For Haikujaguar

[fpb]

I wrote this sonnet a very long time ago, to describe one of my key spiritual experiences; the first time when, at age eighteen, I had a real understanding of what duty means. It came, oddly enough, out of a comic - the great Phoenix epic in Uncanny X-Men 125-138.

This tale began along with my new life.
Great artists know the truth of life and death;
Great works live with our lives, and breathe our breath;
Great art cuts through all questions like a knife.

Jean was the face of all good things I learnt;
The face of courage to the very grave;
The face of love, fiery, fair, and brave;
And when she died, I was with her and burnt.

I learnt from her what lasts and what has beauty;
That duty is cause enough to live and die,
For love and love alone shows you your duty
And love itself is no sham and no lie;

For love is life, and life is not a blunder,
And all of this the Phoenix speaks like thunder.

Comments

[thefish30.livejournal.com]

Lovely. My enjoyment of the original comic is hereby enriched. Thank you.


Your youth & skill here makes me wonder how you came to learn English.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

I did one year of school lessons when I was about 11. I kept an interest thereafter (though my foreign language at school was French) mainly through English-language comics. When I was 15, I was sent to learn English with an English lady in England, preparatory to being sent to an English boarding school (King's School Canterbury). By my second year there, my English was pretty good. The rest is quite eventful, but not very relevant to my language.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Oh, and the sonnet was not written immediately after the shattering story it praises. It may have been a few years after, I don't remember how many exactly - probably four or five. By then my English was pretty much established, and I had already done some translation work.