4/5 Stars (%79/100)
The book is split into three main parts; the introduction, death poems by zen monks and finally death poems by haiku writers which is definitely my favourite. I advise you not to skip the introduction because you learn a great deal about the place of poetry in Japan and a lot of technical information about haikus and death poems. Though zen monks' poems were interesting, I found haiku writers' poems much powerful and beautiful. I've always liked haikus and tried to write a couple myself.
There were a lot of poems that I highlighted and I plan to read this book at least once more. I loved that the author (rather editor or compiler) decided to put the original poems in Japanese as well as certain information about the author, the poem or the time period in which it was written. Not only you get to read a bunch of beautiful and sad poems, but you also learn a lot of Japanese phrases, words, and also their culture and way of living. It was especially sad to read poems from authors who died in their 30s and 40s. It was also interesting that most of these men were ordinary. (Some are poets, some are writers, some farmer, some monk etc.) Finally, I learned that Ryunosuke Akutagawa wrote some haikus under the name Gaki and the famous painter Hokusai (who painted The Great Wave of Kanagawa) also wrote haikus.
I really liked the book in general. Beautiful poems, lots of interesting information about the writers and poems, and it is very well organized.