The Complex Nature of Truth

About this poem

Rashomon is a classical 1951 Japanese film noir of the rape of a bride, Masako Kanazawa, and the murder of her samurai husband, Takehiro Kanazawa, as recalled from the perspectives of a bandit, Tajomaru, the bride, the samurai warrior’s ghost, and Kikori, a woodcutter. Determined to obtain the illusive truth, a court trial is held, and testimonies given by Tabi Hoshi, a priest; a commoner, a musician, a medium, and a policeman. In 1961, while enrolled as a student at Howard University in Washington, D. C., and in attendance as a drama student under the tutelage of Owen Dodson, professor in the Department of Drama, I became part of the cast of the play, Rashomon, and played the role of the samurai warrior. That play drove home to me quite literally, in a personal and intensely dramatic way, how complex the nature of truth is, as four people (we are all actors in our masked personas), through vivid flashback memories, and under sworn testimonies, recounted different versions of what had happened, with the truth remaining forever as an enigma. more »