katatsuburi soro-soro nobore fuji no yama

This is one of my favorite haiku by Issa.

The word for snail, katatsuburi, is a compound: kata, "hard," and tsuburi, “small, round thing." The modern pronunciation is katatsumuri.

The verb today is noboru のぼる, another godan verb; this time it is the imperative form: nobore, 登れ.

snail! climb
Mount Fuji
slowly... slowly...

かたつぶりそろそろ登れ富士の山
katatsuburi soro-soro nobore fuji no yama

katatsuburi
    snail!
soro-soro nobore
    slowly... slowly... climb
fuji no yama
    Mount Fuji

かたつぶり katatsuburi ~ snail.
そろそろ soro-soro ~ slowly.
登れ nobore ~ climb.
富士 fuji ~ Fuji.

の no
山 yama ~ mountain.

painting detail