Saburosuke Nakajima · Shogunate retainer Saburosuke Nakajima's death poem, "ほととぎすわれも血を吐く思い哉". Read the original Japanese, translation, meaning, and historical background. For Nakajima Saburo-suke, a former shogunate retainer who died in Hakodate, the image of a cuckoo coughing blood overlaps powerfu...
Person
A former shogunate officer from Uraga who fought through the Hakodate War and died at Chiyogadai. His final stand with his sons gives the old shogunate side a stark, almost familial beauty of defeat.
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Translation
Cuckoo, I too know what it is to feel as if I am coughing blood.
Poetic Shape A Japanese death poem is less a final explanation than a last shape given to feeling. Its brevity matters: a life is not narrated, but compressed into a few lines that leave room for silence.
Reading
For Nakajima Saburo-suke, a former shogunate retainer who died in Hakodate, the image of a cuckoo coughing blood overlaps powerfully. It is short and sharp.
Background
Introduced as Nakajima Saburo-suke's death poem. His death in battle at Chiyogadai with his sons deepens the pain of the verse. A former shogunate officer from Uraga who fought through the Hakodate War and died at Chiyogadai.
Source / Transmission Wording and readings may differ by transmission; this page treats the text as one circulated form.
Further Reading
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