“Although Basho and Buson are usually ranked above him, there is no haiku poet as beloved as Kobayashi Issa. This is in part due to his responses, through haiku, to a very difficult and often tragic life, and in part to the empathy he shows in his poems for all living creatures” (The Art of Haiku, Stephen Addiss).

蟷螂が片手かけたりつり鐘二
Tōrō ga katate agetari tsurigane ni

     A praying mantis
places one hand
          on the temple bell

Poems of Kobayashi Issa ii is a short and varied collection of Issa’s haiku. Each translation is accompanied by the original Japanese text and English transliteration (romaji).

Author: Kobayashi Issa
Translator: Anthony Opal
Language: Japanese / English
ISBN: 978-1-7356630-6-7
Published: May 16, 2025