May 11, 2008...5:17 pm

Haiku of Kobayashi Issa - Poems on Karma and Death

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ISSA and Karma

1804

.花桜一本一本のいさほしや

hana sakura ippon ippon no isaoshi ya

cherry blossoms–
tree after tree
of good karma

Literally, each tree embodies a “meritorious deed” or “exploit” (isaoshi).

1812

.蓑虫の運の強さよ五月雨

minomushi no un no tsuyosa yo satsuki ame

the bagworm
has strong karma…
Fifth Month rain

The bagworm is a moth larva that, in this season, is protected from the rain in its cozy, dry fibrous case. Literally, it is called the “straw raincoat bug” (minomushi). It must have very good karma from a previous life, Issa muses, to enjoy such a fine raincoat on this wet day. “Fifth Month rain” (samidare) pertains to the old lunar calendar; it would be June rain in the present calendar. Shinji Ogawa observes, “In the modern Japanese sense, May weather consists of mostly fair days, not cold, not hot, in the best season of the year. Therefore, May rain is very pleasant in modern Japanese sense. On the other hand, samidare (May rain in old Japanese), is the June rain that falls day after day, creating high humidity and helping mold to grow in the corners of the house.”

1814

.ちる花に罪も報もしら髪哉

chiru hana ni tsumi mo mukui mo shiraga kana

in scattering blossoms
sin and karma…
white hair

The scattering cherry blossoms suggest the transience of all things, a major Buddhist idea. Issa perceives both sin (tsumi) and retribution (mukui) in the falling blossoms: the law of karma that will determine the next life for both flowers and white-haired poets.

Shinji Ogawa notes that Issa may be punning with the word shiraga (”white hair”), which sounds like shiranu (”do not know”). The ending, which is literally “white hair,” therefore hints at a secondary meaning: the scattering flower petals are not aware of sins or karma. This type of punning, he adds, “was very popular in Issa’s days, especially in Edo.”

1815

.薮原や何の因果で残る菊

yabu hara ya nanno inga de nokoru kiku

grassy thicket–
what karma lets
the chrysanthemum survive?

Issa wonders out loud why the flower survives in the wintertime when all the others have died. Its longevity must be karma.

1817

.蝶の身も業の秤にかかる哉

chô no mi mo gô no hakari ni kakaru kana

the butterfly too
on the scales of karma
is weighed

A reference to the Buddhist belief that all beings attain merits and demerits (karma) throughout their lives. Even the butterfly is not exempt from this universal law, Issa notes.

1819

.業の鳥罠を巡るやむら時雨

gô no tori wana wo meguru ya mura shigure

the bird of karma
circles the trap…
hard winter rain

This haiku has the prescript, “A thief caught lurking and captured in his own home village.” In his haiku, Issa’s “bird of karma” (gô no tori) represents the thief–with the difference being that the bird has not yet stepped into the trap.

The expression, mura shigure, signifies winter rain that passes through strongly and incessantly; Kogo dai jiten (Shogakukan 1983) 110; 1603.

1824

.花の木の持って生た果報哉

hana no ki no motte umareta kahô kana

the blossoming tree
born with such good
karma

This is a revision of a haiku that ends with the phrase, aiso kana (”friendly!”):

the blossoming tree
born to a friendly
existence

According to Makoto Ueda, Issa gave the second version on a poem card to the relatives of his second wife, Yuki. The “blossoming tree” would symbolize the lovely bride; Dew on the Grass: The Life and Poetry of Kobayashi Issa (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2004) 153.

Unfortunately, this second marriage ended in a quick divorce.

1825

.洪水に運の強さよとぶいなご

kôzui ni un no tsuyosa yo tobu inago

in the flood
its karma is strong…
flying locust

Is the locust’s karma “strong” (tsuyosa) in the positive sense, meaning that it will survive the flood, or does Issa mean the opposite: that its misdeeds of a past life have pulled the locust to this drowning place? Issa leaves this decision to the reader.

