The Unbearable Heart Poems by Kimiko Hahn Winner of a 1996 American Book Award!! Book Description . About the Author . Excerpt . Reviews . Events . Buy Books Now From "The Story and the Daughters" Every story began with the same words, mukashi mukashi aruhi, and although you did not understand exactly you knew this was how stories began and the big pictures translated the rest as if you were a baby realizing sounds as sounds that had to be sorted and resorted.  Recollecting the stories mother read to you you try to locate one that might have prepared you for loss, a child's loss, even a grown child's loss of his or her mother. But among the peaches, foxes, teapots, not one comforts or echoes what one seeks when the mother is struck by a car, killed instantly, before she could open her eyes and think something is wrong, my chest is broken, my heart crushed, before she wondered, where is my breath?