Reply to the Lay Nun, Mother of Ueno Chapter2
Indeed, indeed, it was the ninth month of last year, the fifth day, that your son, the late Gorō,1 passed away. In consternation I count on my fingers and find that already a year and more have passed, sixteen months, over four hundred days! You are his mother—perhaps you have had some word of him. Could you let me know if you have?
The fallen snow will fall another time, the blossoms, scattered, will bloom again. Why is it that people alone, once gone, never come back again? How hateful, how hateful! Mere onlooker though I am, I know he was a splendid young man, a splendid young man, a jewel of a son—how happy you must have been to have such a son.
But, like the full moon that clouds cover and goes behind the mountain, like the shining blossoms that are heartlessly scattered by the wind—ah, how grievous is his loss!
Because of my illness, I do not ordinarily write answers myself to the letters I receive from others. But in your case the events are so sad that I have taken up my brush to write this. I do not feel that I will be in this world much longer. If that is the case, I will no doubt soon be meeting with Gorō. If I should meet him before you do, I will tell him how much you grieve for him. I will write more at another time.
With my deep respect,
Nichiren
The eighth day of the twelfth month
Reply to the mother of Ueno
Note
1. Nanjō Shichirō Gorō, the youngest of Nanjō Hyōe Shichirō’s five sons and four daughters. His father, Hyōe Shichirō, died before he was born. In the sixth month of 1280, he and his brother Tokimitsu visited the Daishonin at Minobu, but about three months later he died suddenly at the age of sixteen.