SON: O mother forgive me your son for I could not bring sister alive back to you for time delivered her into the hands of the unjust and she chose a lake as her burial ground; father died in his exile and all I bring to you now is myself with nothing in my hands for poverty and misery has been the reward of the just and the righteous; I lived by father’s words of compassion and love and justice - O dearest mother, and the world proved a cruel master
MOTHER: Though we are left with nothing the world can see nothing the world can measure by there is the love one has… O Zushio, my child - and may that love sustain me, you and may that love sustain all beings O Zushio, my child see your life’s journey this way: May no harm befall any being may all beings live in peace; may all beings be happy and no harm ever come to one through my deeds and actions
Number 7 in a series of 8 poems “Songs for Sansho the Bailiff”. This series of poems is based on the film “Sansho the Bailiff “ (1954) by Kenji Mizoguchi. Set in medieval Japan, the film tells the tragic tale of a family that lives by the father’s ideal that one should be just to others, even if that goodness is inconvenient to oneself. The family is separated and endures all sorts of suffering in living this ideal