Issa: Cup of Tea

It's the birthday of Japanese poet Kobayashi Issa, born in Kashiwabara, Japan (1763). He's one of the masters of the Japanese form of poetry called haiku, which uses 17 Japanese characters broken into three distinct units. He spent most of his adult life traveling around Japan, writing haiku, keeping a travel diary, and visiting shrines and temples across the country. By the end of his life, he had written more than 20,000 haiku celebrating the small wonders of everyday life.
-Writer's Almanac

Kobayashi Issa (小林 一茶?, June 15, 1763 – January 5, 1828), was a Japanese poet and lay Buddhist priest of the Jōdo Shinshū sect known for his haiku poems and journals. He is better known as simply Issa (一茶?), a pen name meaning Cup-of-tea (lit. "one [cup of] tea"). He is regarded as one of the four haiku masters in Japan, along with Bashō, Buson and Shiki - "the Great Four, Basho, Buson, Issa, Shiki".
-Wikipedia


What a strange thing!
to be alive
beneath cherry blossoms.
― Kobayashi Issa, Poems

Summer night--
even the stars
are whispering to each other.
― Kobayashi Issa

Never forget:
we walk on hell,
gazing at flowers.
― Kobayashi Issa

Here
I'm here-
the snow falling.
― Kobayashi Issa

O snail
Climb Mount Fuji
But slowly, slowly!
― Kobayashi Issa

In the cherry blossom's shade
there's no such thing
as a stranger.
― Kobayashi Issa

Where there are humans,
You'll find flies,
And Buddhas.
― Kobayashi Issa

The world of dew
is the world of dew.
And yet, and yet--
― Kobayashi Issa, The Dumpling Field: Haiku Of Issa

Don't weep, insects --
Lovers, stars themselves,
Must part.
― Kobayashi Issa

In this world
we walk on the roof of hell
gazing at flowers
― Kobayashi Issa

Even in warmest
glow
how cold my shadow
― Kobayashi Issa

Arise from sleep, old cat,
And with great yawns and stretchings...
Amble out for love
― Kobayashi Issa, Japanese Haiku

In the city fields
Contemplating cherry-trees...
Strangers are like friends
― Kobayashi Issa, Japanese Haiku

Reflected
in the dragonfly's eye --
mountains.
― Kobayashi Issa

All the time I pray to Buddha
I keep on
killing mosquitoes.
― Kobayashi Issa

Before the gate --
my walking stick's made a river
of melting snow
― Kobayashi Issa