Leave it to Issa to give us this slice of life from back in the day.
yūgure ya ma-guso no te wo mo kiku de fuku
wiping horse poop from my hand
using a chrysanthemum
—Issa
Not a whole lot to say here. What you see is what you get. This haiku does actually fit quite well with the entire haikai movement, one of the goals of which was to get away from the lofty images of old poetry and better reflect real life—to be more raw in other words. Even the great Bashō had at least one haiku about animals being animals.
From his epic Oku no Hosomichi trip, Bashō wrote:
nomi shirami uma no shitosuru makura moto
plagued by fleas and lice
now a horse pissing
near my pillow
Real life, eh?
Having said that, if you want to really try to read something into Issa’s haiku, he could be making some comment on the imperial house, whose crest is a chrysanthemum. If that were the case, I doubt he would be saying he disapproves of them, rather that the military government (the shogunate) is treating them badly.
I don’t know if that’s the case here, however. Issa didn’t often make political comments. But then again, I could be wrong. He wrote over 20,000 haiku in his lifetime and I haven’t read even a fraction of them all.
Or it could be a simpler statement that as beautiful as a chrysanthemum is, it is only a thing and can be used for other purposes. Instead of making a value judgement of poop or flower we should just appreciate them for what they are. The Buddha is just as comfortable sitting in a pile of shit as he is on a quiet mountain.
What do you think?
Chrysanthemum (kiku) is a season word for all of autumn, by the way, which is the season we are currently in according to the traditional calendar.
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That is, me! If you like this translation, feel free to use it. Just credit me. Also link here if you can. ↩
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| David is an American teacher and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. He blogs here and at laspina.org. Write him on Mastodon. |