Episode 328 – What a Strange Thing!

March 6, 2020 3 Comments

This week, we’re talking about my absolute favorite poet in the history of forever: Kobayashi Issa. I promise he’s great, and I don’t just love him for the poop jokes.

Sources

Ueda, Makoto. Dew on the Grass: The Life and Poetry of Kobayashi Issa

Mackenzie, Lewis. Autumn Wind Haiku: Selected Poems by Kobayashi Issa.

This website is a great resource on Issa and has literally thousands of his poems in translation!

Images

A portrait of Issa done by a contemporary painter (Muramatsu Shunpo).
A printed collection of Issa’s work from 1848. Even by the time of his death, Issa was a well known poet, and his fame has only grown since.
A letter from Issa, done in his own hand.
The hut in Nagano where Issa passed his final months and eventually died. There’s a Kobayashi Issa memorial museum in Shinano today.

 

3 thoughts on “Episode 328 – What a Strange Thing!”

      1. I want to read more of his poetry, but I could only find some about poop, none about piss, and almost all of it is the typical ephemeral haikus. Is there a good annotated collection I can read of specifically his humorous poems?

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