれて善光寺
haru kaze ya ushi ni hikarete zenkôji

spring breeze--
a cow leads the way
to Zenko Temple

This haiku refers to a popular folktale in Issa's home province of Shinano. A sinful woman left a piece of cloth to dry in the garden behind her house, but a passing cow snagged it with a horn and trotted off. The woman followed the beast all the way to Zenkôji, where it disappeared and she found herself standing before the image of Amida Buddha. From that point on, she became pious.

This is a revision of a haiku written eight years earlier (1803), in which Issa begins with "winter rain" (shigururu). Either way, the poem is a tribute to Pure Land Buddhism. According to the patriarch of Issa's Jôdoshinshoû sect, Shinran, salvation is a gift that comes from beyond the ego's calculations. The woman in the story arrives at salvation without thinking about it--simply by following a cow. Issa, too, follows a cow to Zenko Temple (and salvation) in this haiku. And, perceptive readers will follow it there too.

1811

.彼の桃が流れ来よ来よ春がすみ
ka[no] momo ga nagare ki yo ki yo harugasumi

oh peach
come float to me!
spring mist

According to R. H. Blyth in Haiku, a woman was washing clothes by a stream, "when a huge peach (momo) came floating down. She took it home, and when she and her husband cut it open, they found a little boy, Momotarô, inside" (Tokyo: Hokuseido, 1949-1952; rpt. 1981-1982/reset paperback edition), 2.418. The fairy tale of the floating Peach Boy makes the haiku moment even more magical. The spring mist is so thick, Issa fancies that the peach, like the baby boy of the story, might come floating to his hand.

1811

.古郷や下手念仏も春がすみ
furusato ya heta nembutsu mo harugasumi

my home village--
a poor "Praise Buddha!" too
in spring mist

The nembutsu prayer is "Namu Amida Butsu"--"All praise to Amida Buddha!" Is Issa referring to his own poorly chanted prayer?

1811

.花さくや桜所の俗坊主
hana saku ya sakura tokoro no zoku bôzu

spring blossoms--
in the cherry grove
a worldly priest

The Buddhist priest is "worldly" (zoku) because he feels attachment to the beauty of the cherry blossoms. Perhaps, the priest is Issa.

1811

.さし柳蛍とぶ夜と成にけり
sashi yanagi hotaru tobu yo to nari ni keri

a night of fireflies
has arrived...
my spring-planted willow

Willows are planted in springtime; fireflies appear in the summer. It is summer, and Issa is looking back.

In a related haiku of 1820, he looks ahead:

hotaru tobu yûbe wo ate ya sashi yanagi

planting a willow
will become nights
of fireflies

1811

.草の戸やどちの穴から春が来る
kusa no to ya dochi no ana kara haru ga kuru

my hut--
from which hole
will spring come?

Shinji Ogawa notes that kusa no to should not be translated literally as "grass door" but rather figuratively as "my hut." The holes aren't located on the door but on the house's walls or sliding paper windows.

1812

.口べたの東烏もけさの春
kuchibeta no higashi-garasu mo kesa no haru

even for the tongue-tied
crow of the east...
spring's first dawn

1812

.みどり子や御箸いただくけさの春
midori ko ya o-hashi itadaku kesa no haru

the baby given chopsticks
digs in...
spring's first morning

Midori ko, literally "green child," is an old expression for a baby or suckling child. In the haiku, Issa depicts a momentous, exciting step in a baby's life, as he or she prepares to move from mother's milk to solid food. The fact that this occurs on New Year's morning accentuates the feeling of a new beginning.

Shinji Ogawa notes that the phase o-hashi itadaku ("receive chopsticks") idiomatically means "to dine." In other words, the suckling child "joins in the breakfast."

On a symbolic level, he or she is joining human society.

1812

.おのれやれ今や五十の花の春
onore yare ima ya go jû no hana no haru

well, well...
now I've seen fifty
blossoming springs

1812

.五十年あるも不思議ぞ花の春
go jû nen aru mo fushigi zo hana no haru

amazing to reach
my fiftieth year...
blossoming spring

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.

1812

.春立や菰もかぶらず五十年
haru tatsu ya komo mo kaburazu go jû nen

spring begins--
no reed mat over my head
fifty years now

Komo is reed matting or a rush mat. In traditional Japan, a person's age increased by one year at the beginning of every new spring. Now Issa is fifty. When I first read this haiku, I didn't grasp what Issa meant by having no "reed mat" (komo) over his head. Shinji Ogawa explains that this is an idiom for "never being a beggar." He translates, "spring begins/ without being a beggar/ fifty years."

Issa's humor lies in the fact that he seems to be bragging about so little: that he has managed to stay at least one step above street beggars crouching under their mats when it rains.

This is a revision of Issa's first haiku of 1812:

haru tatsu ya mazu ningen no go jû nen

spring begins--
at least I'm human
fifty years now

1812

.春立や先人間の五十年
haru tatsu ya mazu ningen no go jû nen

spring begins--
at least I'm human
fifty years now

In traditional Japan, a person's age increased by one year at the beginning of every new spring. Now Issa is fifty. This is his first haiku of 1812. Later in his journal, he revises:

haru tatsu ya komo mo kaburazu go jû nen

spring begins--
no reed mat over my head
fifty years now

Shinji Ogawa explains that not having a reed mat over one's head is an idiom for "never being a beggar." Issa's humor lies in the fact that he seems to be bragging about so little: that he has managed to stay at least one step above street beggars crouching under their mats when it rains.

In the first poem, he brags about even less: that at least he's been human!

1812

.春立やみろく十年辰の年
haru tatsu ya miroku jû nen tatsu no toshi

spring begins--
the Future Buddha in ten more
Years of the Dragon

According to the Shingon sect, Miroku Bodhisattva will become a Buddha far in the future, to save all beings who cannot achieve enlightenment. Since Years of the Dragon occur every twelve years, Issa is predicting (optimistically) that the Future Buddha will come in just 120 years. The editors of Issa zenshû point out that 1812, the year that Issa wrote this haiku, was not a Year of the Dragon. 1808 was; (Nagano: Shinano Mainichi Shimbunsha, 1976-79) 1.31.

1812

.うつくしき春に成しけり夜の雨
utsukushiki haru ni nashi keri yoru no ame

creating a pretty
spring...
the evening rain

1812

.辻だんぎちんぷんかんも長閑哉
tsuji dangi chinpunkan mo nodoka kana

a crossroads sermon
gibberish
spring peace

In my article, "The Dewdrop World: Death and Other Losses in the Haiku of Issa," I write:

Issa regards the crossroads sermon as a lot of "gibberish"--long-winded and fundamentally meaningless. However, his attitude is not one of disdain, but rather of quiet, peaceful acceptance, for the sermon, too, is part of the lovely spring day. The final words, nodoka kana, translate literally as, "peacefulness!" but in the shorthand of haiku nodoka specifically connotes the tranquility of springtime. Hence the monk, his listeners, Issa, and the crossroads are all seen as part of a greater picture--the spring day itself: green fields, blue sky, and the peace evoked without and within. The poet is not condemning the sermon or the monk; his calling the sermon gibberish, in the whole context of the poem, sounds almost like a loving tribute, for the outdoor sermon is as much a sound of spring as the warble of birds. However, its content is evidently not to be taken seriously. Modern Haiku 16. No. 3 (1985): 20-31.

This haiku is one of the "essential" 188 picked by the translator. back next

1812

.長閑しや大宮人の裾埃
nodokeshi ya ômiyabito no suso-bokori

spring peace--
in the great courtier's hem
dust

The courtier has dragged his ceremonial robe in the dust, gathering it in its hem. Perhaps he has been in the countryside viewing the spring blossoms.

1812

.野烏の巧者にすべる春の雨
no-garasu no kôsha ni suberu haru no ame

the field crow
slips so cleverly...
spring rain

Issa later revises this to be about a "little crow" (ko-garasu).

1812

.野鼠も福を鳴ぞよ春の雨
no nezumi mo fuku wo naku zo yo haru [no] ame

even the field mouse
squeaks, "What luck!"
spring rain

1812

.春雨やてうちん持の小傾城
harusame ya chôchin mochi no ko keisei

in spring rain
with a paper lantern...
little beauty

The girl is dressed in a fine kimono.

Ko keisei can mean "little beauty," "little courtesan," or "little prostitute."

1812

.はちの木や我春風のけふも吹
hachi no ki ya waga haru kaze no kyô mo fuku

potted tree--
I blow a spring breeze on you
again today

1812

.春風や傾成丁の夜の体
harukaze ya keisei machi no yoru no tei

spring breeze--
the pleasure quarter's
night life

Issa might be referring to Yoshiwara, the licensed brothel district near Edo (Tokyo).

1812

.t風や十づつ十の石なごに
harukaze ya jû-zutsu jû no ishinago ni

spring breeze--
over the game stones
ten at a time

Issa is referring to ishinadori, a game that is played with little stones. The player would toss a stone in the air, pick up another stone, and then catch the tossed one. Edwin A. Cranston, A Waka Anthology (Stanford Univeristy Press, 2006) 2.411; see also Kogo dai jiten (Shogakukan 1983) 114. In Issa's haiku an expert player is scooping up ten stones at a time.

1812

.春風やひらたく成って家根をふく
haru kaze ya hirataku natte yane wo fuku

spring wind--
my thatched roof
blown flat

Normally, I translate haru kaze as "spring breeze," but this haiku suggests a forceful "wind."

1812

.春の風足むく方へいざさらば
haru no kaze ashi muku hô e iza saraba

spring breeze--
where my feet are pointed
I'm on my way

1812

.春の風いつか出てある昼の月
haru no kaze itsuka dete aru hiru no tsuki

spring breeze--
when did you come out
noon moon?

1812

.細長い春風吹くや女坂
hosonagai harukaze fuku ya onnazaka

long and narrow
the spring breeze blows...
gentle slope

Onnazaka is a gentle slope.

1812

.かすむぞよ金のなる木の植所
kasumu zoyo kane no naru ki no ue tokoro

spring mist--
the place where money trees
are planted

This haiku has the prescript, "On the subject of the eastern capital." Issa is referring to Edo (today's Tokyo), where many people made their fortunes.

1812

.老松や改て又幾かすみ
oi matsu ya aratamete mata iku kasumi

old pine
starting a new year...
how many spring mists?

This haiku has the prescript, "New Year's felicitations."

1812

.小酒屋の出現したり春の山
ko sakaya no shutsugen shitari haru no yama

the little tavern
open for business...
spring mountain

1812

.世の中は地獄の上の花見哉
yo [no] naka wa jigoku no ue no hanami kana

in this world
over hell...
viewing spring blossoms

Pure Land Buddhists maintain that there are "Six Ways" of possible future life reincarnation: (1) as a sufferer in hell, (2) as a hungry ghost, (3) as an animal, (4) as an angry demon, (5) as a human being, or (6) as an enlightened saint in the Western Paradise. This haiku is poem one of a six-poem series on the Six Ways. Two versions of this series exist; one appears in the 1812 book, Kabuban, while the other was published posthumously by Issa's students in Issa hokku shû in 1829. The present haiku appears only in the original, 1812 version.

In it, Issa offers a striking juxtaposition: above, people enjoy a pleasant day of viewing spring blossoms--drinking sake, eating, joking, laughing; while deep below, poor souls suffer the torments of hell. The contrast suggests that, for Issa, the opposite of hell isn't heaven; it's being in this world on a day when the blossoms bloom. The poem is Issa's one-breath Divine Comedy.

