WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:00.870 align:middle line:90% 00:00:00.870 --> 00:00:03.210 align:middle line:84% And a little after I was writing a series of poems, 00:00:03.210 --> 00:00:07.710 align:middle line:84% called "The Seven Hells of the Jigoku Zoshi." 00:00:07.710 --> 00:00:12.090 align:middle line:84% The Jigoku Zoshi is a Japanese scroll, 00:00:12.090 --> 00:00:18.000 align:middle line:84% in many different versions, depicting hells 00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:22.140 align:middle line:84% as they were understood through Shinto, or early Buddhism or-- 00:00:22.140 --> 00:00:25.960 align:middle line:90% 00:00:25.960 --> 00:00:30.680 align:middle line:84% And there were traditional titles that went along with it. 00:00:30.680 --> 00:00:34.900 align:middle line:84% So this is the first hell, from "The Seven Hells 00:00:34.900 --> 00:00:37.690 align:middle line:90% of the Jigoku Zoshi." 00:00:37.690 --> 00:00:44.170 align:middle line:84% And for me, it comes into some kind of presence. 00:00:44.170 --> 00:00:44.695 align:middle line:90% Some kind. 00:00:44.695 --> 00:00:48.240 align:middle line:90% 00:00:48.240 --> 00:00:53.070 align:middle line:84% "The Hell of measures, where swindlers measure fire 00:00:53.070 --> 00:00:56.550 align:middle line:90% in iron boxes." 00:00:56.550 --> 00:01:00.300 align:middle line:84% How can any of you know what it feels 00:01:00.300 --> 00:01:04.349 align:middle line:90% like to count coins in hell? 00:01:04.349 --> 00:01:07.080 align:middle line:84% You have the rest of it to keep you busy. 00:01:07.080 --> 00:01:10.020 align:middle line:90% Your eyes are troubled enough. 00:01:10.020 --> 00:01:13.620 align:middle line:84% But down here, the nights are longer 00:01:13.620 --> 00:01:16.050 align:middle line:90% and the days are senseless. 00:01:16.050 --> 00:01:21.840 align:middle line:84% Down here, the rain falls upside-down from iron boxes. 00:01:21.840 --> 00:01:24.600 align:middle line:84% The smoke inside the narrow room pulls back, 00:01:24.600 --> 00:01:27.360 align:middle line:84% it winds around the bedposts like a colored cloth 00:01:27.360 --> 00:01:29.880 align:middle line:90% around a leg that's bleeding. 00:01:29.880 --> 00:01:32.730 align:middle line:90% Violet and green, with pain. 00:01:32.730 --> 00:01:35.190 align:middle line:84% What should we say to our fingers? 00:01:35.190 --> 00:01:37.770 align:middle line:84% Should we remind them of the cool silk yards 00:01:37.770 --> 00:01:41.460 align:middle line:84% they handled behind counters, the healing lotions rolled 00:01:41.460 --> 00:01:42.900 align:middle line:90% between the palms? 00:01:42.900 --> 00:01:45.000 align:middle line:84% Should we tell them that the earth, crawling 00:01:45.000 --> 00:01:48.210 align:middle line:84% with black grief, at least was wet? 00:01:48.210 --> 00:01:50.370 align:middle line:90% One, two. 00:01:50.370 --> 00:01:53.550 align:middle line:84% Blue coins of disaster are ringing in the night. 00:01:53.550 --> 00:01:56.530 align:middle line:84% The distant call of metal birds is like the rhyming 00:01:56.530 --> 00:01:59.610 align:middle line:90% in bad poems before your birth. 00:01:59.610 --> 00:02:01.650 align:middle line:90% You would not know me now. 00:02:01.650 --> 00:02:04.860 align:middle line:84% The fire at my ribs has emptied me of flesh and words. 00:02:04.860 --> 00:02:08.130 align:middle line:84% I stand here with the others, counting, letting 00:02:08.130 --> 00:02:09.870 align:middle line:90% the numbers fill my head. 00:02:09.870 --> 00:02:11.550 align:middle line:90% An outlaw. 00:02:11.550 --> 00:02:16.650 align:middle line:90% One, two, three, four, five. 00:02:16.650 --> 00:02:20.310 align:middle line:84% I want to turn aside, but hell won't let me. 00:02:20.310 --> 00:02:23.250 align:middle line:84% Hell is the outraged customer who slams 00:02:23.250 --> 00:02:26.010 align:middle line:90% the cash box against my hands. 00:02:26.010 --> 00:02:28.350 align:middle line:84% A candle drips along the sidewalk. 00:02:28.350 --> 00:02:32.880 align:middle line:84% Wax covers the windows of a small room and blurs the sun. 00:02:32.880 --> 00:02:36.150 align:middle line:84% A darkness, full of crates, through which I walk, 00:02:36.150 --> 00:02:38.610 align:middle line:84% thinking of other hells than this. 00:02:38.610 --> 00:02:42.780 align:middle line:84% The skin cries under the brand of intellect. 00:02:42.780 --> 00:02:45.540 align:middle line:84% Deceit of numbers raising questions 00:02:45.540 --> 00:02:47.700 align:middle line:90% in the mind that's helpless. 00:02:47.700 --> 00:02:49.830 align:middle line:90% The fevered brow. 00:02:49.830 --> 00:02:51.840 align:middle line:90% Smash it to hell. 00:02:51.840 --> 00:02:54.390 align:middle line:90% You have a right to it. 00:02:54.390 --> 00:02:55.290 align:middle line:90% One. 00:02:55.290 --> 00:02:59.280 align:middle line:90% two, three, four, five. 00:02:59.280 --> 00:03:02.820 align:middle line:84% The white eye watches through the window. 00:03:02.820 --> 00:03:06.870 align:middle line:84% Where we live is where we always lived-- 00:03:06.870 --> 00:03:09.050 align:middle line:90% the sea of death.