Pages

Monday, May 18, 2009

morning's laugh

Issa 一茶 1809

朝笑いくらに買か花の春
asa warai ikura ni kau ka hana no haru

David’s English

morning's laugh--
"How much do they cost,
spring's blossoms?"
.
The answer, of course, is "Nothing!" A silly, yet profound, question. The opening phrase, "morning's laugh" (asa warai) might be taken to mean, "morning's joke" or "first joke of the morning."
http://cat.xula.edu/issa/

sakuo haiga


haiku Issa

2 comments:

Gillena Cox said...

i'm thinking also that there are also many trees blooming; nature sharing her blossoms freely and that Issa is also laughing at the paradox of people buy flowers at this time


much love
gillena

Unknown said...

Nice! very nice phrase!

Gillena san.

You are a real poem as well as a philosopher.

Thank you so much!

sakuo.