English Original
mother I never knew,
each time I see the ocean,
each time --
The Essential Haiku, 1995
Kobayashi Issa
Chinese Translation (Traditional)
我從未謀面的母親,
每次我看到大海,
每次 --
Chinese Translation (Simplified)
我从未谋面的母亲,
每次我看到大海,
每次 --
Bio Sketch
Kobayashi Issa (1763–1828) was a legendary Japanese poet known for his raw, compassionate haiku. After a childhood marked by his mother’s death and family conflict, he spent decades traveling as a lay Buddhist priest. His work famously captures the beauty in the small and humble—from common insects to crying children
L1 establishes both the emotional atmosphere and the biographical context: Issa’s mother died when he was only two or three years old. The phrase translated as “each time” in Ls 2&3 comes from the Japanese miru tabi ni, which Issa repeats in the original text (naki haha ya / umi miru tabi ni / miru tabi ni). This repetition conveys an unending, recurring sense of longing. The ocean in L2 also functions powerfully as a metaphor for the mother he never knew—vast, deep, and ultimately unreachable.
ReplyDeleteMy haiku below may be read as a counter poem to Issa’s:
wind-torn clouds
the surging winter ocean
between mom and me
Wales Haiku Journal, Winter 2024/25
Where Issa’s ocean evokes yearning for an absent mother, mine suggests emotional distance and estrangement. The “surging winter ocean” becomes not a symbolic connection, but a barrier separating mother and child, while the “wind-torn clouds” reinforce the haiku’s atmosphere of turbulence and fracture.