NewPhilosopher 12 deathsJapanese death poems were often carried around or
written as the final moment approached.
Yorimasa1180Kisei1764Moriya Sen’an1838Tok1795Tadanori1184Doryu1278Thirty years and more
I worked to nullify myself.
Now I leap the leap of death.
The ground churns up
The skies spin round.
Like a rotten log
half-buried in the ground-
my life, which
has not flowered, comes
to this sad end.
Since I was born
I have to die,
and so ...Bury me when I die
beneath a wine barrel
in a tavern.
With luck
the cask will leak.Overtaken by darkness
I will lodge under
the boughs of a tree.
Flowers alone
host us tonight.Death poems
are mere delusion —
death is death.