In illness — five poems
once I'm dead — weeds, rain falling
shinde shimaeba zassō ame furu
1936–1937 · At Gochū-an hermitage
Sōmokutō · A Landscape of Weeds (Zassō fūkei)
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One of the poems headed "in illness." Once he is dead, all that will be left is weeds thickening and rain falling. It sounds like a shrug of dismissal, yet there is also an ease in being able to leave it all to the weeds and the rain — a view seen from the sickbed.