I don’t remember exactly how, but one day I was reading something about the games Total War and several people on Internet were saying that Shôgun 2 is one of the best of the series. I tried it, my computer is not very powerful so I couldn’t enjoy the graphics at the full possibility but I really loved the art, and the fact that, in the loading screens, there are quotes and poems. I played very little, I still have all the game to do but I did a little Google research to see if someone had gathered all of these lines from the loading screens ; and indeed, someone did it. I focus here on the death poems ; here are some of my favorites.
“Autumn blossom falls; death comes to all on swift wings; the warmth of life: gone.”
“The warmth of summer; an arrow floats on the breeze; bringing with it death.”
“Through the autumn fields ; his steed, swift as typhoon winds ; the arrow, fleeter.”
“Warm summer rain; probes my glassy lifeless eyes; its warmth abandoned.”
“Autumn maple leaves; their colours, like the harvest; remind me of home.”
“Cold steel pierces flesh; a moment of clarity: death is not the end.”
“A flash of lightning; illuminates man’s journey; then darkness returns.”
“Leaves turn green to gold; not to end but to transform; as flesh rots to dust.”
“Up into the sky; I kiss the falling snowflakes; as they pass me by.”
“Summer insects buzz; over new fragrant flowers; and fallen soldiers.”
“In the autumn time; you cannot catch every leaf; nor halt coming age”
“Heat haze of summer; obscures a man’s path ahead; an unclear future.”
“A tree’s skeleton; exposed by autumn season; ready for new life.”
“Turning the snow pink; in the absence of springtime; I create blossoms.”
You can see the (amazing) trailer here :
When I see the snowflakes falling on this powerful warlord and all his soldiers around him, I think about a poem written by a samurai that I’ve read recently, where he was contemplating the snow and meditating about the impermanence of the human world in contrast with the natural cycles. Even if a warrior wins a battle and manages to gain some land and power while defending himself from all his opponents, he will still get old and sick, before ending up dying ; and someone else, one day or another, will sow suffering and destruction to gain the same temporary illusion. Everything changes so fast : one day you are at the peak of your success, youth and glory ; and just a moment later, you wake up and realize that everyone you knew has parted away from you or is already dead, and that your ephemeral achievements will disappear ; that life now looks like a dream, cut away by death.
It also made me think about this famous haiku from Matsuo Bashô, about the Fujiwara clan and what remained of one of their ancient fortresses :
夏草や兵どもが夢の跡
Summer grass -
the only thing that is left
from the warriors’ dreams
When I think about impermanence, it’s hard for me sometimes to not fall in a loop of pessimism and dark thoughts ; but then I remember that it’s also something good. The world is always changing but we still have our memories ; and even if we die with them, these memories mattered when we were living with them. Death is sleep, peace and nothingness ; nothing bad here, just the end of a cycle. Cherry blossoms are beautiful, amazing and moving because they are ephemeral and vulnerable, scattering away in pink and white wirlwinds ; not because they are eternal.
I actually thought about that recently when I was looking for some old websites that I used a lot several years ago, only to see that the servers were down. I went on the Wayback Machine, on Internet Archives, to see if I could look up my old topics ; but there were only a few pages. It was such a nostalgic, sad and beautiful feeling at the same time, to see some screenshots without being able to navigate on the website. Even if they are down today, they mattered on the past, where they belong.