This haiku is one of the "essential" 188 picked by the translator. back next

1812

.年の内に春は来にけり猫の恋
toshi no uchi ni haru wa ki ni keri neko no koi

the year's not over
but spring comes anyway...
cats making love

Robin D. Gill points out that the first 13 on ("sound units") of this haiku are taken from Ariwara-no-Motokata's waka--the first song of the ancient Kokinshû collection.

1813

.花じゃもの我もけさから廿九
hana ja mono ware mo kesa kara ni jû kyû

blossoms--
from this morning on
29 springs to go

This is similar to a haiku of 1793, in which Issa noted that he had 39 more springs to go before reaching the ripe, round age of 70. In 1813, at the time of the poem's composition, he was 51. His aspiration to live to an old age seems to have increased by ten years (51 + 29 = 80). However, this might simply be a case of a writing error: Issa might have been remembering and recopying his old haiku, writing "29" where he meant to write "39."

1813

.すりこ木のやうな歯茎も花の春
surikogi no yôna haguki mo hana no haru

with gums for grinders
greeting the blossoming
spring

Literally, his gums are "like pestles" (surikogi no yôna). Though he may be missing teeth, Issa greets the new year, new spring with excitement.

1813

.大雪の我家なればぞ花の春
ôyuki no waga ie nareba zo hana no haru

just when my house
has gotten used to deep snow...
spring blossoms

1813

.ふがいない身となおぼしそ人は春
fugainai mi to na oboshiso hito wa haru

do not think me
a poor-spirited soul...
mankind's spring

Issa seems to imply that, unlike other people, he isn't celebrating spring with all of the proper, expected rituals. If this is so, the third phrase, hito wa haru ("mankind's spring"), is ironic. Shinji Ogawa helped my translation by untangling Issa's syntax: na oboshi so = "do not think"; hito wa haru = "spring is the prime season for man, or man is in his prime in spring."

1813

.世の中の梅よ柳よ人は春
yo [no] naka no ume yo yanagi yo hito wa haru

a world of plum blossoms
and willows!
mankind's spring

I have changed my mind about this haiku several times.

First, I translated it:

a world of plum blossoms
and willows!
mankind's spring

Then I discovered that Makoto Ueda translates the third phrase as "other people's spring" and detects "anger and jealousy" in Issa's tone. By the way, Ueda substitutes sakura ("cherry blossoms") for yanagi ("willows"). It is unclear whether this is a mistake or an alternate version not listed in Issa zenshû; Dew on the Grass: The Life and Poetry of Kobayashi Issa (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2004) 84.

At first I resisted Ueda's interpretation, preferring to read hito as "mankind," not "other people," in this context. In this view, Issa is neither angry nor jealous; he is simply a human being, like all the others, leaving their towns and cities in throngs to celebrate the springtime world.

Then I translated a related haiku, written the same year:

fugainai mi to na oboshiso hito wa haru

do not think me
a poor-spirited soul...
["mankind's spring" or "others celebrate spring"]

In this case, hito wa haru seems to clearly mean "others celebrate spring," not "mankind's spring." Issa feels cut off from others who are celebrating the new year with all the proper, expected rituals. Based on this evidence, I decided that Ueda's perspective was correct.

Not long after I came to this decision, my advisor, Shinji Ogawa, agreed with my first interpretation, that "Issa is celebrating the spring and the mankind in it."

Now, I simply don't know. But to err on the side of the more literal, I have decided to go with "mankind's spring" once again.

1813

.門の春雀が先へ御慶哉
kado no haru suzume ga saki e gyokei kana

spring at my gate--
the first New Year's greeting
from sparrows

In traditional Japan the first day of the year was also the first day of spring. Shinji Ogawa assisted with this translation.

1813

.大びらな雪のぼたぼた長閑さよ
ôbirana yuki no bota-bota nodokesa yo

blatantly the snow
falls pit-a-pat...
spring peace

Winter was long in Issa's snowy, mountainous province. The old expression bota-bota denotes the ever-so soft sound that snowflakes or blossoms make as they fall, one after the other; Kogo dai jiten (Shogakukan 1983) 1487.

1813

.雉の鳴く拍子に春は暮にけり
kiji no naku hyôshi ni haru wa kure ni keri

to the beat
of a pheasant's cries
spring dusk

1813

.鑓持よ春を逃すな合点か
yari mochi yo haru wo nogasu na gatten ka

hey spear holder!
don't let the spring
escape!

This comic haiku commemorates the last day of spring. A spear is powerless to stop the season's escape.

Sakuo Nakamura pictures a daimyo's parade marching into a town. "The spear man is the leader of this march. A specially selected young man becomes the spear man, because he is the symbol of the parade. People evaluate the feudal lord by the dancing spear man at the head of the parade, just like a cheerleader in a modern sports game. When Issa sees the parade, he cries, "Please stop spring from departing, spear holder!" Sakuo adds, "This haiku is so vivid that I feel I can see it like a movie scene."

1813

.穴蔵の中で物いふ春の雨
anagura no naka de mono iu haru no ame

small talk
in the cellar
spring rain

In Issa's time mono iu could mean any kind of talking or, more specifically, a man and a woman exchanging passionate words. See Kogo dai jiten (Shogakukan 1983) 1632.

1813

.起々の目に付る也春の雨
oki-oki no me ni tsukeru nari haru no ame

first thing after waking up
spring rain
in my eyes

1813

.挑灯を親に持たせて春の雨
choûchin wo oya ni motasete haru no ame

letting her parent carry
the paper lantern...
spring rain

Or: "his parent."

1813

.春雨や喰れ残りの鴨が鳴
harusame ya kuware-nokori no kamo ga naku

spring rain--
the uneaten ducks
are quacking

A sensuous, joyous haiku. The ducks have survived the winter, which suggests that some of their comrades ended up in cooking pots.

Shinji Ogawa writes that it "shows Issa's unique perspective or twist. The ducks are the leftovers from last winter." He goes on to say, "This humorous and hillbilly perspective is, in my opinion, one of the reasons for Issa's popularity."

This haiku is one of the "essential" 188 picked by the translator. back next

1813

.春雨や鼠のなめる角田川
harusame ya nezumi no nameru sumida-gawa

spring rain--
a mouse licking up
Sumida River

In another version of this haiku, written the same year, Issa begins with "spring breeze."

1813

.一ッ舟に馬も来りけり春の雨
hitotsu fune ni uma mo nori keri haru no ame

in one boat
a horse rides too...
spring rain

I assume that hitotsu fune ("one boat") means that the horse is in the same boat that people are riding.

1813

.草山の雨だらけ也春の風
kusa yama no ame darake nari haru no kaze

the haystack
soaking with rain...
spring breeze

Can you smell it? "Haystack" is my translation for kusa yama ("grass mountain").

1813

.てうちんでたばこ吹也春の風
chôchin de tabako fuku nari haru no kaze

smoking a pipe
by lantern light...
spring breeze

1813

.春風に尻を吹るる屋根屋哉
haru kaze ni shiri wo fukaruru yaneya kana

his butt cooled
by the spring breeze
roof thatcher

1813

.春風や御祓うけて帰る犬
harukaze ya o-harai ukete kaeru inu

spring breeze--
purified at a temple
the dog comes home

Shinji Ogawa notes that the phrase, o-harai ukete means "to have received the purification ceremony." The fortunate dog has been blessed.

1813

.春風や鼠のなめる角田川
haru kaze ya nezumi no nameru sumida-gawa

spring breeze--
a mouse licking up
Sumida River

In Makoto Ueda's translation, a rat is "feeding by" the river. He believes that the rat is not drinking water but is eating something in the water; Dew on the Grass: The Life and Poetry of Kobayashi Issa (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2004) 96-97.

I disagree. I see the haiku as a vision of contrasts: tiny mouse drinking the great river. It has the same tone and resonance, for me, as Issa's image, in another haiku, of a little snail climbing Mount Fuji.

This haiku is one of the "essential" 188 picked by the translator. back next

1813

.春の風おまんが布のなりに吹
haru no kaze oman ga nuno no nari ni fuku

spring breeze--
Oman's cloth simply
blowing

According to R. H. Blyth, Oman is a name taken from a song by Kashiwazaki, part of which he translates: "O-Man so charming/ Bleaching cloth in the sun..." (Haiku Tokyo: Hokuseido, 1949-1952; rpt. 1981-1982/reset paperback edition 2.423-24).

Shinji Ogawa writes, "The haiku is very sensual and creative. In my opinion, this haiku is one of the Issa's best."

He proposes two paraphrases: "spring breeze/ blows Oman's cloth/ as it is" and "spring breeze/ caresses Oman's clothes/ revealing how she is."

1813

.春の風垣の茶笊を吹にけり
haru no kaze kaki no chazaru wo fuki ni keri

spring breeze--
the fence's tea strainer
blowing

As Makoto Ueda points out, A tea strainer (chazaru) is made of bamboo. It needs to be dried in the sun to prevent it from becoming moldy; Dew on the Grass: The Life and Poetry of Kobayashi Issa (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2004) 138.
Kaki can be translated as "fence" or "hedge."

1813

.かすむ日も雪の上なる住居哉
kasumu hi mo yuki no ue naru sumai kana

even in spring mist
it's snow-covered...
my home

Winter was long in Issa's snowy, mountainous province.

1813

.うら住や五尺の空も春のてふ
urazumi ya goshaku no sora mo haru no chô

my back-alley home--
five feet of sky
but spring butterflies

1813

.鶯の軒廻りする小春哉
uguisu no noki meguri suru ko haru kana

a nightingale makes his rounds
eave to eave...
a spring day in winter

"Little spring" (ko haru) refers to mild, clear weather in the Eleventh and Twelfth Months.

1813

.けふもけふもけふも小春の雉子哉
kyô mo kyô mo kyô mo ko haru no kigisu kana

today too, today too
on a spring day in winter
a pheasant

"Little spring" (ko haru) refers to mild, clear weather in the Eleventh and Twelfth Months.

1813

.椋鳥が唄ふて走る小春哉
mukudori ga utaute hashiru ko haru kana

the gray starling
rushes his song...
a spring day in winter

Does the bird sing in a hurry because the nice weather won't last long?

"Little spring" (ko haru) refers to mild, clear weather in the Eleventh and Twelfth Months.

1813

.鳴な鳴な春が来るぞよばか千鳥
naku na naku na haru ga kuru zoyo baka chidori

stop crying!
spring's on its way
foolish plover

Or: "foolish plovers." The plover is a winter bird in haiku.

Shinji Ogawa explains, "The phrase hare ga kuru zoyo means "spring will come" or "spring is coming." He paraphrases, "Stop crying! Spring will come (or is coming), you silly plovers."

1814

.骨っぽい柴のけぶるをけさの春
honeppoi shiba no keburu wo kesa no hana

the brushwood fire's smoke
coaxes
spring's first dawn

Honeshiba is firewood with the leaves and branches stripped off; Kogo dai jiten (Shogakukan 1983) 1493.

1814

.わが春も上々吉よけさの空
waga haru mo jôjôkichi yo kesa no sora

my spring
is lucky, lucky!
this morning's sky

Evidently, the sky is clear and blue on this first day of spring (New Year's Day in the old Japanese calendar).

1814

.男風今や吹らん島の春
otoko kaze ima ya fukaran shimo no haru

now a manly wind
blows...
spring island

Or: "spring islands."

1814

.あっさりと春は来にけり浅黄空
assari to haru wa ki ni keri asagi-zora

spring comes simply
with a pale blue
sky

1814

.御傘めす月から春は来たりけり
o-kasa mesu tsuki kara haru wa kitari keri

with that moon
and its halo...
spring has come

I first translated this haiku literally with the phrase, "the moon with its umbrella." Shinji Ogawa informed me that this is a euphemism for a "haloed moon."

