Issa and Daruma Haiku

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Issa and his Daruma Haiku
小林一茶とだるまの俳句



lined up too
among the dolls...
Dharma

zwischen den Hina-Puppen
da sitzt er auch -
Daruma san

inarande daruma mo hina no nakama kana

Daruma as a partner of the Hinaningyo !

http://blog.livedoor.jp/sakuo3903/archives/18610204.html


But first things first. Who was Issa ?

Issa Kobayashi, a haiku poet, whose child name was Yataro and registered name was Nobuyuki, was born in Kashiwabara, Shinano, in 1763, and died there in 1827. Kashiwabara is now part of Shinano-machi (Shinano Town), Nagano Prefecture.



At the age of 13, Issa went to Edo, present-day Tokyo, to work and, about the age of 25, started to write haiku, having learned it from Genmu and Chiku-a, and had Seibi Natsume as his patron. After visiting and living at various places, including Kyoto, Osaka, Nagasaki, Matsuyama and other Western cities, Issa returned to his home in Kashiwabara at the age of 51 and was the leader of the haiku world in northern Shinano, till he died at the age of 65.

Published: "The Diary at My Father's Death" 「父の終焉日記」 (1801) and "My Springtime" 「おらが春」Ora ga haru ( (1819).

Issa is said to be famous for having composed subjective and individualistic haiku, based on his unhappy family situations, often using the local dialects and words of the daily conversations.

William Higgins writes, in "Chapter 2. The Four Great Masters of Japanese Haiku" (Basho Matsuo, Buson Yosa, Issa Kobayashi and Shiki Masaoka) of his "The Haiku Handbook":
"The Third Great Master of Haiku, Kobayashi Issa (1762-1827), was a country bumpkin compared to ascetic, priestly Basho and worldly, sophisticated Buson. The majority of the Japnese who like traditional haiku probably know and like Issa better than any other poet."
http://www.threeweb.ad.jp/logos/ainet/issa2.html

More about Issa
http://www.threeweb.ad.jp/logos/ainet/issa3.html
http://www.threeweb.ad.jp/logos/ainet/issa4.html

More Haiku by Issa
http://www.threeweb.ad.jp/logos/ainet/issa5.html
http://www.threeweb.ad.jp/logos/ainet/issa.html

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Issa and his rich patron from Edo, Kuramae

Natsume Seibi 夏目成美
(1748 - 1826)

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Issa has three haiku about the
Daruma Memorial Day

Why would Issa write about Daruma, the founder or the Zen sect, when he himself was of the Pure Land Sect of Buddhism? At his time, the Daruma cult as we know it now was not yet in fashion.

David Lanoue has this to say:

I think he makes fun of Zen and Daruma with a gentle smile.
I know of one haiku in which Issa makes playful fun of Zen:
http://cat.xula.edu/issa/searchissa.php?haiku_id=159.06a

After all, hemakes fun of his own Pure Land sect more often.
To cite just one example:
http://cat.xula.edu/issa/searchissa.php?haiku_id=697.20a

Issa laughs at others, but he laughs even more at himself.

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Now let us look at Issa and his Daruma haiku.


達磨きやちんぷんかんを鳴ち鳥

daruma ki ya chinpunkan o naku chidori

on Dharma's Death Day
spouting gibberish...
a plover

Daruma Gedenktag -
Kauderwelsch der Regenpfeiffer
sprudelt hervor



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達磨忌や箒で書し不二の山

daruma ki ya hooki de kakishi fuji no yama

Dharma's Death-Day--
with a broom I draw
Mount Fuji

Daruma Gedenktag -
mit dem Besen gemalt
der Fujiyama



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達磨忌や傘さしかける梅の花

daruma ki ya kasa sashikakeru ume no hana

Dharma's Death-Day
in umbrella shade...
plum blossoms

Daruma Gedenktag -
im Schatten des Schirms
Pflaumenbluete



Daruma Death Day is on October 5, November in the old lunar calendar.
That must have been a very early plum ! Sakuo san suspects of course a beautiful lady with that name.

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chiru ume o he to mo omowanu o-kao kana

not giving a damn
that plum blossoms fall
...his stern face

er macht sich nix draus
dass Pflaumenblüten fallen
... sein stoisches Gesicht



http://cat.xula.edu/issa/searchissa.php?haiku_id=206.15a

The idiom, he to mo omowanu (consider it less than a fart), which Shinji translates: "don't care a bit about it."

The haiku has the prescript, "Picture of Great Master Dharma."
Dharma (Bodhidharma) was the Buddhist patriarch who brought Buddhism from India to China. In the haiku, Issa imagines that Dharma considers the falling of the plum blossoms "less than a fart"--not important in the least. In this way Dharma embodies, and silently teaches, a lesson in Buddhism.

The passing of the blossoms--life to death, being to non-being--doesn't put a frown or even a wrinkle of concern on the face of the enlightened one; instead, he accepts the world's transience with sublime indifference, like a good saint should.

Thanks to Shinji's explanation of the colloquialism at the heart of the haiku, its religious meaning reveals itself in my translation.

David Lanoue
http://webusers.xula.edu/dlanoue/issa/treasures.html

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We have talked about Daruma and the .. SMALLPOX ..

in der Pockenhütte
schimmert noch die Lamp -
Schneesturm


灯ちらちら疱瘡小家の吹雪哉
hi chira-chira mogasa ko ie no fubuki kana

lamplight flickers
in the smallpox shack...
a blizzard

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いも神のさんだらぼしに蛙哉
imo kami no sandara-boshi ni kawazu kana

on the straw lid
of the smallpox god...
a frog

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赤住連や疱瘡 のことし竹
aka shime ya hôsô-gami no kotoshi take

red sacred rope--
the smallpox god's
crop of young bamboo


Tr. David Lanoue

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The Complete Issa Translations online
............................. David Lanoue
http://haikuguy.com/issa/index.html


Issa and Haiga (including all above)
.............................. Sakuo Nakamura
http://webusers.xula.edu/dlanoue/issa/imagesakuo.html
Sakuo's Bilingual Issa Page
http://blog.livedoor.jp/sakuo3903/
English only
http://sakuo3903.blogspot.com/


Other Issa Haiga
http://webusers.xula.edu/dlanoue/issa/imageothers.html
http://thegreenleaf.co.uk/HP/Issa/40issapray.htm
http://www.jerrydreesen.com/gal_masters1.htm
http://www.ne.jp/asahi/hokudou/an/haiga/issa.html
http://www.kilmenyniland.com/haiga/nightfall.html



Issa and the Season Words (kigo) in Haiku
http://worldkigodatabase.blogspot.com/2006/12/kigo-used-by-issa.html



小林一茶の生涯
http://www2j.biglobe.ne.jp/~sim_g/his_life.htm


Memorial Stones for Issa 　一茶の句碑


http://members.at.infoseek.co.jp/kefi/issa/

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......................................................... Found on the way

Great link about Zen Poems and Haiku

a world of dew,
and within every dewdrop
a world of struggle



Issa

http://buddhism.kalachakranet.org/resources/zen_poems.html

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Help with the German translations:
Mario Trinkhaus.

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... ... ... ... ... ... To my haiku pages
http://happyhaiku.blogspot.com/


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