Were my father here At dawn we would gaze Over the green fields^[1] chichi arite akebono mitashi aotabara 父ありて あけぼのみたし 青田原 issa 一茶

In our reading, Kobayashi Issa's verse is grief at its plainest. A son names the one thing he wants, and then says nothing more.

In the Japanese, 父ありて is my father being here, and the wish that follows, written of a father already dead, makes it read if my father were here. 青田原 is the plain of green rice fields in summer, when the seedlings have grown and stand 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 fifth month of 1801, a manuscript he left untitled and is thought to have finished in 1807 or 1808; the verse stands at the seventh-day memorial, where word came that the father's will would be kept.