"I love you" in Japanese

My dear friend, elegant writer and translator Mariko Nagai (whose new book, Instructions for the Living, will soon be published by Word Palace Press), recently wrote this facebook status that I want to share.

In translating the phrase, "I love you" into Japanese, Natsume Sōseki translated it as 「月が綺麗ですね」 ("The moon is beautiful tonight, isn't it."); Futabatei Shimei translated it as 「わたし、死んでもいいわ」 ("I could die (for you)")