“Little did I realize we were meeting for the last time in this life,” he wrote. “I have contracted the disease and shall probably die. My sins are deep, for my attachments to this world are excessive. What will be the outcome of the vision I beheld in my dream?” With the letter was this poem:

Body thus consumed by passion
May the smoke it leaves
Drift through the sky in your direction. [3.16]

sad girl



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From The Confessions of Lady Nijō, translated by Karen Brazell - About this site