Issa - A world of grief and pain, Flowers bloom, Even then in Japanese Calligraphy

苦の娑婆や桜が咲けば咲いたとて (ku no shaba ya sakura ga sakeba saita tote)

This haiku by Issa was written upon the death of his child. With this in mind, there are two common ways to interpret this poem. One is pessimistic saying "how can flowers have the audicity to bloom in such a cruel world". The other optimistic "even in such a cruel world, flowers bloom".

As an example, in the book The Spring of My Life: And Selected Haiku the translator Sam Hamill suggests the translation "This suffering world: the flowers will blossom, but even at that …". And David G. Lanoue suggests the translation "world of pain - and the cherry blossoms add to it". R. H. Blyth concurs saying that beauty had the audacity to be in the same world made Issa's pain all the greater.

A second interpretation is more optimistic. Rev. Mas Kodani writes that "Shaba refers to the world of Samsara, the world of self-centered, self-creating delusion, the unawakened state ..." and Issa is encouraging us by saying that even in such a world, good things still happen.

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