The War Poem that Got Akiko in Trouble

This is one of Akiko’s best known and, at the time it was published in 1904, most controversial poems. She wrote it as her little brother headed off to fight in the Russo-Japanese War. She was criticized and even called a traitor for expressing views that went contrary to the war effort. She must have known that her criticism of the Emperor wouldn’t go over well. She stood by her poem, and said she had a right to express her feelings.

I’ve been looking for a good English translation of this poem, and today I found it. I am surprised to find that it was written by a fellow Colgate University graduate. Arthur Binard would have graduated two years ahead of me, I’m surprised I don’t recognize his name. Thanks for this translation, Arthur!

Don't Lay Down Your Life

（君死にたまふことなかれ）

To my youngest brother, conscripted and sent
to fight on the Liaotung Peninsula, 1904

I cry for you, Brother,
don't you dare lay down your life,
You, the youngest child in our family,
thus cherished all the more-
Mother and Father didn't educate you
to wield weapons and to murder; they didn't
bring you up, to the age of twenty-four,
so that you could kill, or be killed yourself.

You were born into a long line
of proud tradespeople in the city of Sakai;
having inherited their good name,
don't you dare lay down your life.
What does it matter if that fortress
on the Liaotung Peninsula falls or not?
It's nothing to you, a tradesman
with a tradition to uphold.

Don't you dare lay down your life.
The Emperor himself doesn't go
to fight at the front; others
spill out their blood there.
If His Majesty be indeed just
and magnanimous, surely he won't wish
his subjects to die like beasts,
nor would be call such barbarity "glory"

Little Brother, don't you dare
lay down your life in battle.
This autumn, Father passed away.
Mother manages, somehow, to carry on,
but lives in constant fear for the son
who's been taken from her-
People say ours is a prosperous age,
yet Mother's hair has all turned gray.

Inside the family shop, behind the curtain,
your willowy young wife weeps alone.
Have you forgotten her? Is she in your thoughts?
You two were together for less than ten months.
Think how her heart is wrung. There's only one
of you in this world, remember.
Your family has no one else to turn to.
Don't lay down your life.

Original post here: https://blog.goo.ne.jp/deviliana/e/7bcf9f495d0ed6f9336c94fffd14a973

About Arthur Binard: https://modernpoetryintranslation.com/poet/arthur-binard/

Image: Battle of Mukden, 1905. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mukden_Japanese_Assault_French_Papier.jpg