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Monday, August 24, 2009

Harvest moon

Issa 一茶 1811 age 49

名月や薮蚊だらけの角田川

meigetsu ya yabu ka darake no sumida-gawa

David’s English

harvest moon--
Sumida River thick
with mosquitoes

According to R. H. Blyth, "thicket mosquito" (yabu ka) refers to a species of "striped mosquitoes"; Haiku (Tokyo: Hokuseido, 1949-1952; rpt. 1981-1982/reset paperback edition) 3.805. Robin D. Gill notes that the scientific name for these large striped, bloodthirsty mosquitoes is Stegomyia fasciata, according to Kenkyu^sha's Japanese-English Dictionary.

http://cat.xula.edu/issa/


sakuo renku

痒さに耐えて名句を詠まん

kayusani taete meiku wo yoman


enduring the itch

I will make excellent haiku


sakuo haiga



haiku Issa

6 comments:

John McDonald said...

love this sakuo san
john

Gillena Cox said...

a surreal response to Issa's ku; i enjoyed your image

much love
gillena

Unknown said...

John san,
I am very glade to have your compliment.
Thanks a lot.

sakuo.

Unknown said...

Thank you gillena san for your kind comment.
Surreal is a nice word!

sakuo.

Magyar said...

...and ooooo, do my legs itch!

Sakuo San... I like seeing your work at WHW!

_m

Unknown said...

Thank you Magyar san for sharing.
Don't itch too much.

sakuo.