Death Poetry

 

Since time began

the dead alone know peace.

Life is but melting snow.

 

 

This poem was written by the Zen monk Nandai, moments before he passed away. It's an example of death poetry, a fascinating genre found predominantly in the east asian literary tradition. 

 

This week, we look at death poetry from an outsider's perspective, and ask what it is about these poems that proves so undeniably fascinating. 

 

For anyone who wants to know more, I've included links and a transcript on our patreon page: https://patreon.com/variousthings 

 

Theme Music - Dub Eastern Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/