Showing posts with label haiku: verb. Show all posts
Showing posts with label haiku: verb. Show all posts

Wednesday, June 24, 2026

daibutsu no hana kara detaru tsubame kana

This is another one by Issa. 

The verb form is deru, 出る, and the verb form here, xxx, is a combination of the stem with the classical verb suffix taru (たる). I've translated it as "has emerged" since that seems like the best way to express the quality of the action here, although I am not 100% sure.

Great Buddha:
from his nose has emerged
a swallow!

大仏の鼻から出たる乙鳥哉
daibutsu no hana kara detaru tsubame kana

daibutsu no
    Great Buddha!
hana kara detaru
    from his nose emerges
tsubame kana
    a swallow! oh!

大仏 daibutsu ~ great statue of Buddha.
の no
鼻 hana ~ nose.
から kara ~ from.
出たる detaru ~ emerge.
乙鳥 tsubame ~ barn swallow.
哉 kana 
And look what I found online!



Friday, June 12, 2026

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.

Wednesday, June 10, 2026

о̄-edo ya inu mo aritsuku hatsu-gatsuo

This is a haiku by Issa. David Lanoue reports that he originally wrote it with 大家, ō-ie, "great house," as the opening phrase, but later changed it to 大江戸, о̄-edo, "great Edo" (modern Tokyo). It is a summer haiku, because summer is the season of the first bonito, the hatsu-gatsuo. 

I also found a hatsu-gatsuo senryu, which has a proverbial quality (as senryu sometimes do!): 女房を質に入れても初鰹, nyōbō wo shichi ni iretemo hatsu-gatsuo “even if I have to pawn my wife, I must have a taste of the season’s first catch!”

The verb is a godan (type 1, u verb): ありつく, aritsuku, "get, obtain, secure." 

great city of Edo!
even your dogs get a taste
summer's first tuna

大江戸や犬もありつくはつ松魚
о̄-edo ya inu mo aritsuku hatsu-gatsuo

о̄-edo ya
    great Edo, ya!
inu mo aritsuku
    the dog even obtains
hatsu gatsuo
    first-bonito (of the season)

大 о̄ ~ big, large.
や ya
江戸 Edo ~ Edo.
犬 inu ~ dog.
も mo
ありつく aritsuku ~ get, obtain.
はつ hatsu ~ first, initial.
松魚 gatsuo (katsuo) ~ skipjack tuna.


"Bonito fishing, Tosa Province" ~ Utagawa Hiroshige, 1877