A short epic in the interrim...

Hey everyone,
Whilst I am waiting for my pictures to upload, I would like to share with you a composition of my own doing. In my Sophomore year for English, we were given a "creative writing assignment", in which we were to mimic the style or write on the same topic of one of the authors we learned about. I chose to write in the style of Racine's "Phaedra", which is written in iambic pentameter and rhyming couplets in  a-a, b-b, c-c fashion. So, I wrote like a 20th century Frenchman in English about an event in Japanese history, which takes place at the beginning of the reign of Nobunaga Oda in the 16th century. A multi-faceted work, it's true, but I loved doing it and I hope you like it.

Takeda

                                                                                             Characters

TAKEDA KATSUYORI, doomed warlord                                                                                                   RIKEI, a nun

TAKEDA NOBUKATSU Katsuyori’s son                                                                                                     MESSENGER

LADY TAKEDA, Katsuyori’s wife                                                                                                                MONKS

TSUCHIYA BROTHERS, Katsuyori’s retainers

 

The action takes place in a Zen Monastery, at the foot of Mt. Temmoku.

 

                                                                                                  

 

MONKS   Takeda’s dying flame is nearly here,

Its mighty light, once bright, now bleak and drear.

To give him aid would be as grave a sin,

As inviting death, the battle’s din.

Bar the doors! Let no one in! Should he

Come, ourselves the more unlucky would be.

RIKEI        Can you deny the charge of common good?

What merit is there in true brotherhood

When it can be driven away by fears?

To shun a man’s plight and his widow’s tears!

If you cannot pity a man in death,

What joy can be found when he first draws breath?

MONKS   If you care for them, you do it alone,

His peace is not at the price of our own.

(MONKS leave, KATSUYORI and his subjects enter)

KATSUYORI             This race begins to take its toll on me.

I could run from Temmoku to the sea,

Under a mountain’s shadow, I would still

reside, towering over me until

Ieyasu has my land and takes my life

And leaves desolate my unhappy wife.

In this life, death’s darkness seems to be bright.

Can blood wash away the shame of my flight?

LADY TAKEDA          My Lord, does Shingen’s[1] honor call for this?

I think your sense of honor is amiss.

Is it defeat; the phoenix’s combustion?

Can you not save yourself from destruction?

KATSUYORI             Can the sun remain aloft in the sky?

After its course, is it not doomed to die?

Can pity or pleas prevent its decline?

Ieyasu and Oda have taken what’s mine.

My time as ruler has been quickly spent.

I am now sworn to death, not to relent.

Do not give me your vain preaching of hope.

(MESSENGER enters)

KATSUYORI             What news of the victors who conquered my land?

Do they now wish to cut the three[2] from my hand?

MESSENGER           My Lord, make haste, take your sword from its sheath,

The earth that you walk, the air that you breathe,

The sun in your land has now run its course,

Takeda shall be stopped at its source.

The conquerors come in endless pursuit,

To crush Takeda; flower, leaf, and root.

KATSUYORI             I hear thunderclouds gathering their rain,

To pour their blood out hard upon the plain.

My son shall not carry my loathsome debt,

He shall not retain my shame and regret.

This consolation is bitter, ‘tis true,

But this life is far worse than final adieu.

(Shouting outside, sounds of approaching army)

RIKEI        My Lord, they come to take your noble head,

If your will is set, leave their triumph dead!

TSUCHIYA BROTHERS            Master, give us leave to go and defend

For the sake of your honorable end.

KATSUYORI             You who have followed me in my retreat,

In defending my death, your own you meet.

Damnéd Oda! You take my subjects too?

Was not my land and fortune enough for you?

(TSUCHIYA BROTHERS exit, sounds of fighting)

KATSUYORI             It is now time for my epic to end,

My own poor soul to my father I send,

To tell him of the kingdom he has lost,

Of my wife and son; my honor’s cost.

(stabs himself and dies)

LADY TAKEDA          I cannot let my husband die alone!

Our fate will not be to wail and bemoan

The loss of comfort, power, and prestige,

(to KATSUYORI’S body)

We now fly to you, our love and our liege!

(LADY TAKEDA and NOBUKATSU stab themselves and die)

RIKEI        I will write of this that the world may know

To what extent a noble man must go,

Before his father’s honor is sated.

To be condemned because you’re related

By blood to a man after whom you have striven,

By blood condemned, by blood forgiven.[3]

 

 

 

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[1] Shingen Takeda was Katsuyori’s father.

[2] The katana is held loosely by the thumb and forefinger, while the handle is held tightly by the remaining three. Losing these would render a sword wielder useless.

[3] Her work is the “Rikei-ni no Ki” which is a military account retelling the suicides of the Takeda family in order to prevent dishonor and capture.