It was thirty years ago, for the first time. Since then, I have been fascinated by her mysterious "language" (letters). I have studied them, continuously, looking for what had inspired her and what her true intention had been in writing them...

Dickinson wrote poems and other works to "entrust" her life to them. Initially, due to my inability to recognize the whole picture of her thoughts about life, I found it extremely difficult to know the meaning of apparently simple, easy words. However, with further study, I realized that the "difficulty" was created by Dickinson herself, and therefore, whatever people called a "puzzle" was exactly what Dickinson had intended...

As I preceded to examine her "language" (letters) deeply, I was gradually able to see the entirely of her "spiritual landscape," and then, that which had first looked immature, confused and lacking fluidity, revealed itself to be her "layers of language."

Having grasped the many dimensions of Dickinson's philosophy in their entirety, I have tried to burry the moat surrounding Dickinson's "mansion of ideas" by deciphering particularly difficult part of her work. I wish that those who seek to come in might be invited to her "room" and exchange of words of wonder, of the joy and of the eternity of "life."...

-from the PREFACE by Hisae Ochiai