Six-Foot Sickbed

A bed six feet long has become Masaoka Shiki’s world. From it, in the final months of his life, the poet watches flowers open, argues about paintings and haiku, welcomes friends, recalls journeys, and records the changing limits of his body.

Six-Foot Sickbed brings together all 127 installments of Shiki’s 1902 newspaper diary, followed by his unfinished manuscripts. Tender observations and sudden humor sit beside severe literary criticism, delight in food, and unflinching accounts of suffering. A borrowed morning glory, a cherished painting scroll, and the prospect of another season’s plum blossoms become events of extraordinary importance.

This complete new English translation preserves the dated sequence, letters, quoted verse, and the diary’s increasingly brief final entries. Concise notes explain historical references and difficult readings. An intimate work by one of modern Japan’s defining poets, it offers a searching account of attention, companionship, and the will to speak while life remains. AI-assisted translation.