Post by rmedhurst on Aug 24, 2015 21:39:51 GMT 9
Mother of Commerce
In 1638, shogunate forces attacked and captured Hara Castle in southwestern Japan, suppressing a major Christian rebellion.
In Hara Castle at Amakusa. Flames licking skyward. Arrows and bullets flying past each other. Corpses of men and women lying in piles. Among all this a wounded old man. Gazing up at an image of Santa Maria set on the stone wall, he sings a resounding “Aleluia”.
Abruptly, another bullet is fired.
He collapses backwards and shows no sign of rising. The Holy Mother, in a white gown, regards him silently from upon the stone wall. Solemnly, calmly.
The Holy Mother dressed in white? No, I know it. That is not the Blessed Virgin. It is plainly just a woman. A common European woman who loves a single rose. Look. There is even this foreign script written in gold underneath the woman. “Wilhelm Tobacco Company, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.”
www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/000879/files/3813_27308.html
Notes:
1. I added a sentence setting the scene.
2. Not sure what is going on with the rose. Part of the picture? Some idiomatic meaning? (But cannot find any clues to that)
3. Not quite happy with the title. Maybe better to come up with something entirely different.
In 1638, shogunate forces attacked and captured Hara Castle in southwestern Japan, suppressing a major Christian rebellion.
In Hara Castle at Amakusa. Flames licking skyward. Arrows and bullets flying past each other. Corpses of men and women lying in piles. Among all this a wounded old man. Gazing up at an image of Santa Maria set on the stone wall, he sings a resounding “Aleluia”.
Abruptly, another bullet is fired.
He collapses backwards and shows no sign of rising. The Holy Mother, in a white gown, regards him silently from upon the stone wall. Solemnly, calmly.
The Holy Mother dressed in white? No, I know it. That is not the Blessed Virgin. It is plainly just a woman. A common European woman who loves a single rose. Look. There is even this foreign script written in gold underneath the woman. “Wilhelm Tobacco Company, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.”
www.aozora.gr.jp/cards/000879/files/3813_27308.html
Notes:
1. I added a sentence setting the scene.
2. Not sure what is going on with the rose. Part of the picture? Some idiomatic meaning? (But cannot find any clues to that)
3. Not quite happy with the title. Maybe better to come up with something entirely different.
