Inspired by Nader, Farritor and Schilliger's recent AI-assisted decryption of ancient texts, netting them the $1m Vesuvius Challenge Prize, I attempt to crack the code of a 1000 year old Japanese poem using Google's Gemini chatbot.

I pose to Gemini the four cryptic questions in the form of a poem about love's paradoxes by Izumi Shikibu, whose work was celebrated by Kenneth Rexroth with the following words: “Of all the poets of the classical period, she has, to my mind, the deepest and most poignant Buddhist sensibility.”

Can the latest Oogly Woogly Google tech finally solve riddles that have puzzled human readers and thinkers for centuries?

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Things I Want Decided

Which shouldn’t existin this world,the one who forgetsor the onewho is forgotten?Which is better,to loveone who has diedor not to seeeach other when you are alive?Which is better,the distant loveryou long foror the one you see dailywithout desire?Which is the least unreliableamong fickle things—the swift rapids,a flowing river,or this human world?

-Izumi Shikibu (tr. Jane Hirshfield)