The Spring of My Life

by Kobayashi Issa

  kamijiyama

  Peeking through the fence

  on a tranquil sunny day—

  a young mountain monk

  Nodokasa ya

  kakima wo nozoku

  yama no sō

  Under this bright moon

  I sit like an old buddha

  knees spread wide

  Meigetsu ya

  hotoke no yo ni

  hiza wo kumi

  My noontime nap

  sweetened by voices singing

  rice-planting songs

  Motaina ya

  hirune shite kiku

  taue-uta

  Today and today

  and today the bamboo’s watched

  by the brazier

  Kyō mo kyō mo

  kyō mo take mint

  hioke kana

  In the midst of this world

  we stroll along the roof of hell

  gawking at flowers

  Yo no naka wa

  jigoku no ue no

  hanami kana

  Give me a homeland,

  and a passionate woman,

  and winter alone

  Kimi ga yo wa

  onna mo sunari

  fuyu gomori

  While the street-corner

  priest continues to blather—

  ah!—tranquillity

  Tsuji dangi

  chinpunkan mo

  nodoka kana

  A world of trials,

  and if the cherry blossoms,

  it simply blossoms

  Ku no shaba ya

  sakura ga sakeba

  saita tote

  In my hidden house,

  no teeth left in the mouth,

  but good luck abounds

  Kakurega ya

  ha no nai kuchi de

  fuku wa uchi

  So many fleabites,

  but on her lovely young skin

  they are beautiful

  Nomi no ato

  sore mo wakaki wa

  utsukushiki

  Now we are leaving,

  the houseflies can make love

  to their heart’s desire

  Rusu ni sum zo

  koi shite asobe

  io no hae

  The blossoming plum!

  Today all the fires of hell

  remain empty

  Ume saku ya

  jigoku no kama mo

  kyujitsu to

  Just to say the word

  home, that one word alone,

  so pleasantly cool

  Waga yado to

  iu bakari de mo

  suzushisa yo

  This year’s hottest day:

  some nasty fellow stole

  my umbrella!

  Futatsu naki

  kasa nusumareshi

  doyo kana

  How comfortable

  my summer cotton robe

  when drenched with sweat

  Omoshiro ya

  ase no shimitaru

  yukata kana

  Chrysanthemum blooms—

  even the stench of urine

  succumbs to its perfume

  Shōben no

  ka mo kayoi keri

  kiku no hana

  On this spindly plant,

  finally, one shabby

  blossom has arrived

  Yasekusa no

  yoro yoro hana to

  nari ni keri

  In this mountain village,

  shining in my soup bowl,

  the bright moon arrives

  Yamazato wa

  shiru no naka made

  meigetsu zo

  After a long nap,

  the cat yawns, rises, and goes out

  looking for love

  Nete okite

  ōakubi shite

  neko no koi

  O summer snail,

  you climb but slowly, slowly

  to Fuji’s summit

  Katatsumuri

  soro soro nobore

  fuji no yama

  It is true even

  among this world’s insects:

  some sing well, some not

  Yo no naka ya

  naku mushi ni sae

  jōzu heta

  Weakened by illness,

  breaking this blossoming branch,

  my mouth turns down

  Otoroe ya

  hana wo oru ni mo

  kuchi mageru

  Lying, arms and legs

  splayed out, how supremely cool,

  how sweetly lonely

  Dai no ji ni

  nete suzushisa yo

  sabishisa yo

  Sweaty summer night:

  spent almost sleeping between

  mounds of baggage

  Atsuki yo no

  ni to ni no aida ni

  netarikeri

  Pouncing, the kitten

  tackles and holds down the leaf—

  for the moment

  Neko no ko no

  choi to osaeru

  konoha kana

  The mountain warbler

  lives by virtue of these

  falling autumn leaves

  Uguisu no

  kuchisugi ni huru

  ochiba kana

  Evening clouds disperse:

  under a pale sky, a range

  of autumn mountains

  Yūbare ya

  asagi ni narabu

  aki no yama

  That old woodpecker

  keeps working his tree even

  as day turns to evening

  Kitsutsuki ya

  hitotsu tokoro ni

  hi no kururu

  Another useless man,

  I walk the night alone

  beneath a cold moon

  Muda hito ya

  fuyu no tsukiyo wo

  bura bura to

  The mountain water

  is busy pounding the rice

  while I enjoy a nap

  Yama mizu ni

  home wo tsukasete

  hirune kana

  O moonlit blossoms—

  I’ve squandered forty-nine years

  walking beneath you

  Tsuki hana ya

  shijuku-nen no

  muda aruki

  Spring has come again,

  and it couldn’t be better,

  oh, blossoming plum!