1814

.湯けぶりも月夜の春となりにけり
yu keburi mo tsuki yo no haru to nari ni keri

hot bath steam--
it's become a moonlit
night of spring

1814

.さあ春が来たと一番烏哉
saa haru ga kita to ichiban karasu kana

"Well spring has come!"
the year's first
crow

1814

.土の鍋土の狗の長閑也
tsuchi no nabe tsuchi no enoko no nodoka nari

an earthen pot
and an earthen dog...
spring peace

1814

.やよ虱這へ這へ春の行方へ
yayo shirami hae-hae haru no yuku kata e

hey lice--
crawl after the departing
spring!

1814

.思出し思出してや春の雪
omoidashi omoidashite ya haru no yuki

remembering
to fall again...
a light spring snow

Shinji Ogawa suspects that "the haiku depicts on-and-off snowing. A Japanese expressions says, 'It snows again as if it has recollected,' when the snow starts falling again after an interval."

1814

.一村は柳の中や春の雪
hito mura wa yanagi no naka ya haru no yuki

in a village
deep in the willows...
spring snow

1814

.梅鉢や竹に雀や春の雨
ume-bachi ya take ni suzume ya haru no ame

potted plum tree
sparrows in bamboo...
spring rain

With plum, sparrows, bamboo and the rain this haiku is a grand-slam homerun of spring images.

1814

.客ぶりや犬も並んで春の雨
kyakuburi ya inu mo narande haru no ame

like a proper guest
the dog falls in...
spring rain

1814

.梟も面癖直せ春の雨
fukurô mo tsuraguse naose haru no ame

cheer up, owl!
the spring rain
is falling

Issa rewrites this haiku a year later (1815) with a slightly different opening (fukurô yo). In a later, undated copy from the Bunsei Era, Issa prefaces the poem with the prescript, "The pigeon speaks words of admonishment."

Makoto Ueda believes that the owl is Issa; the pigeon is his wife, Kiku; Dew on the Grass: The Life and Poetry of Kobayashi Issa (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2004) 98. In his children's book, Matthew Gollub merges the prescript with the poem: "The dove tells the owl/ to fix his worried face"; Cool Melons--Turn to Frogs! The Life and Poems of Issa (New York: Lee and Low Books, 1998). The book's illustrator, Kazuko G. Stone, presents a charming picture of dove and owl (Kiku and Issa) as husband and wife kneeling side by side.

1814

.藪尻の賽銭箱や春の雨
yabu-jiri no saisen-bako ya haru no ame

behind the thicket
an offering box...
spring rain

Instead of coins, a different treasure has filled the offering box of the little shrine in the trees.

1814

.藪といふ藪がそれぞれ春の雨
yabu to iu yabu ga sore-zore haru no ame

for every thicket
every thicket...
spring rain

Shinji Ogawa writes, ("yabu to iu yabu is an idiom for "every thicket we know of." In other words, a blessing of spring rain falls "upon every thicket."

Literally, the expression denotes "every thicket called a thicket"; i.e. "every thicket worthy of the name." It is difficult to echo Issa's repetition in English without sounding less natural than Issa's Japanese sounds to Japanese ears (if that makes sense!). However, I think that such repetition is absolutely necessary, as it underscores the steady rhythm of the rain.

1814

.馬の背の幣に先吹春の風
uma no se no nusa ni mazu fuku haru no kaze

the horse's paper decorations
feel it first...
spring breeze

The Shinto offerings (nusa) can be in the form of cloth, rope, or zigzag paper.

1814

.春風にお江戸の春も柳かな
haru kaze ni o-edo no haru mo yanagi kana

with the spring breeze
spring reaches Edo...
the willows!

1814

.春風に二番たばこのけぶり哉
harukaze ni ni ban tabako no keburi kana

in the spring breeze
my second pipe's
smoke

Or: "his second pipe's smoke."

1814

.春風や大宮人の野雪隠
haru kaze ya ômiyabito no no setchin

spring breeze--
the great courtier
poops in the field

French translator Jean Cholley interprets no setchin ("field outhouse") as a person doing his business in an open field; En village de miséreux: Choix de poèmes de Kobayashi Issa (Paris: Gallimard, 1996) 167. My Japanese advisor, Shinji Ogawa, concurs. I had assumed that no setchin is an outhouse in a field, but Shinji notes that an outhouse is called setchin, not no setchin.

1814

.春風や小薮小祭小順礼
haru kaze ya ko yabu ko matsuri ko junrei

spring breeze--
a little thicket, little festival
little pilgrim

1814

.春風や地蔵の口の御飯粒
haru kaze ya jizô no kuchi no o-meshi tsubu

spring breeze--
on holy Jizo's lips
a grain of rice

The rice has been left as an offering. A grain of it seems to have blown into the statue's mouth, as if he is eating.

Jizô is the beloved guardian deity of children.

1814

.春風や人でつくねし寺の山
harukaze ya hito de tsukuneshi tera no yama

spring breeze--
packed with people
the mountain temple

Shinji Ogawa notes that tsukuneru, in this context, means "to be very crowded."

1814

.ぼた餅や地蔵のひざも春の風
botamochi ya jizô no hiza mo haru no kaze

rice cake with bean paste
on holy Jizo's lap
the spring breeze

Jizô is the beloved guardian deity of children. Issa later revises this haiku twice: subsituting tsuji no hotoke ("crossroads Buddha") and yabu no hotoke ("Buddha in the thicket") for Jizô.

1814

.白水の畠へ流て春の月
shiro mizu no hata e nagarete haru no tsuki

silver water flowing
toward the garden...
spring moon

1814

.土橋の御神酒得利や春の月
tsuchi-bashi no o-[mi]ki dokuri ya haru no tsuki

on an earthen bridge
an offering of sake...
spring moon

1814

.湯けぶりも月夜の春と成りにけり
yu keburi mo tsuki yo no haru to nari ni keri

steam from my bath
and the moonlight...
springtime!

1814

.我国は何にも咲かぬ彼岸哉
waga kuni wa nannimo sakanu higan kana

in my province
nothing blooming yet...
spring equinox

The flowers of springtime in Issa's cold, mountainous province of Shinano (present-day Nagano Prefecture) always bloomed late.

1814

.春のてふ大盃を又なめよ
haru no chô ôsakazuki wo mata name yo

spring butterfly
at the big sake cup...
sip again!

1814

.妻乞や秘若い鹿でなし
tsuma-goi ya hisoka wakai shika de nashi

calling for a wife
the deer is no
spring chicken

Lewis Mackenzie proposes that this haiku alludes to Issa's own recent wooing of his much younger first wife, Kiku. In my translation, I leave out the word hisoka (in secret, stealthy). See The Autumn Wind: A Selection from the Poems of Issa (London: John Murray, 1957; rpt. Tokyo: Kodansha International, 1984), 81.

1814

.春来いととしより来いと鳴鳩よ
haru kii to [to]shiyori kii to naku hato yo

"Come, spring!
Come, old man!"
the pigeon coos

Or: "the pigeons coo." Is the "old man" (toshiyori) Issa?

1815

.行灯で菜をつみにけり春の雨
andon de na wo tsumi ni keri haru no ame

picking veggies
with a paper lantern...
spring rain

1815

.しんしんとしんらん松の春の雨
shin-shin to shinran matsu no haru no ame

perfect calm--
Shinran's pine
in the spring rain

This haiku has the prescript, "Zenko Temple." Shinran was the founder of the Jôdoshinshû branch of Buddhism, Issa's sect. When he visited Zenkôji, Shinran planted the branch of a pine in a large pot in the main hall--a plant which, evidently, was still alive in Issa's time, over 500 years later. See Issa zenshû (Nagano: Shinano Mainichi Shimbunsha, 1976-79) 3.352, note 4.

Shinji Ogawa notes that shin-shin can mean: (1) heartfelt; (2) quiet; (3) the progression of night time; and (4) body-piercing cold. In my first translation of this haiku, I chose the fourth option, starting with the phrase, "cold to the bone." However, due to the "spring rain," Shinji believes that the second meaning, "quiet," is more likely here. He suggests that the meaning and mood are similar to the "silent" in the song, "Silent Night."

Note the musical sound of shin-shin to shinran...

1815

.春雨や菜をつみに行小行灯
harusame ya na wo tsumi ni yuku ko andon

spring rain--
gone vegetable-picking
with a little lantern

1815

.春風や今つくねたる山の月
haru kaze ya ima tsukunetaru yama no tsuki

spring breeze--
a fresh-made moon
over the mountain

The moon appears to be "freshly kneaded" (ima tsukunetaru), like a dumpling in the sky.

1815

.春風や畠掘っても涌く油
haru kaze ya hatake hotte mo waku abura

spring breeze--
even while digging a garden
oils gushes out

This haiku has the prescript, "Echigo." The province of Echigo is called Niigata Prefecture today. Shinji Ogawa explains: "In the early twentieth century, there were some oil wells in the Niigata Prefecture, or Echigo. I think they have dried up by now. However, petroleum was not too much of value in Issa's day."

1815

.けふの日も喰つぶしけり春がすみ
kyô no hi mo kuitsubushi keri harugasumi

today too
spent stuffing my face...
spring mist

Shinji Ogawa notes that the phrase, kuitsubushi keri, in this context means "to spend the whole day doing nothing except eating."

1815

.花咲くや在家のみだも御開帳
hana saku ya zaika no mida mo o-kaichô

spring blossoms--
even in a farmhouse
Amida Buddha on display

The Buddha is normally displayed at temples, but in this case, a humble farmhouse fills the bill.

1816

.こんな身も拾ふ神ありて花の春
konna mi mo hirou kami arite hana [no] haru

even for me
there's a guardian god...
blossoming spring

1816

.ちりの身のふはりふはりも花の春
chiri no mi no fuwari-fuwari mo hana no haru

this body of dust
softly, softly...
blossoming spring

Originally, I translated the middle phrase, "so light...so light," but Shinji Ogawa noted, "The word fuwari-fuwari in this context shows more movement than the 'so light'." My second try, "softly, softly," suggests movement, I hope, but perhaps this is also an inadequate English expression for recreating Issa's image. His body of dust wafts lightly in the breeze, as delicate as the spring blossoms that are erupting all around him.

1816

.何なくと生れた家ぞ花の春
nan-naku to umateta ie zo hana no haru

at my house
born with ease...
spring blossoms

Or: "at the house." Issa doesn't state that it is his house, but this might be inferred. In other poems, he laments the lack of blossoms at his home; the reverse seems to be the case here. Nan-naku, written with a different kanji than Issa uses, means "without difficulty." I assume that this is his meaning in the present haiku, though I'm not certain.

1816

.山守の箒の先を行春ぞ
yamamori no hôki no saki wo yuku haru zo

from the end
of the forest ranger's broom...
spring departs

This haiku commemorates the last day of spring. It is a revision of a haiku written ten years earlier, in 1806:

yamamori ya haru no yukigata wo hôki shite

forest ranger--
he sweeps away spring
with a broom

Shinji Ogawa writes, "I can imagine the forest ranger sweeping away colorful flower petals."

1816

.今敷た鋸屑を春の雪
ima shiita nokogirikuzu wo haru no yuki

over the just-spread
sawdust...
spring snow

1816

.春の雪あら菰敷て降らせけり
haru [no] yuki ara komo shiite furase keri

spring snow--
on fresh-laid reeds
it falls

This haiku refers to reed matting (komo).

