Gwarlingo's "The Sunday Poem" is always a treat, but this week it features a video of Robert Hass reading haiku by Issa, which Hass translated. The video focuses on the humorous aspects of Issa's haiku, and is a real pick-me-up in 2 1/2 minutes.
Gwarlingo also includes a brief biography of Hass, a favorite poet of mine, and of Issa. I didn't realize how little I knew about Issa till I read this info at this site. For example, I didn't realize that he had disputes with his biological and step families, nor that he had written over 20,000 haiku, with over 200 about fireflies and 90 about cicadas, and many more about other small beings inhabiting our planet.
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