Another possible translation would be “Not just on some empty whim / will I pierce with blood-red pins / the marks upon the body / of sweet little Tomino.” Either way, the conclusion is chilling! Now, given that the poet had a predilection for symbolist poetry, it’s very likely that all this talk of Tomino’s descending into hell is mere metonymy, and that some other sort of earthly hell of interpersonal relationships is being described. This is where the tormentors of the damned get their spikes.ħ. Needle Mountain (Hari no Yama) is another lovely feature of Buddhist hell. It strikes me that the sheep and nightingale are symbolic of Tomino’s sisters.Ħ. Holy crap, I think we might have just figured out what Tomino did!!!! Of course, that’s reading the poem literally, about which see note #7.ĥ. There are five horrible sins you can commit to end up in this place: creating a schism within the community of Buddhist monks and nuns, shedding the blood of a Buddha, killing an enlightened person, or (AHEM) intentionally murdering one’s father or one’s mother (!). The poem reveals that Tomino is headed to “mugen jigoku,” the Japanese translation of the Sanskrit “Avīci,” or “waveless.” Avīci is the lowest of hells in Buddhism, one whose torments last so long (aeons and eons) that souls seem to be trapped there for eternity. Apparently the lashes Tomino is receiving on his way into hell are deserved (although another possible reading of the Japanese might be “the purpose of the scourging worries him,” suggesting possibly that he doesn’t know why he’s being punished. What is happening here isn’t immediately obviously, but clearly Tomino’s sisters are suffering while he is not.ģ. Note also that the poem follows a 7-7-7-5 syllabic pattern, evocative of most traditional Japanese verse.Ģ. The term here translated “hell” is “jigoku,” the Buddhist hell complex into which very sinful people can be reincarnated. I’ll leave that to your own discretion.ġ. I’ve not actually read the thing aloud, so I can’t speak to whether the curse is real. Here’s my rendering of this very dark and disturbing poem (with footnotes on important matters).
![eternity a chinese ghost story eng sub eternity a chinese ghost story eng sub](https://i.mydramalist.com/G15VRt.jpg)
Though Saijō’s later work was ostensibly for children, it was filled with strange symbols and wordplay that could be quite unsettling.
![eternity a chinese ghost story eng sub eternity a chinese ghost story eng sub](https://cdn.animationexplore.com/thumbs/a-chinese-ghost-story-english-subbed.jpg)
The poet was a university professor and lived in France for a time, studying at the Sorbonne his work is heavily influenced by French poets, especially symbolists like Arthur Rimbaud, Stéphane Mallarmé and Paul Valéry (with whom he became friends). A quick read-through of the Japanese convinced me that it was time for a fresh and more accurate version in English verse.Īpparently the story of a young boy’s damnation for unnamed acts, “Tomino’s Hell” was published, I discovered, in a 1919 collection of poetry by Saijō Yaso titled Sakin or Gold Dust. The English translations were bad, nearly incomprehensible (if still eerie). I quickly looked for the piece, titled “Tomino’s Hell,” and I knew right away it needed my loving touch. I’m always looking for ways to combine my love of poetry, translation and the macabre, so I was delighted to stumble across a sort of “creepy pasta” Internet legend about a cursed Japanese poem that causes tragedy and death should you read it aloud.