Yoel Hoffmann explores the attitudes and customs surrounding death in historical and present-day Japan and gives examples of how these have been reflected in the nation's literature in general. The development of writing jisei is then examined—from the poems of longing of the early nobility and the more "masculine" verses of the samurai to the satirical death poems of later centuries. Zen Buddhist ideas about death are also described as a preface to the collection of Chinese death poems by Zen monks that are also included. Finally, the last section contains three hundred twenty haiku, some of which have never been assembled before, in English translation and romanized in Japanese.

    in full color. "In this gentle, moving story, Elfie, a dachshund, and her special boy progress happily through life together. One morning Elfie does not wake up. The family grieves and buries her. The watercolor illustrations, tender and warm in color and mood, suit the simple text perfectly."--School Library Journal.

    Winner of the Whitbread Book of the Year in 1985, these poems were written after the death of Douglas Dunn's first wife in March 1981.

    The book describes practical aspects of ballistics; wound ballistics; the classification of various wounds caused by handguns, rifles, and shotguns; autopsy technique and procedure; and laboratory analysis relating to weapons and gunshot evidence.

    They are self-evident and at the same time cannot be grasped by reason alone - they are ordinary, and yet so incredible. In these meditations, the acclaimed theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar investigates this great mystery. He asks about the contradiction, inherent in all men, of wishing to achieve something imperishable in transitoriness and gives an answer culled from the Scriptures and from the Church Fathers.In looking at this contradiction that appears to be irreconcilable from a purely human perspective, Balthasar tries to find something in the human existence that the Christian solution can take up, for if there was nothing, one would not see how Christianity could connect to our existence at all. This starting-point becomes fully visible and effective only when the Christian interpretation itself becomes evident, otherwise it remains open to dangerous misinterpretations.The emphasis lies in the word mystery. The reader must meditate on these profound ideas which are demanding both in language and contents - then the reading will inspire him with insights and prospects that will, while not resolving the paradox that everything earthly is inscribed on the sand of transitoriness, will anchor it in the Christian faith, which claims that man is eternal and that God himself became man in the person of Jesus Christ to help us attain to that eternal life.

    With the help of a terminally ill friend, eleventh-grade Jamie begins to question the values of some of his fellow students who seem to specialize in ridicule.