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Feb 2011
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
Raj Arumugam
Written by
Raj Arumugam  Australia
(Australia)   
580
 
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