父ありて あけぼのみたし 青田原 chichi arite akebono mitashi aotabara issa 一茶 Were my father here At dawn we would gaze Over the green fields

Were my father here
At dawn we would gaze
Over the green fields ^[1]

父ありてあけぼのみたし青田原 (chichi arite akebono mitashi aotabara): were my father here, I would want to see the dawn over the green fields.

Issa's verse is grief said as plainly as it can be. A son names the one thing he wants and cannot have, and then says nothing more.

In the Japanese, 父ありて means if my father were here, so the whole line is a wish. 青田原 is the plain of green rice fields in early summer, when the planted rice has taken and a valley is all one green. Some designs write あけぼの with the kanji 明, and one writes 見たし with the kanji 見. The words are the same.

Calligraphy Notes:

1) From a visual perspective this poem is great as it is mostly kana with the last line all in kanji. This gives an interesting balance to the design.

2) Other sources write the haiku 父ありて明ぼの見たし青田原 with the reading chichi arite akebono mitashi aotahara. Using "aotahara" rather than "aotabara" or "aodabara".

Translation Notes:

1) 父 (chichi) meaning "father".

2) ありて (arite) meaning "exist; be present". This is from the verb ある (aru) meaning "to be; to exist; to live".

3) あけぼの (akebono) meaning "dawn." This is also commonly written with the kanji 曙.

4) みたし (mitashi) meaning "to watch; to see". From the verb 見る (miru) with the same meaning. The ending tashi indicates "wanting to watch; wanting to see".

5) 青田原 (aotabara though several sources use the reading aodabara). This is composed of 青田 (aota) meaning "green (rice) paddy" and 原 (hara) meaning "field".

References:

^[1] Translation by R. H. Blyth, A History of Haiku, vol. 1 (Hokuseido Press, 1963), p. 410.

The verse closes the diary Issa kept of his father's last illness and death in the early summer of 1801, a manuscript he left untitled and is thought to have finished in 1807 or 1808, at the seventh-day memorial where the family agreed to keep the father's will.

We want you to be as happy with the meaning as you are with Master Takase's art. To learn more, visit Philology of 父ありてあけぼのみたし青田原.

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