1816

.春の雪扇かざさぬ人もなし
haru no yuki ôgi kazasanu hito mo nashi

spring snow--
not a single face
without a fan

People are screening their faces with their fans. In an earlier haiku (1810) Issa shows the same action in a different season, starting with "rain of cherry blossoms" (hana no ame).

1816

.鋤鍬を先拝む也春の雨
suki kuwa wo mazu ogamu nari haru no ame

the first blessing
for plow and hoe...
spring rain

1816

.猫洗ふざぶざぶ川や春の雨
neko arau zabu-zabu kawa ya haru no ame

splish-splash
the cat washes in the river...
spring rain

1816

.春雨や欠をうつる門の犬
harusame ya akubi wo utsuru kado no inu

spring rain--
he catches my yawn
dog at the gate

Issa expresses the boredom of a man and a dog, each one cowering under shelter, waiting out the rain. Issa looks out the window or door of his house and yawns; the dog, watching from under the front gate, yawns too. The scene is comic, reminiscent of the 1807 poem in which a chicken stares at a man (Issa?) all day. Yet, even in such silly moments, the poet senses connections between himself and non-human creatures--who, in a Buddhist universe, are fellow travelers on the road to enlightenment. This particular moment of spring rain, however, neither man nor dog seems anywhere near enlightenment.

This haiku is one of the "essential" 188 picked by the translator. back next

1816

.春風や袂にすれる亦打山
haru kaze ya tamoto ni sureru matchi yama

spring breeze--
her sleeves rustle over
Mount Matchi

Shinji Ogawa believes that the sleeves belong to Saohime, the goddess in charge of all spring activities. He writes, "Let me clarify the scene: imagine a spring mist is trailing over a mountain. The spring mist is a part of the Saohime's sleeves. The sleeves are equivalent to a fairy's wand. Because of the touch of the sleeves, the mountain is able to bloom and become green."

1816

.春風や筆のころげる草の原
haru kaze ya fude no korogeru kusa no haru

spring wind--
the writing brush rolls away
in the field

Normally, I translate haru kaze as "spring breeze," but this haiku suggests a forceful "wind."

1816

.はつ蝶の夫婦連して来たりけり
hatsu chô no meoto-zurete shite kitari keri

two by two
spring's first butterflies
arrive

More literally, the butterflies arrive as man-and-wife couples (meoto).

1816

.はつ蝶やしかも三夫婦五夫婦
hatsu chô ya shikamo san fûfu go fûfu

spring's first butterflies--
three couples!
five couples!

The "couples" (fûfu), Issa imagines, are husbands and wives.

1816

.年の内に春は来にけりいらぬ世話
toshi no uchi ni haru wa ki ni keri iranu sewa

the year's not over
but spring comes anyway...
who cares?!

Robin D. Gill points out that the first 13 on ("sound units") of this haiku are taken from Ariwara-no-Motokata's waka--the first song of the ancient Kokinshû collection.

Shinji Ogawa explains, "In the old calendar, the first day of spring is usually somewhere in January but sometimes it comes in December. The Motokata waka says, 'The year is not over but the first day of spring has arrived. Shall we say it is last year or this year?' I think Issa's phrase, 'who cares!', is addressed to Motokata."

1817

.影ぼしもまめ息災でけさの春
kageboshi mo mame sokusai de kesa no haru

my shadow too
in good health...
dawn of spring

Shinji Ogawa notes that mame signifies "healthy" when used as an adjective. For this reason, I translate mame sokusai as "in good health." In an earlier version, I had it "fit and trim," but Issa doesn't appear "trim" in his portraits. Sokusai is a word with special resonance for Buddhists, signifying a sense of tranquility in the knowledge that the merits of Buddhism can overcome the misfortunes of this world; Kogo dai jiten (Shogakukan 1983) 927.

In modern Japanese the "o" in kagebôshi is lengthened to two on ("sound units"); Issa writes it with just one.

Issa ends an undated version of this haiku with the phrase, "Happy New Year!" (gyokei kana).

1817

.ちりじりに居てもする也花の春
chiri-jiri ni ite mo suru nari hana no haru

though far from home
a new spring
is blossoming

Shinji Ogawa notes that the phrase, chiri-jiri means "separated." Issa was celebrating the New Year away from home. "Blossoming spring" (hana no haru) is a New Year's seasonal expression.

1817

.春立や牛にも馬にもふまれずに
haru tatsu ya ushi ni mo uma nimo fumarezu ni

a new spring--
neither cow nor horse
has trod on it

1817

.春雨や薮に吹るる捨手紙
harusame ya yabu ni fukaruru sute tegami

spring rain--
in the thicket
a discarded letter blows

Shinji Ogawa suggests that I change the third line of my translation to "a discarded letter is blown." He explains, "The discarded letter, especially in the thicket, might be blown like a flag [but] not blown like fallen leaves. In Issa's time, a Japanese letter was written on a single long sheet of paper."

Changing line three to "is blown," however, is ambiguous: the letter might be riffled by the wind (Issa's meaning, according to Shinji) or tumbling from place to place (which, Shinji believes, is not happening). Though Issa uses passive voice in his original text, I try to avoid this when I can, since English haiku tradition generally favors the succinctness and immediacy of simple, active verbs. Moreover, English speakers are more likely to picture a small sheet of stationery, not a long banner-like letter of Old Japan--a misperception more easily corrected in a footnote such as this one than in the translation itself. Therefore, for the time being at least, Issa's letter will keep on blowing.

1817

.春風や犬の寝聳るわたし舟
haru kaze ya inu no nesoberu watashibune

spring breeze--
a dog stretched to sleep
in the ferryboat

1817

.春風や八文芝居だんご茶や
harukaze ya hachi mon shibai dango chaya

spring breeze--
a three-penny play
a tea-and-dumpling shop

Inexpensive springtime fun.

1817

.春風やおばは四十九でしなの道
haru kaze ya obaba shi jû ku de shinano michi

spring breeze--
forty-nine old women
on the Shinano road

Shinano (present-day Nagano Prefecture) was Issa's home province.

1817

.春の蝶平気で上座いたす也
haru no chô heiki de jôza itasu nari

a spring butterfly
peaceful, calm
in the seat of honor

The butterfly alights in the seat of honor showing a Buddhist attitude of peaceful detachment.

1818

.足元に鳥が立也春も立
ashi moto ni tori ga tatsu nari haru mo tatsu

at my feet
a bird springs up
with the spring!

Issa puns with the word tatsu ("arise" or "begin"). A bird "arises" ("takes wing") at his feet, just as spring "arises" ("begins"). In my translation, I substitute an English play on words.

Shinji Ogawa translates more directly: "at my feet/ a bird arises/ and spring as well." He adds that the phrase, ashi moto ni tori ga tatsu ("a bird flies out near my feet") is an idiom for an unexpected surprise. The phrase is normally used in busy affairs of daily life. Issa痴 humor, Shinji notes, is that he applies it in its literal sense.

1818

.春立や弥太郎改め一茶坊
haru tatsu ya yatarô aratame issa-bô

new spring
Yataro dies, priest Issa
is born

Yatarô was Issa's given name. In this haiku he celebrates his "rebirth" as Issa, which literally means "One [cup of] tea." In an interview, Issa translator Nanao Sakaki says that Issa's "poems are most important, not his life!" For this reason he calls this haiku "just personal stuff," not interesting; Inch by Inch: 45 Haiku by Issa (Albuquerque: La Alameda Press, 1999) 67, 69. I disagree. Issa's life has metaphorical, universal significance in his haiku. Here, he appears as a pilgrim Everyman rejoicing in a new identity and new beginning--an emotion to which all readers can relate.

Shinji Ogawa agrees. He writes, "This is Issa's New Year's haiku. In Japan, it is a custom to make a New Year's resolution and to recollect past events. Issa was doing just that. "Yatarô" is the name his father gave him. "Issa" is the haiku pen name that he has used since his twenties. Now, he is fifty-six years old. In his mind, the recollection of his whole life is going on. Yes, this haiku is personal. Because it is so personal, we can feel to be so real, and we are able to identify with it. Because of this "just personal stuff," the haiku contains universality. I believe cogito, ergo sum is very personal. I think that Issa, as an accomplished haiku master, consciously avoided using big words and had a firm belief that particularity is the key to universality. Haiku is not a political slogan or a maxim, but rather more serious."

This haiku is one of the "essential" 188 picked by the translator. back next

1818

.春もはや立ぞ一ひ二ふ三けの月
haru mohaya tatsu zo hitohi fu mike no tsuki

spring has sprung--
a one-day, two-day
sickle moon

Issa ends this haiku with the phrase, "three-day moon" � just a sliver.

1818

.ひへ餅にあんきな春が来たりけり
hie mochi ni ankina haru ga kitari keri

with millet dumplings
a peaceful spring
rolls in

Sakuo Nakamura points out that hie mochi refers to "barn millet cake." It is an allusion, Sakuo notes, to Issa's poor life. Farmers who had to give their rice crop as taxes were forced to eat barn millet (hie) and foxtail millet (awa). Today, these are used for birdseed.

1818

.雁鴨のきげん直るや春の雪
kari kamo no kigen naoru ya haru no yuki

improving the mood
of the geese and ducks...
spring snow

1818

.我村や春降雪も二三尺
waga mura ya haru furu yuki mo ni san shaku

my village--
even the spring snow
two or three feet!

1818

.明六を鳩も諷ふや春の雨
akemutsu wo hato mo utau ya haru no ame

the pigeon too
sings to six a.m.
spring rain

Akemutsu roughly corresponds to six in the morning; see Kogo dai jiten (Shogakukan 1983) 20.

1818

.有明や石の凹みの春の雨
ariake ya ishi no kubomi no haru no ame

dawn--
in a stone's hollow
spring rain

1818

.傘さして箱根越也春の雨
kasa sashite hakone kosu nari haru no ame

under their parasols
crossing Mount Hakone...
spring rain

I picture several umbrellas in the scene; Lucien Stryk, in his translation, visualizes just one: the poet's; The Dumpling Field: Haiku of Issa (Athens Ohio: Swallow Press, 1991) 18.

French translator Jean Cholley also sees only one parasol in the scene; En village de miséreux: Choix de poèmes de Kobayashi Issa (Paris: Gallimard, 1996) 157.

Mount Hakone is south of Edo (today's Tokyo).

1818

.草の葉に鹿のざれけり春の雨
kusa no ha ni shika no zare keri haru no ame

deer gamboling
in the grass...
spring rain

1818

.小社の餅こそ見ゆれ春の雨
ko yashiro no mochi koso miyure haru [no] ame

little shrine
with rice cake, of course...
spring rain

It's a Shinto shrine. The rice cake is an offering to a local god.

1818

.酒法度たばこ法度や春の雨
sake hatto tabako hatto ya haru no ame

no drinking, no smoking
allowed...
spring rain

This is a bad thing for Issa, who enjoyed his tobacco and sake. Most likely the location of the smoking and drinking ban is a Buddhist temple. In a later haiku (1824) he refers to a great temple's no-smoking rule.

1818

.笹ﾂ葉の春雨なめる鼠哉
sasappa no harusame nameru nezumi kana

licking a bamboo leaf's
spring rain...
mouse

1818

.山門の長雨だれの春雨哉
sammon no naga amadare no harusame kana

from the temple's Great Gate
long raindrops from the eaves...
spring rain

An amadare is an eavesdrop, where water falls from a roof's overhang.

