Tomino

Tomino is a Japanese urban legend about a poem that kills anyone who recites it out loud.

In this world there are things that you should never say out loud, and the Japanese poem “Tomino’s Hell” is one of them. According to the legend, if you read this poem out loud, disaster will strike. At best, you will feel very ill or injure yourself. At worst, you could die.

In this video you can hear Tomino being read in Japanese. You will notice that the person who made the video used text to speech software. They didn’t dare read it out loud themselves.

This is a rough English translation:

Tomino’s Hell

The older sister vomits blood, the younger sister spits fire.
Cute Tomino spits treasured jewels.
Tomino died alone and fell into hell.
Hell, darkness, with no flowers.
Is it Tomino’s older sister that whips?
The number of red welts is worrisome.
Whipping and beating and pounding,
The path to eternal hell is only one way.
Beg for guidance into the darkness of hell,
From the golden sheep, from the nightingale.
How much is left in the leather bag,
Prepare for the endless journey into hell.
Spring comes and into the woods and valleys,
Seven turns in the dark valley of hell.
In the cage is a nightingale, in the cart a sheep,
In the eyes of cute Tomino are tears.
Cry, nightingale, for the woods and the rain
Voicing your love for your sister.
The echo of your cry howls through hell,
and a blood-red flower blooms.
Through the seven mountains and valleys of hell,
Cute Tomino travels alone.
To welcome you to hell,
The glimmering spikes of the needled mountain
Stick fresh punctures in the flesh,
As a sign to cute Tomino.

I have no idea whether or not it is safe to read the English translation out loud. If I were you, I would err on the side of caution.

One person said: “I once read Tomino’s Hell on the air for an online radio show called Radio Urban Legends. At first everything was normal, but gradually my body, it became difficult to read. I read half of it and then broke down and threw it away. Two days later I got injured and I was left with seven stitches. I do not want to think that this was because of the poem.”