Possibly
my favorite foreign fable, not for its moral but because I like the plot, is "Shitakiri
Suzume", or, as translated into English, "The Tongue-Cut Sparrow".
This fable is very old, the exact date of publication unknown, but was written
between 1890 and 1901. I haven't been able to find the original author, though
I do know it was originally published with an editor by the surname of
Hasegaway. In
the fable, there is an elderly couple and the husband's pet sparrow. The old
man is kindly and gentle while his wife is mean-spirited and tempered. Some
versions vary, with the old man just being her neighbor, though it's always the
man who owns the sparrow and the woman is spiteful. The spousal relationship is
the one I learned first, so that's the one I stick to.
The
old man's sparrow sang every day, and it annoyed the old woman. One day, her
husband left to go to the village and she prepared a rice starch to do the
laundry with. The old man forgot to lock his sparrow's cage, and the little
bird escaped. While the grumpy old woman attended the washing of the clothing,
the sparrow found her rice starch and ate it.
Upon
finding her starch gone, she sees the sparrow and demands where her starch has
gone. The sparrow tells her that he ate it. Angry, the old woman grabs a pair
of shears and cuts off the sparrow's tongue, making sure that he'll never sing
again. She then releases him to the wild.
When
her husband comes home and finds his sparrow gone, he asks his wife where he
went and she nonchalantly tells him that she released it to the forest.
Distressed, the old man runs into the forest to find his pet.
Along
the way, he gets tired and asks some animals if they had seen his sparrow. They
told him that they'd seen it heading towards the sparrow lodge deep in the
trees. He travels until he finds the sparrow lodge and knocks on the doors.
When the sparrows answer and inquire as to why he's there, they let him in.
When he enters, he sees his pet sparrow there and happily greets him. The rest
of the sparrows are happy to see their visitor and hospitably entertain their
guest with dances, skits and eventually dinner. When
it is time for the old man to leave, he is offered two boxes as gifts from the sparrows, saying
he may only take one. One box is very big while the other is small. Since the
old man is frail and not as strong as he once was, he takes the smaller box.
He
returns home very late and his wife starts nagging at him for this. He tells
her about his attendance at the sparrow's home and opens his box to see what is
in it. It contained many wonderful and valuable treasures, and the wife
immediately ceases her chastising.
Forming
a plan, she dashes into the forest late at night to obtain the other box he
left behind. She rudely awakens the sparrows by banging on their doors and
demands for them to entertain her. They reluctantly do so, as they are polite
folk. When it came time for the old woman to leave, she greedily took the large
box.
Since
she too was old and frail, the large box weighed down on her, so she decided to
put it down in to rest halfway home in the middle of the forest. Her greed
overtook her and she couldn't wait to see its contents. She opened the box and
many demons leapt out. They ate her all up and the husband lived contentedly
alone for the rest of his life.
This
is a popular tale that has even made its appearance in videogames and had many
translations. I
enjoy this story because of its blunt way of saying not to be too greedy. I
think the obvious meaning would be not to be mean and spiteful, but because the
woman wanted more riches, she takes a box she can't even handle and is eaten
because of it.
A robot was built by a lonely scientist,
When his work was done, it was known as a “miracle”
But something was missing, there was one thing he couldn’t do,
and that was the program called a “heart”
Many years passed,
and the miracle robot that had been left all alone,
made a single wish:
Give me the “heart”, that that person,
The person I’ve always wanted to know,
made for me, until the very end of his life.
Now that that miracle has started to occur,
Why, why won’t my tears stop flowing….?
Why am I shaking? What are these beats inside me?
Is this the “heart” that I wished for?
Mysterious heart, mysterious feelings,
All the joys I had come to know,
Mysterious heart, mysterious feelings,
All the depressing things I had come to know,
Mysterious heart, mysterious feelings,
They all seem so deeply painful…
Now I’m beginning to understand the reason I was born,
Being alone must truly be depressing,
Yes, on that day, at that time,
All the feelings that had dwelled in my memories flowed out of my heart.
But now, I can say these words for real,
to you, my creator, who dedicated his life to me,
Thank you… for bringing me into this world.
Thank you… for the days you spent with me.
Thank you… for everything you’ve given me
Thank you… I will sing for eternity.
Though the song is in Japanese, I've posted only the English lyrics above for better understanding.
This is one of my most favorite songs, not only because it sounds pretty, but because of the meaning. The title of this song, "Kokoro", translates into heart. However, in the Japanese language, this heart it talks about isn't the physical heart that beats in our chests. It's the metaphysical heart that we mean when we say, "That's so sad, my heart hurts!" It has also been translated into "soul" on the occasion.
I personally love the overall theme of this song. Someone who doesn't have feelings or emotion eventually obtains that ability.
There have been a couple interpretations of this song, but I'll go with the one I've heard most.
It starts off with a lonely scientist creating another person. However, like most robots today, he could not give it a soul, personality or feelings. It's impossible, those aren't synthetic things. He worked his whole life in order to create a program that would give the robot a "heart".
He dies after becoming old, and the robot decides to investigate the "heart" program. They activate it and are flooded with memories and feelings. They are memories from their past with the scientist, and all the feelings that would have come with it if the robot had been able to feel at the time. The robot comes to know the happy time, the sad times and all the emotions that make us human.
They also finally understand why they were born: because of the scientist's overwhelming loneliness. Now that they have a "heart", they understand just how painful that loneliness was.
Sadly, and though the song doesn't mention it directly, the power of gaining a "heart" was too much for the robot, who had never felt any of it before. At the end of the song it is dying, promising that though they are dying, they will sing for eternity because
of the new "heart" they have been given. I believe it plays on the
idea that though you die, you aren't truly gone if you are still remembered,
which is a popular theme in Japan. Since the robot gained a "heart",
they would live on in memory like any other human.
