I only know a tiny corner of the language, but for things like this I really wish they'd cite the original Japanese. Precisely because the haiku is a constrained form, it is also an opportunity for ambiguity, double-meaning, and cases where a word may be translated with the same semantics but different connotations.

By comparison, the gold standard for dealing with non-English poetry in English: https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1...

You have (1) the original Greek, (2) word-by-word lookup, (3) translation notes, and (4) multiple translations.

As a native Japanese speaker, I'm happy to see our literature introduced to other countries. But I also feel conflicted.

The original Japanese of the first poem is:

おほけなき床の錦や散り紅葉

The translation on the site:

> I am not worthy > of this crimson carpet: > autumn maple leaves.

This contains the translator's interpretation, and the sound and intonation are completely lost. I admire the translator's effort, but I want visitors to understand how much this differs from the original.

In the topic of death poems, I consider "You Want It Darker" by Leonard Cohen a masterpiece. He was 83 with terminal cancer. Yet, this song captures both his wit & spirit at its height.

  Now that my storehouse
  has burned down, nothing
  conceals the moon.

  Ever since my house burnt down,
  I see the moon more clearly

    Don’t just stand there with your hair turning gray,
    soon enough the seas will sink your little island.
    So while there is still the illusion of time,
    set out for another shore.
    No sense packing a bag.
    You won’t be able to lift it into your boat.
    Give away all your collections.
    Take only new seeds and an old stick.
    Send out some prayers on the wind before you sail.
    Don’t be afraid.
    Someone knows you’re coming.
    An extra fish has been salted.

from The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully by Frank Ostaseski

The sun sips the sky until it is drowning

I am circling my prey

If I am strong, the world will finally let us be

https://pearlharbor.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/USS-Essex...

This is surely epitaph equivalent from that part of the world

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epitaph?useskin=vector

Since time began

the dead alone know peace.

Life is but melting snow.

~~

Having a mental illness and being homeless I sit with my life now and let it melt. I know death is coming so I just let it come. I tried to force death to come twice, but I found that suffering is really no different that joy.

I live in a van right now so I am upper class homeless but soon I may be totally shelterless. Part of me is looking forward to it. Through the last ten years, moving from riches to rags, all my past attachments, all I can do is laugh at myself. There is such a weird liberation in inescapable suffering and I hope you all get to experience it someday.

Death is apparently snowy

"A last fart: are these the leaves of my dream, vainly falling?

In the original, the image of a dream is combined with the cruder image of passing wind.."

Is the wind representing the fart here?

"Death poems

are mere delusion—

death is death."

Hardcore