A Response To Kihachi Okamoto's Sword Of Doom(1965) Poem by Daniel Brick

(I)

The samurai, Ryunosuke, speaks:

What if I do not complete it?
My mission, my duty, my swan-song...
What if I command the field, but
still fail? Some will live after me.
They will claim to have defeated me,
and left no trace behind. Who will
avenge me and dispel their lies?
Will it matter to me in the darkness
of death's kingdom? I cannot win
this match? I will win this match!

The old man I killed on the mountain,
I sent him to the merciful Amida Buddha.
He should thank me from the grave
for releasing him from life's sorrows.
I keep winning, there is a pile of bodies
without souls. Let them mourn in peace.
I fight their souls. They cluster around me,
and die under my sword like dogs. I neither
laugh at them, nor pray for them. This is
my business. It is my art, my religion,

my life's purpose: How I long for the peace of the grave.