Haiku 19: Trust in Buddha

Here is today's haiku:

あなた任せ任せぞとしは犬もとり

And in romaji:

anata makase makase zo toshi wa inu mo tori

And English: "Trust in Buddha — trust! Even you've gained a year, dog."

This is a haiku by Issa, and it refers to the practice of counting years of life with the New Year. Just as Issa becomes a year older with the arrival of the New Year, so does the dog. The practice of counting years based on birthday is used for official purposes, but there are many classic haiku for the New Year which invoke the adding of a year to everyone's age on that day.

The phrase あなた任せ, "anata makase," is an important one for Issa; you can read more about that here: Pure Land Haiku: The Art of Priest Issa. As Issa gets older, year by year, and the dog too, all the more reason to put your trust in the ground of being.

puppy

My vocabulary for today:

任
まかせ
"entrust"