Issa's Best: A Translator's Selection of Master Haiku, Print Edition

Until I met Issa (through David Lanoue's translations) I had the usual English major acquaintance with haiku - they began with Basho and probably ended with Ezra Pound or maybe the beatniks, right? But compared to Issa, the translators presentation makes other haiku masters seem like stuffed shirts. Then you find out that the translation is transparent. A real man named Issa is speaking directly to us. It is uncanny how after two or three pages of Issa, as Lanoue renders his poems, one starts to smell the small village smells (which even Issa is willing to tell you aren't always "touristy" nice), hear the sounds, and even have more respect for your cats, characteristic of the early 19th century Japanese microcosm in which the poet circulated. Issa (which Lanoue tells us means "Cup of Tea" - or literally "One Tea," as W. C. Fields would mutter "Mocha Java, please"), was the poets haiku-"handle" or nom-de-plume. It was the perfect name. You could see him sitting on his front "stoop" with a cup of tea, watching his neighbors go about their business as well as the outlier personality going by as if a float in the "passing parade." No one and nothing escape his eye or his comment: "spring breeze-- / the great courtier / poops in the field." He had the humor and courage of the very simplicity which he lived. Only a man with nothing to lose can say anything - if his courage holds. Although a priest, he married, had children, encountered death and disaster, and yet kept on watching and writing. Another example: "drawing eyebrows / on a white dog / long day." I actually know someone who drew colored mustaches with felt-tipped pens on her cat while studying for law school. The feline thought it was simple nose scratching. When a poet recreates your own life for you it's the very definition of authenticity. One must be careful, though, because Lanoue's translations of Issa are addictive. One begins to think in haiku moments; or is it that one realizes that we think in moments of haiku. It's hard to say. Buy it; read it; savor them - but watch out, you will begin to see this gangly, smiling Japanese bard out of the corner of your eye and find yourself thinking, "what would Issa have said about that."

Issa is undoubtedly my favorite writer of haiku poetry; there is a beauty and humanity that shines through his words like few others.I'm no Japanese scholar, so I can only compare the translations of a few of these poems to those of another translator, and they're good.I do have a problem with the arrangement of these poems in the book. I suppose that if someone were buying the book simply as a reference volume and needed similar haiku grouped together so that they could find particular ones (the internet... including the author's own website make this an exercise of dubious value) then I could understand the author's grouping several pages of haiku together that all end with the same line... like "spring rain" or "a long day".But as someone who is reading the book simply for enjoyment, the grouping really detracts from the pleasure of reading each one individually. I'd much rather have them sorted more randomly. Still, it's a great collection of poems, and it's Issa, so 4 stars.

I have tried books on Kindle before and this is my sixth or so. I found it very easy to download and read with the One-Touch option. I am most familiar with Issa's poems through Professor David Lanoue's Daily Issa which is available daily through a website connection (to be historically accurate, Issa wrote hokku and haikai no renga because the genre haiku in Japan came much later through the Japanese poet, Shiki). In fact, the only nit I have is the title of the book should reflect historical accuracy as Issa technically did not write haiku, although, even in Japan, there is a lax in historical accuracy and unfortunately (IMHO) include other genre under the umbrella of haiku. Other than that, I enjoyed reading Professor David Lanoue's book in Kindle apps on my iPhone 4s. Professor Lanoue presents Issa as simply Issa (the book's poems are English translations of Issa's Japanese poems). I like this clean and simple approach, although, I would have liked to have seen the original Japanese, because, I like to do translations, too. Professor Lanoue divides the contents nicely explaining the book, Issa, and Issa's poems into the five traditional Japanese seasons: New Year's; Spring; Summer; Autumn; and Winter. These seasons demark the poems themes. Professor Lanoue also includes a section of poems without seasonal theme and a section about himself. I say, all-in-all, nicely done, Professor!

As, I think, is the tradition with Haiku, the poetry of Issa remarkably freezes moments in time making the mundane beautiful. More or less. However, somehow that seems reductionist. As I read through his poetry, the more persistent thought was that of capturing the moment - in many ways, the beauty of this moment was left to the reader to experience. A sort of stripping away of redundancies of expression & capturing the essence & stopping there where beauty is not the goal but an accidental byproduct.Also, many other aspects such as humour, oneness with all, our pervasive humanity across social classes & Buddha are themes that recur many times throughout the book.In addition, Issa's poetry chooses such moments from the vastness of Japan giving us a nuanced picture of life, strife & symbols of his time.The book is organized by such symbols (seasons, animals, etc) & I thought that the translator has done a masterful job at sequencing the haiku - one section blends seamlessly into the other rendering our reading as a connected experience.

Brilliant translation of Issa, the most human of the great japanese haiku poets. Highly recommended. I'm waiting for another book, since Lanoue has translated around 10 000 of Issa's haiku on his web site.

Excellent translations and overview of the range of work of one of poets known as the " 4 pillars of haiku".

At $2.99, can't be beat.

Very poor translation.