1818

.釣り棚のつつじ咲けり春の雨
tsuridana no tsutsuji saki keri haru no ame

the hanging shelf's
azaleas bloom...
spring rain

Shinji Ogawa explains, "The plant, tsutsuji, is normally translated as 'azalea.' In a park, azaleas are maintained as three-foot-high bushes."

1818

.春雨やしたたか銭の出た窓へ
harusame ya shitataka zeni no deta mado e

spring rain--
hitting the windows
that cost me so much

According to Jean Cholley, Issa is referring to the property tax based on the number of windows in a house; En village de miséreux: Choix de poèmes de Kobayashi Issa (Paris: Gallimard, 1996) 244, note 103.

1818

.春雨やばくち崩と夜談義と
harusame ya bakuchi kuzure to yo dangi to

spring rain--
backsliding gamblers
and a night sermon

The same rain falls on sinners and saints.

Sakuo Nakamura pictures rain falling on a peaceful night: on the gamblers who have fallen into a dissolute way of life, and on the faithful who are hearing the night sermon. He notes, "Buddha gives to all of us the grace of spring rain."

1818

.春雨や髭を並べるせうじ紙
harusame ya hige wo naraberu shôji-gami

spring rain--
beards in a row
at the paper door

Is Issa looking at shadowy outlines of the people outside?

1818

.春雨や窓から値ぎる肴売
harusame ya mado kara negiru sakana uri

spring rain--
in the window they haggle
over fish

1818

.雨だれの中から吹や春の風
amadare no naka kara fuku ya haru no kaze

blowing from the raindrops
from the eaves...
spring wind

An amadare is an eavesdrop, where water falls from a roof's overhang.

1818

.春風や馬をほしたる門の原
haru kaze ya uma wo hoshitaru kado no hara

the spring breeze
dries the horse...
field by the gate

1818

.春風や女も越える箱根山
haru kaze ya onna mo koeru hakone yama

spring breeze--
a woman also crosses
Mount Hakone

Mount Hakone is south of Edo (today's Tokyo).

1818

.春風や供の娘の小脇差
harukaze ya tomo no musume no ko wakizashi

spring breeze--
the little servant girl
has a short sword

Although in my first translation I portrayed a servant's child, Shinji Ogawa believes that it is more likely that Issa means a child who herself is a servant. In an undated revision, Issa pictures a "female servant" (tomo no onna).

1818

.春風や曲り曲りの奉加橋
harukaze ya meguri-meguri no hôga-bashi

spring breeze--
after twists and turns
Hoga Bridge

The editors of Issa zenshû explain that hoga-bashi, "Donation Bridge," is a bridge where travelers stop to make coin donations to gods or Buddhas; Issa zenshû (Nagano: Shinano Mainichi Shimbunsha, 1976-79) 3.468, note 1.

Shinji Ogawa thinks that What Issa says is: the spring breeze or he himself (because of reluctance) makes many turns before reaching "Donation Bridge."

1818

.降雪の中も春風吹にけり
furu yuki no naka mo haru kaze fuki ni keri

through falling snow
a spring breeze
blows

1818

.すっぽんも時や作らん春の月
suppon mo toki ya tsukuran haru no tsuki

a snapping turtle too
crows the time...
spring moon

"A snapping turtle crowing the time" is an expression that denotes a thing that cannot happen in this world"--the Japanese equivalent of "when pigs fly."

1818

.霞やら雪の降やら古郷山
kasumu yara yuki no furu yara kokyô yama

spring mist
and falling snow...
my home mountains

Winter was long in Issa's snowy, mountainous province.

1818

.古郷はかすんで雪の降りにけり
furusato wa kasunde yuki no furi ni keri

my home village
in the spring mist, snow
is falling

Winter was long in Issa's snowy, mountainous province.

1818

.雨に雪しどろもどろのひがん哉
ame ni yuki shidoro-modoro no higan kana

a confusing mix
of rain and snow...
spring equinox

Winter was long in Issa's snowy, mountainous province.

1818

.ばくち小屋降つぶしけり彼岸雨
bakuchi goya furitsubushi keri higan ame

the little gambling shack
is pounded...
spring equinox rain

1818

.我村はぼたぼた雪のひがん哉
waga mura wa bota-bota yuki no higan kana

in my village
snow falls pit-a-pat...
spring equinox

Winter was long in Issa's snowy, mountainous province. Instead of spring rain, snow is falling. The old expression bota-bota denotes the ever-so soft sound that snowflakes or blossoms make as they fall, one after the other; Kogo dai jiten (Shogakukan 1983) 1487.

1819

.鶯のいな鳴やうも今朝の春
uguisu no i na naki yô mo kesa no haru

the nightingale's song
wonderfully strange...
spring's first dawn

1819

.あばら家や其身其まま明の春
abaraya ya sono mi sono mama ake no haru

my ramshackle hut--
just as it is...
spring begins

Shinji Ogawa writes, "This is one of Issa's very popular haiku in Japan. This reveals Issa's philosophy about life and the world."


In Pure Land Haiku: The Art of Priest Issa, I write:

On New Year's Day, others diligently sweep and decorate their gates with pine-and-bamboo arrangements, but Issa's hermitage remains "just as it is." His detractors take such comic self-irony at face value, viewing the poet as merely lazy, but in doing so they overlook the fact that this attitude of kono mama, being "just as I am," is appropriate for the practice of Jôdoshinshû Buddhism. [The sect founder of Jôdoshinshû] Shinran urges that one not strive or calculate to attain enlightenment but, instead, simply accept Amida Buddha's saving power kono mama: just as he or she is, sinful and human (Reno/Tadoshi: Buddhist Books International, 2004) 5.

This haiku is one of the "essential" 188 picked by the translator. back next

1819

.目出度さもちう位也おらが春
medetasa mo chû kurai nari oraga haru

my "Happy New Year!"
about average
my spring

With deadpan humor Issa describes his joy of the New Year's season as "about average" (chû kurai).

Shinji Ogawa comments: "It is very natural for the majority of Japanese to do soul-searching on New Year's Day. Issa assessed his happiness as average. It was the plateau at which Issa arrived after his bitter childhood, his apprenticeship, his struggles in the haiku circle, his bitter inheritance dispute, the death of his child, etc. The plateau may not be very high but far from average. In his unique way, Issa states a positive assessment about his life, therefore, about life in general and about the world. I believe this is one of the reasons for Issa's popularity."

This haiku is one of the "essential" 188 picked by the translator. back next

1819

.春立や弥太郎改めはいかい寺
haru tatsu ya yatarô aratame haikai-ji

new spring
Yataro is reborn...
into Haiku Temple

Yatarô was Issa's given name. In this haiku he celebrates his "rebirth" as Issa, which literally means "One [cup of] tea."

1819

.今春が来たよふす也たばこ盆
ima haru ga kita yôsu nari tabako bon

now spring has come
for sure...
tobacco tray

1819

.長閑さや浅間のけぶり昼の月
nodokasa ya asama no keburi hiru no tsuki

spring peace--
Mount Asama's smoke
and the noon moon

Mount Asama is a volcano in Issa's home province of Shinano, active during the poet's lifetime. The eruption of 1783, when Issa was twenty-one years old and living in Edo (today's Tokyo), killed 1,151 people.

1819

.朝市の大肌ぬぎや春の雨
asa ichi no ôhadanugi ya haru no ame

at morning market
he bares his chest...
spring rain

1819

.馬迄もはたご泊りや春の雨
uma made mo hatago tomari ya haru no ame

even a horse
is the inn's guest...
spring rain

In Nobuyuki Yuasa's translation, even the horse is assigned a room; The Year of My Life: A Translation of Issa's Oraga Haru, 2nd Edition (Berkeley: Univ. of California Press, 1972) 49. Issa's point seems to be that the horse, too, is given a roof and shelter from the rain. The editors of Issa zenshû believe that this special treatment might indicate that the horse belongs to an important person such as a daimyô; (Nagano: Shinano Mainichi Shimbunsha, 1976-79) 6.167, note 55.

1819

.芝居へと人はいふ也春の雨
shibai e to hito wa iu nari haru no ame

"We're off to see
the play," they say...
spring rain

1819

.掃溜の赤元結や春の雨
hakidame no aka motoyui ya haru no ame

a red hair string
in the rubbish heap...
spring rain

1819

.福狐出た給ふぞよ春の雨
fuku kitsune ide tamau zoyo haru no ame

a lucky fox
deigns to come out...
spring rain

In Japanese folklore the fox is a powerful spirit.

1819

.ぼた餅や藪の仏も春の風
botamochi ya yabu no hotoke mo haru no kaze

rice cake with bean paste
for the Buddha of the thicket...
spring breeze

In its original form (1814), this haiku focuses on Jizô, the guardian deity of children. In another, undated version it focuses on a "crossroads Buddha" (tsuji no hotoke).

1819

.春風に御用の雁のしぶとさよ
harukaze ni goyô no kari no shibutosa yo

in the spring breeze
a goose on a mission...
headstrong!

Or: "geese on a mission." The migrating goose stubbornly persists on his or her journey. Does Issa admire or gently poke fun at its stubbornness?

1819

.白壁のそしられつつもかすみけり
shira kabe no soshirare tsutsu mo kasumi keri

even their white walls
are slandered!
spring mist

In one journal this haiku has the prescript, "Ueno." Ueno is a famous place for blossom viewing. In another journal, Issa prefaces it with the note, "Ueno viewed from a distance." The editors of Issa zenshû explain that the "white walls" belong to the "houses of greedy, rich people"; The Year of My Life: A Translation of Issa's Oraga Haru (Berkeley: U. of California Press, 1960; 2nd ed. 1972) 6.166, note 31. This explains why the walls are being bad-mouthed from afar. Poorer people are griping about the excesses of the rich: their vast mansions and "even their white walls."

1819

.棒先の紙のひらひら小春哉
bô saki no kami no hira-hira ko haru kana

at the tip of the pole
paper flapping...
a spring day in winter

"Little spring" (ko haru) refers to mild, clear weather in the Eleventh and Twelfth Months.

1820

.弥陀仏をたのみに明て今朝の春
mida butsu wo tanomi ni akete kesa no haru

in Amida Buddha
trusting...
spring's first dawn

1820

.鶯のくる影ぼしも窓の春
uguisu no kuru kageboshi mo mado no haru

the nightingale comes
with his shadow...
spring window

1820

.春たちて磯菜も千代のためし哉
haru tachite isona mo chiyo no tameshi kana

with the new spring
tasty sea plants on the beach...
a thousand ages

Issa's meaning, difficult to convey succinctly in English, is that the sea plants have returned to the beach with the new spring, just as they have for a thousand ages. Isona is a general term for edible seaweed or marsh plants growing on the beach; Kogo dai jiten (Shogakukan 1983) 117.

1820

.春立や二軒つなぎの片住居
haru tatsu ya ni ken tsunagi no kata sumai

spring begins--
two households
one house

When Issa finally returned to his native village and the family homestead in autumn of 1813, the long and bitter inheritance dispute between him and his stepmother was finally settled. The house, no longer a "home," was divided by means of a partition wall. Issa got the south half; his stepmother and half brother got the north half. See Maruyama Kazuhiko, Issa haiku shû (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, 1990; rpt. 1993) 308, note 1657.

1820

.ござってぞ正月早々春の雨
gozatte zo shôgatsu haya-baya haru no ame

welcome to my house!
First Month's very first
spring rain

In this comic haiku about a leak in the roof, Issa addresses the rain with polite language.

1820

.春めくや藪ありて雪ありて雪
harumeku ya yabu arite yuki arite yuki

spring has sprung--
but in every thicket, snow
and more snow!

