Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta noche.
Escribir, por ejemplo: " La noche está estrellada,
y tiritan, azules, los astros, a lo lejos".
El viento de la noche gira en el cielo y canta.
Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta noche.
Yo la quise, y a veces ella también me quiso.
En las noches como ésta la tuve entre mis brazos.
La besé tantas veces bajo el cielo infinito.
Ella me quiso, a veces yo también la quería.
Cómo no haber amado sus grandes ojos fijos.
Puedo escribir los versos más tristes esta noche.
Pensar que no la tengo. Sentir que la he perdido.
Oír la noche inmensa, más inmensa sin ella.
Y el verso cae al alma como pasto el rocío.
Qué importa que mi amor no pudiera guardarla.
La noche está estrellada y ella no está conmigo.
Eso es todo. A lo lejos alguien canta. A lo lejos.
Mi alma no se contenta con haberla perdido.
Como para acercarla mi mirada la busca.
Mi corazón la busca, y ella no está conmigo.
La misma noche que hace blanquear los mismos árboles.
Nosotros, los de entonces, ya no somos los mismos.
Ya no la quiero, es cierto, pero cuánto la quise.
Mi voz buscaba el viento para tocar su oído.
De otro. Será de otro. Como antes de mis besos.
Su voz, su cuerpo claro. Sus ojos infinitos.
Ya no la quiero, es cierto, pero tal vez la quiero.
Es tan corto el amor, y es tan largo el olvido.
Porque en noches como ésta la tuve entre mis brazos,
mi alma no se contenta con haberla perdido.
Aunque éste sea el último dolor que ella me causa,
y éstos sean los últimos versos que yo le escribo.
Rimi Natsukawa is an marvelous, marvelous folk singer from Okinawan. Here she is performing the American spiritual "Amazing Grace" in her native Okinawan.
I wrote this sonnet two years ago for my padre on Father's Day. And now Gepetto's Despair just appeared in this edition of The New Formalist. Oh happy days!
hot air slicing through
her words, name, body; splattered
on my startled face.
And so ends the story of the Himeyuri.
I first became interested in making a movie version of the story of the Himeyuri when I stumbled, completely by accident, on a rare film clip that burnt itself into my brain. Taken by American G.I.s during the battle, it shows a young woman edging herself to a cliff top and then flinging herself over.
I was both horrified and mystified; why she would do such a thing? The film indicated she was part of the Himeyuri and was escaping possible rape by American soldiers by taking her own life. This was part of my American history I knew nothing about; so began my investigation into the Star Lily Nurse Corps.
Because the film footage was so raw to me – we are witnessing a suicide some fifty years ago – I decided to use it as bookends to the last segment of film. Indeed, the unidentified girl could be any of the Himeyuri, or all of them; since so few survived it seemed a fitting way to close the movie.
This was not an easy film to make. Conventional war films tell simpler stories; true, lots of people die in them but they are nameless figures, usually only seen long enough to perish and never long enough for anyone to become attached to them.
And, as it turns out, I have become very attached to the memories of the Himeyuri. Even though what I have been doing is more fiction than fact Kohitsuji and Shinshii and Ashitomi and all the rest were kind enough to let me take their story in various directions without worrying I was making too much of a mess about it.
The Okinawan word for thank you very much is "Shiduugafuu." I would like to say that to everyone who has been following this story, everyone who has left comments and everyone who has challenged me to make a better movie.
Shiduugafuu.
[cut to: The last members of the Himeyuri preparing to make a break from their cave as the sound of falling bombs echoing through the walls]
Shinshii [in uniform with gun]: It is time, we will escape to the cliffs. All of you, follow me to freedom!
[cut to: the Himeyuri suddenly find themselves pinned down on the beach by American guns high up on the cliff top]
Shinshii: When I give the command I want all of you to run to the cliffs.
Kohitsuji: What? What about you?
Shinshii: I'll draw off their fire long enough for you to escape.
Kohitsuji: No! We must stay together. We will be lost without you!
Shinshii: You have survived this long, you will survive long enough to get home. I know it.
[f/x: sudden machine gun fire]
Shinshii: Now run and live!
Kohitsuji [screaming]: Shinshii! Come back!
[cut to: Kohitsuji falling over Shinshii's body]
Kohitsuji [sobbing]: No … no … no … not Shinshii …
[cut to: the Himeyuri, unable to make it to the cliffs have returned to their cave to await the end]
Kohitsuji : There are so few of us left … Ashitomi-san … Higa-san … Miyagi-san … little Chiaki-san … Niigaki-san … now Shinshii … all gone. It is too sad to even think about.
Tira: I am so tired.
[murmurs: yes, we are tired too]
Tira [taking out her hand grenade]: I don't want to be left behind.
Katsuko [crying]: I will follow you.
[other voices: yes, let us all go together]
Kohitsuji: Yes, I will follow you too. This life is – wait! What is that?
[soldier rushing in]
Soldier: Prepare yourselves! The enemy is here! This is the end! Banzai! Ban –
[the cave is jumbled with bodies, blood, gore. nothing moves, no one breathes]
Kohitsuji: Tira? Katsuko?
Kohitsuji: Tira?
Tira: K … Kats …
Kohitsuji: Yes! Yes! You are alive, Tira my dear! I will get you out of here … let's go together. Don't leave me behind. I don't want to be alone.
[it takes her a few seconds to realize Tira has stopped breathing]
Kohitsuji [to self]: O my love, my soul. I have lost everything. Ashitomi, wait for me. Please, I am coming to you. Please. Wait.
[cut to: rocky cliffs above the sea. Kohitsuji makes her way over the rocks, pauses once and then flings herself over the edge. She falls, arms to her sides, until she is swallowed up by the sea. Finis]
Ending Credits:
This film is dedicated to the memories of the Himeyuri Student Nurse Corps.
ひめゆり
学徒隊
as well everyone who has made it their responsibility to take care of others in times of great peril.
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