蝸牛 そろそろ登れ 富士の山 katatsuburi sorosoro nobore fuji no yama issa 一茶 Snail ever so slowly climb Mt Fuji

Snail
ever so slowly climb
Mt Fuji

蝸牛そろそろ登れ富士の山 (katatsuburi sorosoro nobore fuji no yama): snail, slowly, slowly, climb Mount Fuji.

An order to a snail: climb the highest mountain in the country, and here is how. The how is the whole of the verse. そろそろ, slowly, slowly, is not a limit on the snail but its method: one step and then the next. The mountain is reached that way or not at all. In Japan it has been read as a lesson. The schoolbooks set it beside a companion line, one step at a time and you are at the summit, to teach perseverance. Walkers on the Fuji trail quoted it as advice on pace. R. H. Blyth, who translated it, read it another way: the snail is told to be a snail and to climb as a snail climbs. Which of the two you hang on your wall is yours.

The English is Timothy L. Jackowski's, made for Takase Studios.

Though another way to look at the poem is that this is Issa simply encouraging his little friend to attempt the seemingly impossible.

Translation Notes:

蝸牛
そろそろ登れ
富士の山

1) 蝸牛 (katatsuburi) means "snail", though, in modern Japanese you will find this is read katatsumuri.

2) そろそろ (sorosoro) means "gradually; steadily; slowly; soon". This is used commonly in modern Japanese.

3) 登れ (nobore) is the imperative form "Climb!" of the verb 登る (noboru) meaning "to climb".

4) 富士の山 (fuji no yama) means Mt. Fuji. Mt. Fuji in Japanese is most commonly called 富士山 (fujisan).

Henderson writes, "The famous peak is known either as Fuji-no-yama (Fuji-mountain) or Fuji-san (Mt. Fuji). The western name Fuji-yama is unknown in Japan."

The verse is Issa's, first printed in 1829 in the collection of his verse that his disciples published two years after his death; the editor who in 1925 dated his verses from his diaries found no year for it.

We want you to be as happy with the meaning as you are with Master Takase's art. To learn more, visit Philology of 蝸牛そろそろ登れ富士の山.

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