The day is looking like spring (harumeku), but in Issa's cold, mountainous province the snow will linger for a long time.

1820

.長閑や鼠のなめる角田川
nodokasa ya nezumi no nameru sumida-gawa

spring peace--
a mouse licking up
Sumida River

Shinji Ogawa notes that this haiku is popular in Japan for the "interesting contrast" between great Sumida river, swelled with rain, and the tiny mouse.

Lucien Stryk translates nezumi as "wharf-rat"--a choice that I believe drastically changes the feeling of the poem; The Dumpling Field: Haiku of Issa (Athens Ohio: Swallow Press, 1991) 18.

1820

.起々やおがむ手に降る春の雨
oki oki ya ogamu te ni furu haru no ame

morning's first thing--
on praying hands
the spring rain

1820

.をく山もばくちの世也春の雨
oku yama mo bakuchi no yo nari haru no ame

in deep mountains too
it's a gambler's world!
spring rain

1820

.桟を唄でわたるや春の雨
kakehashi wo uta de wataru ya haru no ame

crossing the hanging bridge
singing a song...
spring rain

1820

.線香や平内堂の春の雨
senkô ya heinai dô no haru no ame

incense smoke--
Inner Peace Temple
in the spring rain

1820

.春雨や妹が袂に銭の音
harusame ya imo ga tamoto ni zeni no oto

spring rain--
in the wife's sleeve
coins jingle

Imo ("sister") is a literary word for "dear one"--an intimate term that a man uses to refer to his beloved, in this case, Issa's wife; Kogo dai jiten (Shogakukan 1983) 454.

1820

.春雨や猫におどりをおしえる子
harusame ya neko ni odori [wo] oshieru ko

spring rain--
a child gives a dance lesson
to the cat

Issa depicts a playful moment. The child can't go outside to play, but instead of being bored he or she teaches the cat to dance. The poem celebrates the imagination of children ... and hints of sympathy for the poor cat!

This haiku is one of the "essential" 188 picked by the translator. back next

1820

.春雨やむだに渡りし二文橋
harusame ya muda ni watarishi ni mon-bashi

spring rain--
crossing the two-penny bridge
in vain

Evidently, Issa paid his toll and crossed, but the rainfall caused a change in plans, so he turned around and crossed the bridge again. In a later version of this haiku, the middle phrase is muda ni itte kuru: "going and coming in vain."

1820

.人の世や直には降らぬ春の雨
hito no yo ya sugu ni wa furanu haru no ame

world of man--
it doesn't fall at once
the spring rain

Shinji Ogawa translates sugu ni wa furanu as: "it doesn't fall immediately."

Maybe in a perfect world the spring rain ushers in a new season of life on spring's first day, but not so in the "world of man" (hito no yo): a phrase that calls to mind the Pure Land Buddhist notion of mappô, according to which, we live in a degenerate age.

1820

.狗が鼠とる也はるの風
enokoro ga nezumi toru nari haru no kaze

the dog has caught
a mouse...
spring breeze

In an almost identical haiku, the seasonal phrase is "spring rain."

1820

.春風のそこ意地寒ししなの山
haru kaze no soko iji samushi shinano yama

the spring breeze
stubbornly cold...
Shinano mountain

Or: "Shinano mountains."

This haiku makes fun of the long, hard winter of Issa's home province. Though it is springtime, the mountain is cold.

Viewed in isolation, the haiku is humorous. However, Makoto Ueda notes that it appears in a short, angry haibun (a prose and haiku piece) addressed to Issa's half-brother Senroku (AKA Yahei). In the context of the haibun, the cold wind evinces the emotional coldness between brothers; Dew on the Grass: The Life and Poetry of Kobayashi Issa (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2004) 135.

1820

.春風や侍二人犬の供
haru kaze ya samurai futari inu no tomo

spring breeze--
two samurai
attend the dog

An ironic haiku. When I first translated it, I thought that the dog was the attendant or "squire" of the two samurai; Shinji Ogawa assures me that the opposite is the case. The two "mighty" warriors are attendants...to a dog--a biting piece of social satire.

1820

.春風やとある垣根の赤草履
haru kaze ya toaru kakine no aka zôri

spring breeze--
on the fence a pair
of red sandals

Kaki can be translated as "fence" or "hedge."

1820

.宿引に女も出たり春の風
yadohiki ni onna mo detari haru no kase

one hotel runner
is a woman...
spring breeze

1820

.雉の尾に引ずりて行かすみ哉
kiji no o ni hikizurite yuku kasumi kana

dragged in
by the pheasant's tail...
spring mist

1820

.さほ姫の染損なひや斑山
saohime no some sokonai madara yama

the goddess of spring
missed a few spots...
mottled mountain

Saohime and her sister, Tatsutahime, were Chinese imports, not part of the native Japanese pantheon. Saohime ruled spring; Tatsutahime, autumn. Saohime's particular task was to supervise the greening of fields and mountains. However, in the case of this particular mountain, her dyeing job has been spotty.

1820

.咲花をあてに持出す仏かな
saku hana wo ate ni mochidasu hotoke kana

they carry him
to the spring blossoms...
Buddha

This haiku refers to the exhibition of Buddha's image at a temple. Perhaps the blossoms are in the temple, in vases; perhaps the priests are carrying the image outdoors.

1820

.榎迄春めかせけりなく蛙
enoki made haru mekase keri naku kawazu

even the nettle tree
dressed for spring...
croaking frogs

Issa humorously applies the human action of "adorning one's self" (mekase keri) to the tree's greenery.

1821

.あら玉の春早々の悪日哉
aratama no haru haya-baya no akubi kana

a new spring starting--
early, so early
turns sour

Literally, the first day of the year and of the spring proves to be an "unlucky day" (akubi).

1821

.けさの春別な村でもなかりけり
kesa no haru betsuna mura demo nakari keri

spring's first dawn--
there's not a village
where it isn't

1821

.家根々の窓や一度に明の春
yane-yane no mado ya ichi do ni ake no haru

roof after roof
windows open all at once...
first of spring

"Open" is implied, not stated.

1821

.こけるなよ土こんにゃくも玉の春
kokeru na yo tsuchi konnyaku mo tama no haru

don't shrivel!
even for the devil's tongue
a prosperous spring

Konnyaku is devil's tongue root (Amorphophallus Rivieri) that is kneaded into a festive jelly.

1821

.門口や自然生なる松の春
kado-guchi ya jinen bae-naru matsu no haru

at my gate
wildly it grows...
spring pine

Shinji Ogawa writes, "Commonly, there is a pine tree around the entrance of the traditional Japanese house. The pine tree is normally well-trimmed. I think Issa's 'wild pine' means an untrimmed pine."

If this is true, the unkempt pine serves as a metaphor for the poet--just as his "trashy house" (kuzuya) does in other poems. In Pure Land Buddhist terms, Issa embodies the ideal of non-striving naturalness, being "just as I am."

This haiku is one of the "essential" 188 picked by the translator. back next

1821

.初春のけ形りは我と雀かな
hatsu haru no kenari wa ware [to] suzume kana

we start the spring
in our everyday clothes...
me and the sparrow

Kenari refers to ordinary clothes. Issa and the sparrow are wearing nothing fancy on New Year's Day; Kogo dai jiten (Shogakukan 1983) 567.

1821

.春立や庵の鬼門の一り塚
haru tatsu ya io no kimon no hitori tsuka

spring begins--
on the hut's unlucky side
a grave

The unlucky quarter (kimon) is the northeast.

1821

.春立や切口上の門雀
haru tatsu ya kirikôjô no kado suzume

spring begins--
the obligatory
sparrows at the gate

1821

.春めくやこがね花咲山の月
harumeku ya kogane hana saku yama no tsuki

it's springtime!
golden flowers
mountain moon

1821

.春めくやのらはのらとて藪虱
harumeku ya nora wa nora tote yabu-jirami

it's springtime!
even the thicket's lice
move into the field

1821

.狗が鼠とる也春の雨
enokoro ga nezumi toru nari haru no ame

the dog has caught
a mouse...
spring rain

In an almost identical haiku, the seasonal phrase is "spring breeze."

1821

.春風や犬にとらるる薮鼠
haru kaze ya inu ni toraruru yabu nezumi

spring breeze--
a thicket mouse
caught by the dog

1821

.春風や袴羽織のいせ乞食
harukaze ya hakama haori no ise kojiki

spring breeze--
in coat and trousers
a dandified beggar

In another version of this haiku (same year), the beggar is in Edo. Shinji Ogawa suspects that ise in this context denotes a "dandy." Since in the other haiku of the beggar in Edo, he believes that Issa is ridiculing the haiku poets in Edo. Shinji adds, "In those years, Issa, though his own reputation was sky-high, was very critical about the low quality of Edo haiku."

Gabi Greve notes that "Hakama is an outer garment worn over the kimono that is either split between the legs like pants or non-split like a skirt. Hakama pants originated as an outer garment to protect samurai warriors' legs from brush when riding a horse. Today, the hakama is worn as formal attire for ceremonies, traditional Japanese dance, artists and martial arts."

In this haiku, is Issa noting that the beggar is well-dressed, perhaps better dressed than Issa?

1821

.春風や袴羽織の江戸乞食
harukaze ya hakama haori no Edo kojiki

spring breeze--
in coat and trousers
an Edo beggar

In another version of this haiku (same year) the beggar is "dandified" (ise kojiki).

Gabi Greve notes that "Hakama is an outer garment worn over the kimono that is either split between the legs like pants or non-split like a skirt. Hakama pants originated as an outer garment to protect samurai warriors' legs from brush when riding a horse. Today, the hakama is worn as formal attire for ceremonies, traditional Japanese dance, artists and martial arts."

1821

.灸すんで馬も立也春の風
kyû sunde uma mo tatsu nari haru no kaze

even for the horse
a dose of burning wormwood...
spring breeze

Sharp sticks of wormwood are stuck into various parts of the body and burned to ensure good health. Here, even a horse receives the treatment.

1821

.灯火やかすみながらに夜が明る
tomoshibi ya kasumi nagara ni yo ga akeru

lamplight
in the spring mist...
dawn

The mist is so thick, the sun doesn't penetrate. Someone's lamp fills in for the sunrise.

1821

.足もとに鳥が立也はるの山
ashi moto ni tori ga tatsu nari haru no yama

a bird at my feet
takes off...
spring mountain

Shinji Ogawa notes that the phrase, ashi moto ni tori ga tatsu ("a bird flies out near my feet") is an idiom for an unexpected surprise. The phrase is normally used in busy affairs of daily life. Issa痴 humor, Shinji notes, is that he applies it in its literal sense.

1821

.山吹や出湯のけぶりに馴れて咲
yamabuki ya ideyu no keburi ni narete saku

yellow roses--
used to the hotspring's steam
they bloom

1821

.温泉のけぶる際より田植哉
onsen no keburu kiwa yori taue kana

touched by
the hot spring's steam...
planting rice

1821

.此おくに山湯ありとやかんこ鳥
kono oku ni yamayu ari to ya kankodori

"In these wilds
there's a hotspring!"
mountain cuckoo

I picture the bird reporting this information to Issa--and so I have translated the first two phrases as a quotation. A "mountain hot spring" (yamayu) is nearby. I translate this simply as "hot spring" because my English for kankodori ("mountain cuckoo") already has the word "mountain in it," suggesting the location.

1821

.春待や子のない家ももちをつく
haru matsu ya ko no nai ie mo mochi wo tsuku

waiting for spring
in a house without children
pounding rice cakes

This haiku was composed in Tenth Month, 1821, after the death of Issa's third child.

