Mi ni shimu ya!
Naki-tsuma no kushi wo
Neya ni fumu.
—Buson
The cold pierces me
As I tramp my dead wife’s comb
On our bedroom floor.
To the coldness of an unheated bedroom in late autumn and the
sorrowing coldness in the heart of the man, is added a shiver of
apprehension as he steps on the comb, which in Japanese is
kushi, a word that can also mean “nine deaths.” Hence, to
avoid misfortune, one should stamp on a fallen comb before
picking it up. The first line of the above haiku can also be literally
translated, “ How it pierces me.”