Japanese Death Poems 辞世 Translated and analysed

Culture, Graded Japanese Reading & Listening Practice, Language, Level 9, Poetry

For over a thousand years Japanese people have had a tradition of writing poems on their death bed. These poems provide an intriguing window into the most intimate thoughts of people far removed from us by time and geography. And yet they voice thoughts that are timeless and universal.
Here we take a lot a poem by Chirin from 1794, translate the poem, analyse the language and provide some correlations with English texts.