This is a previous haiku on the same page of his journal:
mochi tsuki wo segamu ko mo nashi sari nagara

pounding rice cakes
though there's no child
to beg for them

1822

.先以って別条はなしけさの春
mazu motte betsujô wa nashi kesa no haru

at first blush
not a thing wrong with it...
spring's first dawn

Shinji Ogawa explains that mazi motte signifies "first of all," and betsujô wa nashi is an idiom that means, "nothing wrong about it."

Is Issa humorously implying that, given time, the other foot will fall?

1822

.引窓の一度にあくや江戸の春
hikimado no ichido ni aku ya edo no haru

all the windows
slid wide open...
Edo's spring

Shinji Ogawa points out that the word ichido can mean once, one time or (to do) something in concert. The latter meaning seems to apply here.

1822

.家根の窓一度に引や江戸の春
yane no mado ichido ni hiku ya edo no haru

all the skylights
open wide...
Edo's spring

Shinji Ogawa points out that the word ichido can mean once, one time or (to do) something in concert. The latter meaning seems to apply here.

1822

.鶯のぐな鳥さへも窓の春
uguisu no gu na tori sae mo mado no haru

there's even a foolish
nightingale...
spring window

This haiku has the prescript, "Mountain house."

1822

.一面にろくな春也門の雪
ichimen ni rokuna haru nari kado no yuki

everywhere I look
a decent spring...
snow at my gate

Or: "snow at the gate"; Issa doesn't say that it's his gate, though this might be inferred.

At first I translated ichimen as, "on one side," but Shinji Ogawa notes that it can also mean, "all the surface for as far as eyes can see." The second meaning makes more sense in this context.

Is Issa being ironic? Is he saying: It's a beautiful spring day everywhere, except for around my own snow-packed gate? Shinji writes, "I think that the snow at Issa's gate is one of the constituents, not the obstacle, for the decent spring. The word, 'spring,' means in this context 'New Year' rather than the 'spring season.' Therefore, there is not so much conflict between the snow at the gate and the word, spring."

Shinji adds, "For Japanese, this haiku has a distinct feature, that is, its usage of the word, rokuna. The word, rokuna (good or decent) is always followed by a negative adverb, nai, therefore changing the meaning to 'bad or indecent.' Issa eliminated the negative adverb to create an odd expression, rokuna haru. It may be the artists' mission to challenge the conventionalism we take for granted. If I say to Issa, 'We have no such usage,' he may reply, 'Now we do,' with a mischievous wink."

1822

.大雪のどこがどこ迄ろくな春
ôyuki no do[ko] ga doko made rokuna haru

how far across
this deep snow?
for a decent spring

1822

.ろくな春立にけらしな門の雪
rokuna [haru] tachi ni kerashi na kado no yuki

a decent spring
has arrived, perhaps...
snow at my gate

Or: "snow at the gate." Issa doesn't state that it's his gate, but this might be inferred. Shinji Ogawa notes that ni kerashi na signifies, "it seems," making the statement a conjecture.

In this case, his tone is ironic: "It might be a decent spring everywhere else, but look at this snow at my gate!"

1822

.まんろくの春こそ来れ門の雪
manroku no haru koso kitare kado no yuki

just make it
a proper spring...
snow at my gate

Manroku is an old word that signifies propriety, justice, or fairness; Kogo dai jiten (Shogakukan 1983) 1547.

1822

.まん六の春と成りけり門の雪
manroku no haru to nari keri kado no yuki

some "proper spring"
this is!
snow at the gate

This first haiku of the year has a prescript in which Issa claims that Gautama Buddha, waking up one morning and seeing the light of the stars, came to a realization that he had been living in sin for the previous forty-nine years. Issa, though he now has reached his own sixtieth year, declares that he is too set in his ways to change. He will remain a fool, he declares. See Makoto Ueda, Dew on the Grass: The Life and Poetry of Kobayashi Issa (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2004) 140. Issa doesn't mention his age in the haiku itself.

It is springtime, but winter's snow is still piled up at the gate, suggesting that Issa, like the weather, has not changed. Manroku is an old word that signifies propriety, justice, or fairness; Kogo dai jiten (Shogakukan 1983) 1547.

Or, as Syllableº17 believes, "the snow at the gate is primarily an allusion to Issa's unavoidable age and aging."

1822

.ろくな春とはなりけり門の雪
rokuna haru to wa nari keri kado no yuki

making it
a decent spring...
snow at my gate

1822

.市人の大肌ぬぐや春の雪
ichibito no ôhadanugu ya haru no yuki

the market workers
bare-chested...
spring snow falling

1822

.雷の光る中より春の雪
kaminari no hikaru naka yori haru no yuki

from deep
in the lightning's flash...
spring snow falling

1822

.草山のこやしになるや春の雪
kusa yama no koyashi ni naru ya haru no yuki

turning the haystack
to compost...
spring snow

"Haystack" is my translation for kusa yama ("grass mountain").

1822

.春の雪遊がてらに降りにけり
haru no yuki asobi-gatera ni furi ni keri

spring snow--
while it carouses
it falls

The suffix -gatera, equivalent to -katagata, means "while" or "at the same time." I assume that Issa means: while the snowflakes play their games in the sky, they fall.

1822

.是きりと見へてどっさり春の霜
korekiri to miete dossari haru no shimo

the last of it--
a load of spring
frost

Dossari can mean "thump"/"plop" or "a large quantity." The second definition applies here; Kogo dai jiten (Shogakukan 1983) 1169. In Haiku R. H. Blyth has "spring snow" instead of "spring frost" (Tokyo: Hokuseido, 1949-1952; rpt. 1981-1982/reset paperback edition, 2.404). This is an error.

1822

.片方は雪の降也春の雨
kata-kata wa yuki no furi nari haru no ame

on one side
snow falling, the other
spring rain!

1822

.出た人を梓に寄る春の雨
deta hito wo azusa ni yoseru haru no ame

everyone outside
under the umbrella-tree...
spring rain

The technical name for the tree in question is catalpa (azusa).

1822

.春風に肩衣かけて御供かな
harukaze ni kataginu kakete o-tomo kana

in spring breeze
his stole billowing...
a monk comes too

Shinji Ogawa notes that kataginu is a stole that is worn over regular clothes to signify a religious ceremony. A Buddhist monk is accompanying someone. In a related haiku written a month later (Third Month, 1822), this "someone" turns out to be the village elder. The "billowing" in my translation makes explicit what Issa's Japanese might only imply. Issa states simply that the stole is "hanging" (kakete) on the monk's body. Putting this fact with the spring breeze, I picture it billowing.

1822

.春風に猿もおや子の湯治哉
haru kaze ni saru mo oyako no tôji kana

spring breeze--
monkey families, too
take healing baths

The original haiku can be paraphrased, "In the spring breeze even monkeys, parents and children, take healing hot baths." I assume that Issa is referring to an outdoor hot spring.

1822

.春風に吹出されたる道者かな
harukaze ni fuki-dasaretaru dôja kana

blown forth
by the spring breeze...
pilgrims

Or: "the pilgrim."

1822

.春風の女見に出る女かな
haru kaze no onna mi ni deru onna kana

in the spring breeze
they're out to watch the women...
women!

The women are out and dressed in their finery. But they seem only to be looking at each other--a keen psychological observation on Issa's part.

1822

.春風や越後下りの本願寺
harukaze ya echigo kudari no honganji

spring breeze--
going down to Echigo's
Hongan Temple

Echigo is one of the old provinces of Japan, today's Niigata Prefecture. Honganji, literally, means "Original Vow Temple." The name commemorates Amida Buddha's vow to make possible rebirth in the Pure Land for all who invoke his saving power.

1822

.春風や肩衣かけて長の供
harukaze ya kataginu kakete osa no tomo

spring breeze--
a monk in a stole accompanies
the village elder

This haiku was written in Third Month, 1822. A month earlier, Issa wrote a similar haiku that pictures the monk but doesn't reveal whom he is accompanying. Shinji Ogawa defines osa as the "Elder of the village." The
priest and the village elder may be on their way to a spring ceremony.

1822

.春もまた雪雷やしなの山
haru mo mata yuki kaminari ya shinano yama

even in spring
a snowstorm's thunder...
Shinano mountain

Winter was long in Issa's snowy, mountainous province.

1822

.傘の雫ながらにかすみかな
karakasa no shizuku nagara ni kasumi kana

with the dripping
of paper umbrellas...
spring mist

1822

.盗人のかすんでげけら笑ひかな
nusubito no kasunde gekera warai kana

in thick spring mist
the burglar
laughing

The editors of Issa zenshû provide two readings of the three on ("sound units") that follow kasunde ("misting") in the middle phrase: kekera and gekera (Nagano: Shinano Mainichi Shimbunsha, 1976-79, 1.88; 4.336.

1822

.古郷やあれ霞あれ雪が降る
furusato ya are kasumu are yuki ga furu

my home village--
look! spring mist
look! falling snow

A humorous reference to the long, lingering winter of Issa's home province of Shinano (present-day Nagano Prefecture).

1822

.古郷や我を見る也うすがすみ
furusato wa ware wo miru nari usu-gasumi

at my village
they watch me...
a thin spring mist

Is Issa suggesting the alienation he felt from his fellow villagers who, due to his nearly four decades of exile, now viewed him as an outsider?

1822

.寝ころぶや手まり程でも春の山
ne-korobu ya temari hodo demo haru no yama

lying down
they look like handballs...
spring mountains

Or: "it looks like a handball.../ spring mountain."

In his translation, Makoto Ueda imagines a single "spring hill" that looks like "a child's rag ball." Ueda points out that this verse occurs in a short haibun (prose piece with haiku) that describes an all-day party during which Issa and his friends got drunk on two gallons of sake and finally passed out; Dew on the Grass: The Life and Poetry of Kobayashi Issa (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2004) 142.

1822

.雪国や雪ちりながら春の山
yukiguni ya yuki chiri nagara haru no yama

snow country--
snow flits down
on spring mountains

"Snow country" (yukiguni) refers to Issa's cold and wintry home province of Shinano, present-day Nagano Prefecture. In the haiku, snow is still falling even while the mountains turn green.

1822

.ああ寒いあらあら寒いひがん哉
aa samui ara-ara samui higan kana

damn it's cold
it's damn cold!
spring equinox

Winter was long in Issa's snowy, mountainous province.

1822

.小筵にのさのさ彼岸虱かな
samushiro ni nosa-nosa higan shirami kana

on the straw mat
frolicking on spring's equinox...
lice

Or: "a louse." Higan is the spring equinox, celebrated at Buddhist temples. Nosa-nosa can denote performing an action with heizen: "calm composure," or to act nonki ("easy-going"), or to act ôchaku: "lazily," "cunningly," or "dishonestly." "Easy-going" (which I translate here as "frolicking") seems to fit this situation; Kogo dai jiten (Shogakukan 1983) 1292.

1822

.野原にも並ぶ乞食のひがん哉
nohara ni mo narabu kojiki no higan kana

even in a field
a line of beggars...
spring equinox

The beggars line up for alms on the Buddhist holiday.

1822

.鶯もとしのよらぬ山出湯の山
uguisu mo toshi no yoranu yama deyu no yama

the nightingale, too
isn't growing old!
hot springs mountain

This is a rewrite of a haiku of 1808. The original version ends with "mountain sake" (yama no sake).

The seasonal reference is to nightingales (uguisu) that are still singing in summertime.

