that of Sengai....Issa's sketches are valued for the extremity of their abbreviation, in keeping with the idea of haiku as a simplification of certain types of experience." One of Issa's haiku, as translated by R.H. Blyth, appears in J. D. Salinger's 1961 novel, Franny and Zooey: O snail Climb Mount Fuji, But slowly, slowly! (Katatsumuri sorosoro nobore Fuji no yama 蝸牛そろそろ登れ富士の山) The same poem, in Russian translation, served as an epigraph for a novel Snail on the Slope by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky (published 1966–68), also providing the novel's title. Another, translated by D.T. Suzuki, was written during a period of Issa's life when he was penniless and deep in debt. It reads: ともかくもあなたまかせの年の暮 tomokaku mo anata makase no toshi no kure Trusting the Buddha (Amida), good and bad, I bid farewell To the departing year. Another, translated by Peter Beilenson with Harry Behn, reads: Everything I touch with tenderness, alas, pricks like a bramble. Issa's most popular and commonly known tome, titled The Spring of My Life, is autobiographical, and its structure combines prose and haiku. Kobayashi Issa former residence After a big fire swept through the post station of Kashiwabara on July 24, 1827, Issa lost his house and was forced to live in his kura (storehouse). "The fleas have fled from the burning house and have taken refuge with me here", says Issa. Of this same fire, he wrote: Hotarubi mo amaseba iya haya kore wa haya (蛍火もあませばいやはやこれははや) If you leave so much/As a firefly's glimmer, -/Good Lord! Good Heavens!' This building, a windowless clay-walled structure, has survived, and was designated a National Historic Site of Japan in 1933. References (pbk, 180 pp., 160 haiku plus The Spring of My Life, an autobiographical haibun) (137 pp., 250 haiku) English translations (pbk, 180 pp., 160 haiku plus The Spring of My Life, an autobiographical haibun) (pbk, 96 pp., 45 haiku plus "Cup of Tea, Plate of Fish: An Interview with Nanao Sakaki") Further reading (A biography and selection of translated haiku; TOC is on p. 111.) (An essay about the haiku persona of Issa, by the translator of the Issa Archive.) (A discussion of Issa's approach to haikai no renga including a translation of a hankasen by Issa and Kawahara Ippyō) Notes External links Haiku of Kobayashi Issa A searchable online archive of some 10,000 Issa haiku, translated by David G. Lanoue The Kobayashi Issa Museum Issa's 1818