The brink of death · four poems
death is a chill sky — far off the clouds move on
shi wa hiyayakana sora tōku kumo no yuku
1938–1939 · Yuda · Fūraikyo hut
Sōmokutō · Cold and Alone (Kokan)
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One of four poems headed "The brink of death." He gazes at death as something cold and, beyond it, sets a distant sky and drifting clouds. Without dwelling on fear, he looks quietly at death as a single landscape.