1822

.子どもらが雪喰ながら湯治かな
kodomora ga yuki kui nagara tôji kana

children eat snow
soaking
in the hot spring

1823

.小便もうかとはならずけさの春
shôben mo uka to wa narazu kesa no haru

even pissing
should be done with care...
spring's first dawn

Since the first day of spring was also New Year's Day in the old calendar, every action was a ritual intended to bring prosperity and luck for the year. With tongue-in-cheek Issa suggests that this holds true even for the year's first piss.

Issa's expression, uka to wa narazu, literally means, "shouldn't be done without care."

1823

.散る雪も行儀正しやけさの春
chi[ru] yuki mo gyôgi tadashi ya kesa no haru

even the snow falls
graciously...
spring's first dawn

Shinji Ogawa notes that chiru yuki means "falling snow" or "falling snowflakes," not (as I originally thought) "melting snow." He adds, "I think the haiku depicts the New Year spirit in Japan. Just like a white Christmas, even ordinary snow falling on this day seems somewhat special and sacred."

1823

.武士町やしんかんとして明の春
bushi machi ya shinkan to shite ake no haru

the samurai street
perfectly silent
spring's first dawn

I originally read shinkan as an old word for shinzô: pluck, courage, nerve; Kogo dai jiten (Shogakukan 1983) 855; but Shinji Ogawa feels that Issa has a different word in mind: shinkan meaning "deep silence."

The New Year's dawn seems to be taking care not to disturb the late-sleeping samurai.

1823

.春立や愚の上に又愚にかへる
haru tatsu ya gu no ue ni mata gu ni kaeru

spring begins--
more foolishness
for this fool

This first haiku of the year is preceded by a prose passage in which Issa, paraphrasing Bashô, comments that his lack of talents, in Makoto Ueda's translation, "seems to have worked as medicine for my longevity." Ueda believes that Issa's self-mockery is really a subtle self-compliment. He has come to embrace his uselessness as a positive thing. Like the gnarled "useless" tree cited by the Chinese Taoist Chuang-tzu--with its wood so twisted no carpenter would want to cut it down--Issa the Fool has lived a long life; Dew on the Grass: The Life and Poetry of Kobayashi Issa (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2004) 144-45.

1823

.彼岸迄とは申せども寒哉
higan made to wa môsedo mo samusa kana

"Fair weather by spring's equinox"
so they say...
liars!

Winter was long in Issa's snowy, mountainous province. Shinji Ogawa notes that there is a Japanese proverb which states, "Hot or cold only lasts till an equinox." In Issa痴 province of Shinano, present-day Nagano Prefecture, this saying doesn't at all hold true. Literally, Issa is saying, "Only until the spring equinox [will the cold weather last], they say...[and yet] it's cold!" My rather free translation attempts to evoke Issa's emotion and humor.

1823

.淡雪や連出して行く薮の雪
awayuki ya tsuredashite yuku yabu no yuki

the light spring snow
melts alongside it...
snow in the thicket

The season word, "light snow" (awayuki), signifies a spring context, so for clarity I have added the word "spring" to my translation.

Shinji Ogawa notes that tsuredashite yuku means "to accompany someone out." Literally, Issa is saying:

the light spring snow
accompanies out
the snow in the thicket

In what sense does the spring snow "accompany out" the leftover winter snow in the thicket? I believe Issa is referring to melting.

1823

.紅皿にうはうけにけり春の雪
beni-zara ni uwauke ni keri haru no yuki

into the red dish
flitting down...
spring snow

The word uwauke is "muddy" writing in Issa's manuscript. I assume that he means fuwa-fuwa ("flitting down").

1823

.薮の雪を連出すや春の雪
yabu no yuki wo tsuredasu ya haru no yuki

a melting escort
for snow in the thicket...
spring snow

Shinji Ogawa notes that tsuredasu means "to accompany someone out." Literally, Issa is saying: "accompanying out/ the snow in the thicket/ spring snow."

In what sense does the spring snow "accompany out" the leftover winter snow in the thicket? I believe Issa is referring to melting. Shinji agrees. He writes, "Then, the question would be what is the relation between the spring snow and the melting, and the heart of the humor lies in this question. It is a common belief that spring snow melts quickly. It is, however, not the spring snow but rather the spring or the spring weather that makes the snow melt rapidly. Knowing this, Issa uses the spring snow as an agent to melt away the old snow."

1823

.白妙の雪の上也春の雨
shirotae no yuki no ue nari haru no ame

on the white blanket
of snow...
spring rain

1823

.山里も銭湯わいて春の雨
yama-zato mo sentô waite haru no ame

even in a mountain village
a public bath is ready...
spring rain

Shinji Ogawa notes that sentô ("coin" + "hot bath") signifies a public bathhouse.

1823

.春風や武士も吹るる女坂
haru kaze ya bushi mo fukaruru onnazaka

spring breeze--
even a samurai is blown
down the slope

Onnazaka is a gentle slope.

1823

.しなの路やそれ霞それ雪が降る
shinano ji ya sore kasumu sore yuki ga furu

Shinano road--
spring mist
and snow falling

Winter was long in Issa's snowy, mountainous province.

1824

.日の本や金も子をうむ御代の春
hi no moto ya kane mo ko wo umu miyo no haru

Land of the Rising Sun!
money makes money...
the emperor's spring

The "Land of the Rising Sun" is Japan. Miyo no haru refers to the first day of a new calendar year of the imperial reign. Shinji Ogawa glosses the phrase, kane mo ko wo umu (literally, "the money bears children"), as a figurative expression for "the money earns interest."

1824

.青空にきず一つなし玉の春
ao-zora ni kizu hitotsu nashi tama no haru

in the clear blue sky
not a blemish...
prosperous spring

1824

.春立や米の山なるひとつ松
haru tatsu ya kome no yama naru hitotsu matsu

spring beings--
a mountain of rice
from one pine

This haiku has the prescript, "Isle of Eternal Youth." Issa is referring to a New Year's hôrai ornament, made with pine, intended to bring good fortune for the coming year. In this case, he envisions a great harvest: a "mountain of rice" (kome no yama).

1824

.大寺のたばこ法度や春の雨
ôtera no tabako hatto ya haru no ame

the great temple's
smoking ban...
spring rain

For Issa who enjoyed his pipe, a smoking ban was a hard thing.

1824

.乞食小屋富のおちけり春の雨
kojiki goya tomi no ochi keri haru no ame

on a beggar's hut
riches fall...
spring rain

1824

.水仙は花と成りけり春の雨
suisen wa hana to nari keri haru no ame

the daffodils
have become flowers!
spring rain

1824

.春風や三人乗りのもどり馬
haru kaze ya sannin nori no modori uma

spring breeze--
three ride the same horse
home

A nice slice-of-life haiku.

This haiku is one of the "essential" 188 picked by the translator. back next

1824

.一馬に三人乗りや春の風
hito uma ni sannin nori ya haru no kaze

on one horse
three riders...
the spring breeze blows

1824

.初虹や左り麦西雪の山
hatsu niji ya hidari mugi nishi yuki no yama

spring's first rainbow
from the wheat field on my left
to the western snowcaps

Mugi is a generic term that refers to several grains: wheat, barley, oats, and rye.

1824

.山の湯に米を搗せて涼み哉
yama no yu ni kome wo tsukasete suzumi kana

making the mountain
hot spring husk the rice...
cool air

The hot spring powers a rice-pounding mill.

1824

.神の猿蚤見てくれる小春哉
kami no saru nomi mite kureru ko haru kana

sacred monkeys
pick each other's fleas...
a spring day in winter

Literally, the monkeys are "the god's monkeys" (kami no saru), implying that the scene is taking place on a sacred mountain, probably near a Shinto shrine.

"Little spring" (ko haru) refers to mild, clear weather in the Eleventh and Twelfth Months.

1824

.小春とて出歩くに蠅連にけり
ko haru tote de-aruku [ni] hae tsure [ni] keri

a spring day in winter--
I go out for a walk
a fly comes along

"Little spring" (ko haru) refers to mild, clear weather in the Eleventh and Twelfth Months.

1825

.行灯のかたっぴらより明の春
andon no katappira yori ake no haru

on one side
of my paper lantern...
first of spring

Or: "the paper lantern."

I assume that katappira is a combination of kata ("one") and hira, which in Issa's time could refer to anything thin and flat, like paper or leaves. Here, it seems to refer to one face of the paper lantern. Kogo dai jiten (Shogakukan 1983) 1416.

1825

.善光寺やかけ念仏で明の春
zenkôji ya kake-nembutsu de ake no haru

at Zenko Temple
praising Buddha to the beat...
spring begins

Kake-nembutsu refers to a Pure Land Buddhist practice: the chanting of the nembutsu prayer to the beat of a bell or wooden temple drum; see Kogo dai jiten (Shogakukan 1983) 345. The nembutsu prayer is Namu Amida Butsu--"All praise to Amida Buddha!" Zenkô Temple (Zenkôji) is the major Pure Land temple in Issa's home province.

1825

.爺が世や枯木も雪の花の春
jiji ga yo ya kare-gi mo yuki no hana no haru

an old man's world--
flowers of snow on bare trees
spring's blossoms

According to the calendar, it's time for spring and blossoms, but Issa's experience differs. Shinji Ogawa points out that Issa is referring to an old fairy tale, "Hanasaka Jijii," in which an old man sprinkles ashes to make the trees bloom.

1825

.むさしのや大名衆も旅の春
musashi no ya daimyô shû mo tabi no haru

Musashi Plain--
feudal lords too
on spring journeys

1825

.小ばくちは蚊の呪や里の春
ko bakuchi wa ka no majinai ya sato no haru

a bit of gambling
to ward off mosquitoes this year...
spring in the village

Certain spells (majinai) are supposed to ward off pests in the coming year. Here, Issa pretends that gambling is such a ritual.

1825

.春永と延した春も仕廻哉
haru naga to noboshita haru mo shimai kana

the long
stretched-out spring finally...
Over

1825

.芝居日と家内は出たり春の雨
shibai hi to kanai wa detari haru no ame

"It's theater day!"
my wife goes out...
spring rain

Shinji Ogawa notes that Issa had no wife in 1825. He had divorced his second wife, Yuki, the year before and hadn't yet married the third, Yao. He speculates that perhaps Issa is joking in this haiku, saying: "I'm alone because my wife is out at the theater today."

1825

.春雨や腹をへらしに湯につかる
harusame ya hara wo herashi ni yu ni tsukaru

spring rain--
to help the digestion
a hot bath

At first, I translated hara wo herashi literally: "to shrink the belly." Shinji Ogawa notes that this is an idiom for "to help the digestion."

1825

.めぐり日と俳諧日也春の雨
meguri hi to haikai hi nari haru no ame

a day for wandering
a day for haiku...
spring rain

1825

.春の風子どもも一箕二み哉
haru [no] kaze kodomo mo hito mi futa mi kana

spring breeze--
even a child has a winnow
two winnows!

Everyone is carrying a farm implement ... or two.

1825

.改て吹かける也ひがん雪
aratamete fukikakeru nari higan yuki

rearranged
by the wind...
spring equinox snow

Winter was long in Issa's snowy, mountainous province.

1826

.春風や野道につづく浅黄傘
haru kaze ya nomichi ni tsuzuku asagi-gasa

spring breeze--
across the field a parade
of light blue parasols

Or: "on the field's path a parade."

1826

.つつがなく湯治しにけり腕の蚤
tsutsuganaku tôji shi ni keri ude no nomi

safe and sound
in the healing hot spring
my arm's flea

Or: "fleas." Sympathetic Issa reports that the flea (or fleas) on his arm are safely above the waterline as he takes his hot spring cure.

All translations © 1991-2010 by David G. Lanoue, rights reserved.