Issa in Italian – Vernacular Challenge – February 6, 2016

 

.猫塚に正月させるごまめ哉
neko tsuka [ni] shôgatsu saseru gomame kana

on the cat’s grave
in First Month…
dried sardines

© Kobayashi Issa

tomba di gatto
pei Morti
sardine secche

© Kobayashi Issa (Translation Bastet ’16)

I translated the second line not as First Month which is the Memorial period in Japan but as “I Morti” (literally The Dead) the same celebration but only on one day the first of November.Carpe Diem Vernacular, with a twist #1 the old pond