ISSA and Death

1803

.けふも死に近き入りて草の花

kyô mo shinu ni chikaki irite kusa no hana

today again
death draws nearer…
the wildflowers

1803

.御迎ひの鐘の鳴也冬篭

o-mukai no kane no naru nari fuyugomori

the death bell
tolls at the temple…
winter seclusion

Shinji Ogawa notes that the phrase o-mukae no kane (Issa’s variant: mukai no kane) means “welcome-bell” in the sense of welcoming the faithful to the next world, Amida Buddha’s Pure Land. I first translated it, “the welcome bell,” but Gabi Greve feels that this loses the sense of “someone waiting for his death.” She suggests: “funeral bells/ starting to toll” or “coming to get me/ the bell is tolling.” I have decided to go with “death bell,” and to include the word “temple” (not in Issa’s original text but certainly implied).

1805

.木つつきの死ねとて敲く柱哉

kitsutsuki no shine tote tataku hashira kana

the woodpecker
pecks it to death…
the post

Jean Cholley’s French version has the woodpecker pecking “as if it wanted it to die” (comme s’il voulait sa mort pioche); En village de miséreux: Choix de poèmes de Kobayashi Issa (Paris: Gallimard, 1996) 63.

1805

.大年や我死所の鐘もなる

ôtoshi ya waga shinidoko no kane mo naru

year’s end–
the bell of my death place
tolls too

1808

.秋風や仏に近き年の程

aki kaze ya hotoke ni chikaki toshi no hodo

autumn wind–
death draws closer
with every year

This haiku has the prescript, “Old Grandma’s 33rd Death Anniversary.”

After his mother died when he was three, Issa’s grandmother cared for him. Her death in 1776, when he was fourteen, devastated him.

1810

.死支度致せ致せと桜哉

shinijitaku itase itase to sakura kana

“Get ready, get ready
for death!”
cherry blossoms

The cherry blossoms that live for a short, splendid time then scatter to the ground seem to be preaching a Buddhist sermon.

Makoto Ueda believes that this haiku illustrates Issa’s “pessimistic outlook on life”; Dew on the Grass: The Life and Poetry of Kobayashi Issa (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2004)
70. I see it in a different light. The cherry blossoms show creaturely compassion, reminding the poet (and, through the poet, us) of the Buddhist truth of mujô: all things pass. This is neither pessimism nor optimism. It’s just the truth.

1811

.死鐘と聞さへのらのかすみ哉

shini kane to kiku sae nora no kasumi kana

a death bell too
can be heard…
misty field

1813

.死神により残されて秋の暮

shini-gami ni yorinokosarete aki no kure

the god of death
has passed me over…
autumn dusk

Or: “the gods of death/ have…”

Jean Cholley, in his French translation, prefers the plural: dieux de la mort; see En village de miséreux: Choix de poèmes de Kobayashi Issa (Paris: Gallimard, 1996) 115.

1816

.猫の子の命日をとぶ小てふ哉

neko no ko no meinichi wo tobu ko chô kana

to the kitten’s
death anniversary it flits…
little butterfly

The butterfly visits the little grave on one of the appointed days of remembrance–like a human mourner would.

1826

.死時も至極上手な仏かな

shini-doki mo shigoku jôzuna hotoke kana

timing his death
extremely well…
the Buddha

This haiku refers to the Second Month, 15th Day festival of Buddha’s Death Day, commemorating Gautama Buddha’s entrance into nirvana (i.e., his death).

Makoto Ueda believes that Issa is referring to spring blossoms, specifically, cherry blossoms: how the Buddha decided to die only after seeing them one last time. Ueda reads the first two kanji as shinu toki; Dew on the Grass: The Life and Poetry of Kobayashi Issa (Leiden/Boston: Brill, 2004) 166. The editors of Issa zenshû read them as shini-doki; (Nagano: Shinano Mainichi Shimbunsha, 1976-79) 1.101.

source

http://haikuguy.com/issa/

Quote

. . . Zen makes use, to a great extent, of poetical expressions; Zen is wedded to poetry.

- D. T. Suzuki

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