  Waga haru mo

  jōjō kichi yo

  ume no hana

  Ask tearfully, truly—

  even the flowers are falling,

  falling to the ground

  Tada tanome

  hana mo hara hara

  ano tōri

  From this day forward,

  you will be Japanese geese—

  may you thrive in peace

  Kyō kara wa

  nihon no kari zo

  raku ni neyo

  Bright autumn moonlight:

  countless sea lice come rushing

  over the stones

  Meigetsu ya

  funamushi hashiru

  ishi no ue

  I live as I do

  and no matter—the tortoise

  lives ten thousand years

  Ā mama yo

  ikite mo kame no

  hyaku-bu ichi

  The huge firefly,

  a little wobbly on its wings,

  comes fluttering by

  Ō botaru

  yurari yurari to

  tōri keri

  With my folding fan

  I measured the peony—

  as it demanded

  Ōgi nite

  shaku wo toraseru

  botan kana

  Futility

  in the gaping mouth of

  the sparrow’s stepchild

  Mata muda ni

  kuchi aku tori no

  mamako kana

  A fruitful year—

  flies gather on the grass,

  singing happily

  Hōnen no

  koe wo agekeri

  kusa no haer />
  At the Zen temple,

  pine needles silently fall

  through the godless month

  Zendera ni

  matsu no ochiba ya

  kannazuki

  Autumn evening—

  the hole in my shōji sounds like

  a flute being blown

  Aki no yo ya

  shōji no ana no

  fue wo fuku

  My tired legs spread

  comfortably—overhead,

  a few passing clouds

  Nagedashita

  ashi no saki nari

  kumo no mine

  In a bitter wind

  they wait—two bits per trick—

  outside a whore’s shack

  Kogarashi ya

  nijū-yon-mon no

  yūjo goya

  Winter hermitage:

  from the first night, listening

  to rain on the mountain

  Fuyugomori

  sono yo ni kiku ya

  yama no ame

  Blown softly away

  in rustling breezes, spring leaves

  fields of new grasses

  Yusa-yusa to

  haru ga yuku zo yo

  nobe no kusa

  For our rice country,

  only most superior

  scorching summer heat!

  Kome-guni no

  jōjō-kichi no

  atsusa kana

  On the hottest day,

  single-mindedly, a crow

  buries its secret

  Atsuki hi ni

  naniyara umeru

  karasu kana

  Be calm, skinny frog!

  Now that Issa’s on his way,

  you needn’t worry

  Yasegaeru

  makeru na issa

  kore ni ari

  This mountain moonlight

  gently illuminates

  the flower thief

  Yama no tsuki

  hana nusubito wo

  terashi tamō

  All around my house,

  pond frogs, from the beginning,

  sang about old age

  Waga io ya

  kawazu shote kara

  oi wo naku

  How joyous and kind!

  In my next life, let me be

  a butterfly afield

  Mutsumashi ya

  umare-kawaraba

  nobe no chō

  Fly, butterfly!

  I feel the dust of this world

  weighting my body!

  Chō tonde

  waga mi mo chiri no

  tagui kana

  Under shady trees

  resting with a butterfly—

  this, too, is karma

  Ki no kage ya

  chō to yasumu mo

  tashō no en

  The field worker

  wipes his snotty fingers

  on the plum blossom

  Hatauchi ya

  tebana wo nejiru

  ume no hana

  The great daimyō

  slowly dismounts from his horse—

  cherry blossoms

  Daimyō wo

  uma kara orosu

  sakura kana

  Just being alive!

  —miraculous to be in

  cherry blossom shadows!

