My favourite lines from “The Last Samurai”

 

Emperor Meiji: Tell me how he died.
Algren: I will tell you how he lived.

These lines from ‘The Last Samurai’ are something that made a very distinct impression on me the first time I watched the movie. Yet with each subsequent viewing they still manage to stir the strings of my heart. On first glance they just appear to be a simple 2 line conversation between 2 people. They are talking about a great samurai warrior who dies in battle fighting for everything he believes in. “The Way of the Samurai”. The emperor is saddened by the loss of  this warrior & poses this question to Algren who was with him at the moment of death. Algren is an American who was initially hired to help quash the rebels. However when he is captured by them & subsequently spends time with them he comes to love & embrace their culture wholeheartedly. What Algren replies to the emperor perhaps serves as a stark reminder of how we as people today must remember the passing away of any individual.Death can come to anyone at any time. How it happens is immaterial. How the person lived we must remember eternally. Which reminds me also of a wonderful quote from the Bhagavad Gita that was printed on the back cover of Salim Ali’s ‘The Book of Indian Birds’

For that which is born death is certain and for the dead birth is certain. Therefore grieve not over  that which is unavoidable