Koishinabata ga na wa tatajiyo no naka notsune naki mono toii wa nasu to mo If I die of a broken heart,no other name than yourswill be raised in blame,but no doubt you’ll just say,“That’s life: nothing lasts forever.” —Trans. John T. Carpenter Note that the poem is inscribed using the “scattered writing” (chirashigaki) technique, so it begins at the middle with the boldly brushed characters making up the phrase koishinaba (literally, “to die from love”). The column to the left is read next, and then the reader must move to the far right to read the final lines.
