A Taste of Issa: Haiku

by Kobayashi Issa, David G. Lanoue (Translator)

This book is a major expansion of "Issa's Best: A Translator's Selection of Master Haiku" (2012). It presents most of the same seasonally-arranged haiku by Kobayashi Issa in English translation as the earlier book did--this time along with the original Japanese texts and commentary by the translator. The introduction provides an overview of Issa's life and poetry.

Genres: Poetry, Japan, Collections

455 pages, Paperback

Published July 22, 2019

About the author

Kobayashi Issa was a Japanese poet known for his haiku poems and journals. He is regarded as one of the four haiku masters in Japan, along with Bashō, Buson and Shiki. Reflecting the popularity and interest in Issa as man and poet, Japanese books on Issa outnumber those on Buson, and almost equal those on Bashō.

Although better known by his pen name Issa, he was born Kobayashi Yataro in 1763 on a farm in central Japan.

Reviews

[Mark Robison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Issa is one of my all-time favorite writers, and I get every book I can that contains his haiku. This one features more than any other in English that I've seen, about 1,000. (The translator maintains a website of all 10,000, but these are highlights.)

This book is better than the translator's other big collection "Issa's Best: A Translator's Selection of Master Haiku," which I found unreadable. It was just the haiku with no context and highly repetitive as you'd get 10 or 20 haiku in a row with the exact same "season" word, even though they were written years apart.

These are the same poems but with (very) occasional context/commentary and the original Japanese. It breaks up the haiku enough that they're more enjoyable to read.

Too many of the translations are just OK, to me. The translator rarely captures their essential poetry because he seems more interested in accurate translation. So the words are often dry and not as playful and heartfelt as Issa clearly was.

He also often structures them awkwardly. I don't expect 5-7-5 syllables but they'll often have a single word on a line that just feels clumsy.

For me, I would never tell someone "Issa is one of my favorite authors, here read this." You wouldn't understand if this was the book you went by.

All that said, if you're an Issa fan, it's worth getting. I highlighted about 50 haiku I quite liked — that's more haiku than all the Issa poems contained in most other books.

Here are a few I hadn't read before:

following behind
the hunter with his bow...
a fawn

butterfly dances
’round the arrow
in a dying deer

the village dog
suddenly disapproves...
the scarecrow

the child
hugs her cloth monkey...
hailstorm

someone else’s affair
you think...
lanterns for the dead

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

A nice collection of haiku by Issa about all sorts of topics. Translator Lanoue’s introduction and his explanatory notes accompanying some of the poems help greatly with context. It’s also worthwhile to read the English phoneticized versions of the Japanese. Each haiku is so short, one can learn the meanings of some Japanese words by comparing with the English translation.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Probably the most encompassing collection of Issa's embracing, humorous and poignant haiku you can find in English.

[Jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even wild roses
of a downtrodden land
reach enlightenment

[Marc Mannheimer · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great collection...hundreds (400 + pages) of fairly consistent, moving and delightful haiku. Issa was a treasure of a gift to the literary/ poetry world.

[cr1m3s · Rating 5 out of 5]

Гарна збірка. Коментарі додають контексту як життю самого Ісси, так і добі, в яку він жив, роблячи деякі вірші менш абстрактними.

[Mike_msc · Rating 5 out of 5]

Сочетание юмора, грусти и любви к жизни несмотря на все тяготы - это хайку Иссы.