ISSA ARCHIVE SEARCH RESULTS
1818
おのづから頭の下たるぼたん哉
onozukara zu no sagaritaru botan kana
by itself
my head bows…
peony!
Or: “the head.”
Issa bows to the peony. More accurately, “the head, by itself” is bowing without conscious intention on the part of the poet. For this reason, I first translated zu no sagaritaru literally as “the head bows,” rather than “my head bows.” However, in a note on a similar haiku in which a head “by itself bows,” Shinji Ogawa writes that first person, “my head,” preserves the poem’s intensity in English.
white pebble 