Text (second contemplation: The swollen belly)

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

"It is difficult to tell the name of the newly departed with swollen belly. It only appears after seven days. Her pretty complexion becomes sallow and loses its beauty. First her black Hair falls out and the Hairs attach themselves to the roots of the grass.

Her six intestines putrefy in what remains of the coffin and her four limbs, swollen and straight, are lying on the open plain. It is quiet on the open plain. Nobody accompanies her and alone she follows the road leading to Hades. Her soul is there."