Text (fourth contemplation: Confused)

Translation of Chinese poem accompanying the fourth of nine contemplations from the seventeenth-century Japanese artist Morishige.

"Although washed by rinsing it with the waters of the sea, how could it be pure when reflecting on its confusion? White worms are wriggling darkly in her body. How numerous do the bluebottle flies fester on her flesh!

The wind carries the stench over a distance of two or three miles, and the moon shines upon her naked corpse during four or five watches. How sad are the new and old Bones near the brushWood! As the years go by, one no longer knows their names."