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. Kobayashi Issa 小林一茶 in Edo .
chiri no mi 塵の身 this body of dust
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塵の身のちりより軽き小てふ哉
chiri no mi no chiri yori karuki kochou kana
small butterfly
lighter than the dust
of your dust body
Tr. Chris Drake
This hokku is from the 4th month (May) of 1824.
In Japanese mi in line 1 means both body and social status, and "dust body" was a standard metaphorical expression meaning 1) to have a social status or position (mi) so low no one pays any attention to you or cares about you, making you socially invisible, and 2) to live in the midst of the dusty, dirty world of ordinary affairs and become dusty and dirty yourself.
Issa seems to be using both the literal meaning of chiri as dust or small trash and the first metaphorical meaning of "dust body": being worthless, insignificant, or tiny. On the one hand, the small butterfly (and others like it) is usually marginalized and overlooked if not looked down on by humans and presumably by larger butterflies as well.
On the other hand, the small butterfly's incredibly light movements through the air show it to be even more mobile and less earthbound than motes of dust. It is so graceful and seemingly unbound by gravity that its small size and light weight are its greatest assets, and it leaves the dust of the world behind as it flies here and there very rapidly and seemingly at will. Issa thus turns the normal meaning of "dust body" on its head and uses it to praise the small butterfly.
And, since "dust body" is an expression used mostly with regard to humans, the lightness and flying ability of the small butterfly here may be suggesting that the people often referred to as the "dust" or "trash" of the society, people without wealth, power, or visibility, have the potential to transcend or leave their dust bodies in the normal, discriminatory sense behind as they fly around socially in unthinkable ways.
Chris Drake
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蝶とんで我身も塵のたぐひ哉
choo tonde waga mi mo chiri no tagui kana
butterfly flitting--
I too am made
of dust
Tr. David Lanoue
塵の身もともにふはふは紙帳哉
chiri no mi mo tomo ni fuwa-fuwa shichoo kana
this body of dust
suits this wispy-soft
paper mosquito net
Tr. David Lanoue
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poems using CHIRI but in the more real sense of DUST:
塵塚にあんな小蝶が生れけり
chirizuka ni anna ko chô ga umare keri
in the trash heap
that little butterfly
is born!
Tr. David Lanoue
老僧が塵拾ひけり苔の花
roosoo ga chiri hiroi keri koke no hana
the old priest
picks off the dust...
moss blossoms
Tr. David Lanoue
塵の身も拾ふ神あり花の春
chiri no mi mo hirou kami ari hana no haru
even for this body of dust
a guardian god!
blossoming spring
Shinji Ogawa explains that the phrase hirou kami ("the god who picks you up") is part of a longer expression:
捨てる神あれば拾う神あり
suteru kami areba hirou kami ari
"If a god discards you,
there must be another god who may pick you up".
Tr. and comment David Lanoue
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春風や柱の穴も花の塵
haru kaze ya hashira no ana mo hana no chiri
spring wind -
even in the pillar's hole
petals of cherry blossoms
Tr. Gabi Greve
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