Kobayashi Issa: Flea, fly, flew

Issa (Photo by Yoshi Canopus)

Long before microscopes were part and parcel of commonplace nature study, Kobayashi Issa was taking his own very close look around.

As a poet, he was probably expected to focus more upon flowers and trees than upon their creepy-crawly inhabitants.  Issa, however, defied expectations by writing approximately 230 haikus about fireflies, 150 about mosquitos, 100 about fleas, 90 about flies, and 90 about cicadas.  Zooming into their Lilliputian world, Issa was able to wax eloquently about creatures

that the rest of humanity might rather forget.

These aren’t cheap-shot “Waiter, what’s that fly doing in my soup?” haikus either.  They are sensitive, even empathetic, portrayals of our six-legged winged cousins.  So here’s to them that buzz and bite: 

Don’t swat: the fly wrings his hands on bended knees.      Who said this is a barren land? What fireflies!      Congratulations Issa… you have survived to feed this year’s mosquitoes.      House burnt down – fleas dance in embers.

Issa’s empathy was most likely honed by intense grieving.  His mother died when he was only three.  His grandmother, who had sustained Issa after his mother’s death, died when he was 14.  Wikipedia reports that Issa then “felt estranged in his own house, a lonely, moody child who preferred to wander the fields.”

Issa did not marry until age 49.  After just a brief period of joy, grief intensely resurfaced.  Issa’s first child died shortly after birth.  Two years afterwards, his daughter died.  Issa’s wife, Kiku, and a third child later died within three years of one another.

Resources

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kobayashi_Issa

http://thegreenleaf.co.uk/hp/issa/00haiku.htm

http://haikuguy.com/issa/search.php?keywords=fireflies&year=

Copyright April 11, 2012 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved