Why does this haiku have a 5-6-5 pattern?

Question

I was amazed to read the following haiku in "小林 一茶" (a book written by 宗左近/Sō Sakon about the famous poet) :

我と来てあそぶ親のない雀

At first sight, the text given by 宗左近 doesn't seem regular : 5+6+5 morae ?.

I knew the following version with a 'や' after あそぶ :

我{われ}と来{き}てあそぶや親{おや}のない雀{すずめ}

I thought the haiku given by 宗左近 was misprinted but it seems incredible such an error occured at the very beginning of the book, in the first haiku given by the author, page 1 !

There's obviously something I'm missing... Any idea to help me ?

Answer 1

Some haiku do not strictly follow the 5-7-5 pattern. Irregular haiku with one more or less morae than usual are called 字余り or 字足らず, respectively. Some haiku even ignore the 5-7-5 rule completely (See 自由律俳句).

Wikipedia says 一茶's haiku do have many variations:

最も多くの俳句を残したのは、正岡子規で約24,000句であるが、一茶の句は類似句や異形句が多いため、数え方によっては、子規の句数を上回るかもしれない。よく知られている「我と来て遊べや親のない雀」にも、「我と来て遊ぶや親のない雀」と「我と来て遊ぶ親のない雀」の類似句があり、これを1句とするか3句とするかは議論の分かれるところである。

According to 一茶の俳句データベース, the sources of these three variations are as follows:

• 我と来てあそぶ親のない雀 is from 七番日記
• 我と来て遊ぶや親のない雀 is from 句稿消息/etc
• 我と来て遊べや親のない雀 is from おらが春/etc

I think the third one is best-known, but it seems that the first one is the original version, although being 字足らず. 七番日記 is his personal diary, which he did not intend to publish.

According to the article of おらが春, 一茶 wanted to publish his poetry book, but he died before he could do that. おらが春 was compiled and published by another person, 25 years after 一茶's death.

『おらが春』は、まったくの時系列に沿って書き記された日記ではなく、刊行を意図して構成されたものである。さらに一茶自身、改訂や推敲を重ねたが、未刊のままに留まっていたものである。内容的には、一部脚色や時系列を事実とは若干ずらした箇所なども指摘する研究者もあり、作品として意識されたものという性格が強い。

So I think the well-known third version was the revised version either by 一茶 himself or by the editor.

Answer 2

This is a complete guess, but I upon searching my dictionary in OSX, I find the entry 親し with readings of したし and ちかし. So maybe it is either of those written without the okurigana to "haiku-ify" it? Like [親]{したし}. Plus, the し ending gives it a more classical feel.

われときて・あそぶしたしの・ないすずめ