whimper

...the posthumous account of [Hagiwara] written by his daughter Yoko paints a poignant picture of the aging poet, fascinated by stage-magic and simple conjuring tricks, drifting into alienation and persistent drunkenness. Kitahara Hakushu, in his introduction to Barking at the Moon, had likened the quality in Hagiwara's early poetry to that of a "razor soaked in gloomy scent" to the "flash of a razor in a bowl of cool mercury". The razor-edge was never seriously blunted, but its scent soured into the smell of stale beer; and Muro, in his poem on Hagiwara's death, significantly referred to the phenomena of continuing life as "for you mere saké spilt along the bar".

- Face at the Bottom of the World & Other Poems, Hagiwara Sakutaro