[Many thanks to ��������뎮 for posting this info on the Next Game Square's Sakura Message Board!]
Female writer and poet Yosano Akiko (1878-1942) wrote this poem in the midst of the Russo-Japanese war (1904-1905). It was meant as a poem to express Akiko's wish for her brother Soshichi's safe return. (Soshichi is a soldier among the army unit sent to capture Port Arthur, in north-eastern China). Due to the fact that Yosano seemed to care more about her brother's safe return than Japan's victory in the war, her poem was much criticized at the time. But being the progressive writer that she was, Yosano stood her ground in the face of criticism.
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You Shall Not Be Killed, Brother!
(Lamenting my younger brother Soshichi
in the besieging army at Port Arthur)
O my dear brother, I am in tears for you:
you should not be killed.
You were the last-born,
most adored by your parents.
Did your parents teach you to wield the sword to
murder other people?
Did your parents raise you
for twenty-four years
to kill and to die?
Since you inherit your parents'name
as proud master of our renowned shop
in Sakaishi,
you should not be killed.
Even if Port Arthur's castle falls,
so what?
You are not aware that killing is not in harmony
with the customs of a merchant family.
You should not be killed.
The Honorable Emperor would not personally
engage in the war.
Since the Emperor's heart is so merciful,
how could he possibly ask
others to shed blood
and die like beasts
and believe that dying is honor?
O my brother,
you should not be killed in battle!
It's said this era is peaceful,
but our mother protects the family
in great sorrow from the death of our father
and now, pained
by her child's conscription,
her hair grows ever whiter.
Have you forgotten your new young wife
lying delicate and beautiful in tears behind her
curtain?
Do you still think of her?
Separated after barely ten months wedded,
think of her virginal heart.
Since you are the only you in world,
whom can she rely on?
You should not be killed, My brother!
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