How should I properly pronounce your name?
Belief: highly likely
In English: /ˈiːsə/ (EE-suh); at least, this is how everyone pronounces my name now in the US, so I’ve gotten used to it. However, I should note that Robert Hass seems to pronounce it quite differently on here:
Poetry Everywhere: Robert Hass Translation of Selected Haiku by Kobayashi Issa
In Japanese: /isːa/ (いっさ); one can also hear it here (about three to four seconds in, although he says it about four times throughout the video):
The name is taken from Kobayashi Issa (and, incidentally, has just about nothing to do with the Arabic name for Jesus in Islam). For those interested in pronouncing it the Japanese way, Gemination:Japanese and Sokuon may also be useful.
The content on this page is in the public domain.