蝸牛そろそろ登れ富士の山
katatsumuri sorosoro nobore fuji no yama
O snail
little by little climb
Mount Fuji
—Issa
trans. David LaSpina[1]
This is one of Issa's most famous haiku. As such, you may have seen it before, or some variation of it. Often with haiku translations floating around, they are more the product of the mind of the translator than the original poet[2], but if you ever see one with a snail and Mt Fuji, it's probably this one.
There are various interpretations of it. Many people take it to mean persevere and you can accomplish anything, and indeed that is the meaning I'm playfully hinting at with the title to this post. Blyth, however, had a different interpretation. He wrote:
If you are a snail, be a snail. And if as a snail you climb, follow your snail nature, your Buddha nature, and climb slowly, slowly!
In other words, be as you are, and if you are a snail being as you are means moving or climbing slowly, whether it be a small incline or the grand Mount Fuji.
I think that's more on the mark. Trying to stuff a motivational message in a poem doesn't really fit with any of the ideals of early hokku poets, nor does it fit with any of Issa's other poems. Issa was kind to all creatures and talked to them as if they were his friends. Here he is talking to his friend, telling it to be itself and climb the mountain slowly as is its nature.
 | David LaSpina is an American photographer and translator lost in Japan, trying to capture the beauty of this country one photo at a time and searching for the perfect haiku. |
That is, me! If you like this translation, feel free to use it. Just credit me. Also link here if you can. ↩
No knock against this. Some of them are really wonderful interpretations of the original and stand on their own. Robert Hass has an entire haiku book full of these. But this style of translation is much more interpretation than translation. Then again, I'm well aware that this is an ongoing and never-ending debate. All translation, some would argue, is interpretation and the only way to get the exact original flavor is to read something in the original language. ↩