PS COLUMN ARCHIVE

January 28, 2009

Inaugural Address by President Obama and Annual New Year’s Poetry Reading of Japan

Former Senator Barack Obama assumed office as the 44th President of the United States on January 20. I suppose many people in this country missed the chance of watching the inauguration ceremony, because it was at half past one in the morning of January 21 by Japan time (11:30am in Washington D.C.). I watched it through to the end by rubbing my drowsy eyes.

Although it seemed to have been a severely cold day, I was very much surprised to have seen the huge crowd gathered as many as two millions in the greenbelt called “National Mall” before the Capitol. The inaugural speech was just great with magnificent words and phrases being true to his reputation as an excellent speaker. Regrettably however, I could not help a little bit disappointed, because it was rather hard to hear his real voice on TV due to poor simultaneous interpretation overlapped with the speech.

There are different kinds of opinions and appraisals in Japan on his speech, but what I appreciated most was the last part of the speech, which does not necessarily mean that I fell asleep during the rest of the speech and woke up at last.

Quote

So let us mark this day with remembrance, of who we are and how far we have traveled. In the year of America's birth, in the coldest of months, a small band of patriots huddled by dying campfires on the shores of an icy river. The capital was abandoned. The enemy was advancing. The snow was stained with blood. At a moment when the outcome of our revolution was most in doubt, the father of our nation ordered these words be read to the people:

"Let it be told to the future world ... that in the depth of winter, when nothing but hope and virtue could survive... that the city and the country, alarmed at one common danger, came forth to meet [it]."

America. In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested, we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back, nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.

Unquote

Quoting historic remarks from the past to emphasize its significance may be a usual practice of elocution, and yet I was deeply impressed with the speech above quoted. Having heard President Obama’s speech, many people must have felt helpless for not having such politicians in Japan who could match such ability. In fact, there are many staffs specialized in speech writing for President, with whom they discuss the content to finalize it. Although there must be same kind of specialists in Japan, why do they not sound so magnificent? I really think that both the prime minister and leaders of the opponent parties should have more excellent speechwriters who can write good speeches.

On the other hand, we have a world-class elegant event that is held at the Imperial Palace every year as New Year’s poetry reading. This year it was held on January 16, four days before the presidential inauguration. The poems written by His Imperial Majesty, Imperial families and general public on a certain given theme are read aloud in the Imperial Hall. This year’s theme was “fire”, of which poem His Imperial Majesty composed after the opening ceremony of National Sports Festival held in Akita prefecture last autumn.

“Flame holder blazed up with bonfire, trees beyond tingeing with touch of autumn colors”

I’m not talented enough to judge good or bad of the poem but at least can understand magnificent tone of the poem. His Imperial Majesty may have a teacher who corrects the poems who might be equivalent to presidential speechwriters. The other poems by Imperial families and general public were all so beautiful. Our traditional belief “eloquence is silver and silence is gold” may be better suited for poet rather than public speaker.

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