  Kō ikite

  iru mo fushigi zo

  hana no kage

  Pain and suffering—

  even if the old cherry

  had somehow blossomed

  Ku no shaba ya

  sakura ga sakeba

  saita tote

  Evening cherry

  blossoms—now this day too

  enters history

  Yū-zakura

  kyō mo mukashi ni

  nari ni keri

  “Cherry blossoms, cherry blossoms!”

  the old folk song went,

  praising this old tree

  Sakura sakura to

  utawareshi

  oiki kana

  Among blooming flowers

  we continue our writhing—

  all living beings

  Saku hana no

  naka ni ugomeku

  shujō kana

  Where Kannon remains—

  every endless direction—

  the cherries blossom

  Kannon no

  aran kagiri wa

  sakura kana

  Truly heaven-sent,

  drifting down from everywhere,

  these cherry blossoms

  Ten kara de mo

  futtaru yō ni

  sakura kana

  After evening bath

  and bows before the Buddha—

  these cherry blossoms

  Yu mo abite

  hotoke ogande

  sakura kana

  People whispering—

  listening, they blush a bit,

  evening cherry blossoms

  Hitogoe ni

  hotto shita yara

  yūzakura

  It was my favorite

  place for cherry blossom shade,

  now gone forever

  Kiniitta

  sakura no kage mo

  nakari keri

  Stone River’s rushing

  waters lit by bright flashes

  of lightning

  Ishikawa wa

  guwarari inazuma

  sarari kana

  Loneliness already

  planted with each seed in

  morning glory beds

  Haya sabishi

  asagao maku to

  yū hatake

  Today, today too,

  somehow getting by these days, still

  living in a haze

  Kyō mo kyō mo

  kasunde kurasu

  koie kana

  In early spring rain

  the ducks that were not eaten

  are quacking happily

  Harusame ya

  kuware-nokori no

  kamo ga naku

  From birthing’s washbowl

  to the washbowl of the dead—

  blathering nonsense!

  Tarai kara

  tarai ni utsuru

  chinpunkan

  Notes

  1. Traditionally in many Asian cultures, babies are considered to be one year old when they are born.

  2. Moxa was burned and rubbed on the legs before travel and also burned on the trip as an incense to ward off Inari.

  3. Kannon (Kuan Yin in Chinese) is the bodhisattva of compassion.

  4. A yukata is a lightweight cotton robe.

  5. Issa is alluding, of course, to Bashō’s Oku no hosomichi (Narrow Road to the Interior), the most influential volume of haibun ever written. All haiku poets after Bashō must wrestle with the great master’s tradition in order to find their own voices.

  6. “Happy One” is the literal translation of Fuku, a common Japanese nickname for toads.

  7. Burning mosquitoes was the common way of dealing with them other than by using mosquito nets.

  8. Issa apparently thought these verses by Tochi and Ransetsu had been written by Bashō.

  9. Nobuyuki Yuasa notes that the working poor in Issa’s district often sought winter work in Tokyo and were called “starlings” as they flocked along the road.

  10. Visiting a bathhouse in Edo for the customary midwinter purification bath (a Shinto custom), Issa saw his fellow bathers were steeplejacks, firemen, and yakuza, or gangsters identifiable by their large tattoos.

  11. During the popular Setsubun festival in the first week of February, the official beginning of spring, it was the custom to throw beans and chant these lines.

  12. In Issa’s time, I Shinshu (now Nagano Prefecture) was notorious for the “bad things” people ate: cicada pupae, bee worms, and the like.

  13. Jizō is the patron god of children and travelers.

  14. Same as Jizō, “O” being an added honorific.

  15. This poem alludes to the folk saying “Tonde hi ni iru natsu no mushi” (
Summer bugs plunge into fire of their own volition; a fool hunts for his fortune).

  Index of first lines

  Note: Index entries from the print edition of this book have been included for use as search terms. They can be located by using the search feature of your e-book reader.

  A bird is singing

  A bright moon lights

  A butterfly

  A child emerges

  A child has drawn

  A child on his back

  A cicada, loud

  A comical face—

  A cut bamboo sprout—

  A dime-sized patch of grass

  A faint yellow rose

  A few blossoms fall

  A flowering plum

  A flowing freshet—

  A fruitful year—

  A good day begins

  A gray pussy willow

  A gust of spring wind—

  A heartbreaking cry

  A huge wooden sword—

  A little shady

  A lone bindweed root

  A mountain temple—

  A new fawn twitches

  A parent’s mind may

  “A party of one,”

  A servant scurries

  A sheet of rain

  A single leap—from

  A stone Buddha in

  A summer’s estate:

  A towel for a headband

  A wanderer rests

  A well-wrought petition saved

  A world of dew

  A world of trials

  Above the blather

  After a long nap

  After emptying

  After evening bath

  After the full moon

  After the sermon,

  After wheat harvest

  All alone at home

  All alone, the step-

  All around my house

  All night mosquito

  All of us foolish

  All the garden this