New Year Haiku

I turn to the Japanese poet Kobayashi Issa (1763-1828) for New Year haiku on this New Year's Eve Day.

These I found at the site Haiku of Kobayashi Issa, where there are over 10,000 of Issa's haiku, complete with a handy search function so you choose your topic. I  searched for New Year and found 17 haiku, a few of which I present below.

I chose this one because it has been flitting snow all day here in Kobe.

1820

.御降りの祝儀に雪もちらり哉
o-sagari no shûgi ni yuki mo chirari kana

 

 

sprinkled in
with the new year's rain...
flitting snow

 

 

This one I chose simply because it captures my mood.

 

1822

.年立やもとの愚が又愚にかへる
toshi tatsu ya moto no gu ga mata gu ni kaeru

 

 

a new year--
the same nonsense
piled on nonsense

 

 

This is is about old age, which I have been thinking about a lot, and about eyesight, which is a constant obsession in our family. (Son #2 got his first pair of glasses yesterday, as it happens.)

 

1813

かすむやら目が霞やらことしから
kasumu yara me ga kasumu yara kotoshi kara

 

 

all is misty
even my eyes!
from this new year on

 

 

This one suggest that the barley fields will soon change color, turning green, ripening. I am currently working on a linked series of prose poems about color, so this appealed to me.

 

1819

けふからは正月分ぞ麦の色
kyô kara wa shôgatsu bun zo mugi no iro

 

 

after today
a new year begins!
the color of barley

 

 

And of course, children, their constant needs and gifts.

 

1822

.今夜から正月分ンぞ子ども衆
konya kara shôgatsubun zo kodomoshû

 

 

after this night
a new year dawns!
children

 

This one echoes the previous haiku about the barley changing color, doesn't it?

 

This website also has a random haiku generator. Click on that link and get a random haiku by Issa. Or search for what you want.

 

Either way, Happy New Year!

Issa and Hass

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.