Vanessa Hu

on translating Kobayashi Issa

At first glance, you may notice that I prioritized expressing the haiku’s overall succinctness over the strict five-seven-five syllable pattern. Moreover, I tussled with grammar and vocabulary ambiguities in these poems, as well as the features of traditional haiku: one, the kigo 季語, a seasonal phrase; and two, the kireji 切れ字, to convey emphasis, contrast, or other nuances.

In the first haiku, the ya や kireji juxtaposes two elements, and I chose to use a colon, rather than a dash or emphatic “oh!” to preserve the gentleness of the contemplation. I also considered why first snowfalls were yo ni aru / hito no koto, or “living people’s business.” Perhaps it’s not just because we like to measure the natural world through human-made joys and concerns, from postcard scenes to snow-shoveling woes, but also because we simply must exist alongside such markers of passing time. So, I chose “matter” to translate koto (“business”) to imply this obligatory quality and “mortal” rather than “living” being because, to me, a first snowfall emphasizes that impermanence.

In the second, I took some creative liberty to add “how” and “in dance” to provide continuous grammatical structure, and rhymed “whirl” and “twirl” for a similar effect as the reduplicative phrase kuru-kuru (“spinning”). Moreover, I chose “amongst” over “among” since its s matches the s in dance and f in drifting; they convey a whispery lull as a small kitty plays serenely in after-autumn leaves.

Finally, in the third haiku, I tackled the kigo tama arare, or “graupel” (which is essentially smaller hail). Since graupel isn’t well-known, I took inspiration from tama (“bead, gem”) and translated the kigo as “pearls of hail.” I selected the indefinite “a” and not “the” for the nightjar, to highlight mystery and melancholy. I imagine this scene as after a chilly storm — where an unnamed little bird, with a warm sigh of relief, takes to the lemon-lit moon cushioned atop bluish treescapes — as tiny pearls dot its wings and trace its flight-path home.