Stephen King has been my favorite
author for a long time now. His stories are thorough and intriguing. It was
difficult to choose which of his books to write about, between "Pet
Sematary", "Misery" and "Carrie", all of my top
favorites. After thinking for a while, I chose my second favorite King novel,
"It".
The novel "It", original cover
"It" is about a disturbing
evil dwelling in the town of Derry, Maine that preys upon its people,
especially children, and the group of characters who vow to take it on until
the end. This evil can take on several forms yet seems to prefer to appear as a
clown, dubbing itself as "Pennywise". The transformation into a clown
makes sense knowing its preferred prey is children. "Pennywise" is
described by Georgie Denbrough, the first child named to be killed by it, as
"a cross between Bozo and Clarabell, who talked by honking his (or was it
her?-George was never really sure of the gender) horn on Howdy Doody Saturday mornings," (King 12). King elaborates
that if George had been around for another year, he would've thought that the
clown resembled Ronald McDonald.
Pennywise from the 1990 movie adaption
Pennywise in the drain as George Denbrough meets him
The evil being has no real name, yet
says that the closest thing to it would be "Robert Gray". Though
called "Pennywise" in clown form, the main characters who fight it
know that it really isn't a clown. Since there is no real form or name, they
call the being "It", thus the book title. This creature,
"It", hibernates for a period of two or three decades before
eventually coming out of slumber to wreak havoc, which is forgotten by those
who witness it.
The story begins in the 1950's,
"Pennywise" lurking in a storm drain and eventually eating the kid
brother of one of the main characters. The main characters consist of a group
of six people, children at the beginning of the story. Their names are Bill
Denbrough, Beverly Marsh (later Beverly Rogan), Ben Hanscom, Stanley Uris,
Richie Tozier, Mike Hanlon, and Eddie Kaspbrak. After "Pennywise"
kills Bill Denbrough's brother, he and his friends confront the evil being in
the sewers afterwards, finally able to suppress it for a couple of decades.
However, the children know that it could possibly come back and make a blood
oath to re-group if such happens.
Funnily enough, the group of
children forget about each other and what happened with the evil being during
that time as they grow up and move away. Nearly twenty years later, what would
you know, it turns out that the evil being returns. When Mike Hanlon phones his
friends to tell them about it, their memories return to them. They all agree to
come back, except for Stanley Uris, who cannot bare to go through the
experience again and commits suicide. The remaining friends track the evil
being down in order to stop it once and for all.
They again track "It" to
the sewers where Bill Denbrough takes it on again. He eventually manages to
crush the being's heart, and the friends return to their lives. The story ends
with Mike writing in a journal, talking with rapid loss of memory about the
events. He ends with how he loves his friends, and the story is closed.
This book is long and detailed, an
instant positive mark for me. Anything by Stephen King is sure to be worth
reading, but the theme and overall story of "It" has captured my
heart. The psychological challenges the characters go through and the bond that
keeps them together to defeat the creature that wandered the world for so many
years before is excellently portrayed. "It" has been made into a
movie adaption in 1990, which is good, yet of course changes a few details that
had to be left out or could not be recreated with the limited resources from
back then. If you're looking for a thriller, "It" is the book for
you.
I'm a huge fan of "feel-good" songs that make my day brighter. I just like being positive in general, so songs that express the desire to pick one's self up and enjoy life really get to me. I've always like "Good Life" by One Republic, however one of my very favorite and less-known songs is "Face Up" by Lights.
Lyrics:
It's late and I am tired, wish I could spark a smile The place is flying high but right now I want to be low Don't want to move an inch, let alone a million miles And I don't want to go but I know I gotta go
[Chorus:] I just want to feel alive The times you don't wanna wake up 'Cause in your sleep it's never over when you give up The sun is always gonna rise up You need to get up, gotta keep your head up Look at the people all around you The way you feel is something everybody goes through Dark out, but you still gotta light up You need to wake up, gotta keep your face up
Seems like the more you grow, the more time you spend alone Before you know it you end up perfectly on your own The city's shining bright, but you don't see the light How come you concentrate on things that don't make you feel right
[Chorus]
I'm looking for more than a little bit I'm gonna have to find my way through it Gonna leave a mark, I'm gonna set a spark I'm coming up off the ground I won't be looking down
[Chorus]
Obviously the first stanza expresses a sadness and loneliness. The singer is disconnected from the world, indicated by how she feels low in comparison to everything else flying high. She's too tired and worn down to even try, nor does she really feel like trying. Everyone can relate to this.
The chorus begins with the feeling of wanting things to change. Finally there's a will to get over what's dragging them down. There's that urge, that change.
The next lines address the listener, indicating that the singer wants them to know that they know how they feel. It's not unusual, it's something the singer has known before.
You want to stay asleep, where the world is yours to control and live in, where troubles aren't real. In your sleep, things can keep going without horrible consequences. They are referring to sleep as a restful thing, obviously without nightmares.
Yet the singer goes on to say that you don't have to stay asleep for good things to come your way. "The sun is always gonna rise up," lets the listener know that bad times come to pass and light will shine your way once again. It encourages you to keep going, keeping your head up and realizing that not everything around is bad. The people around you feel the same way, you aren't alone in what you feel. It may be dark sometimes, but even you can make yourself feel better by knowing that it will come to pass.
The four lines after the chorus are almost like another person arguing with the chorus. As you grow up and leave your parents behind, the adult world grows bigger with more strange people. You will feel a bit more alone. It can be difficult to see the light through all the mess of new experiences. You're scared and you want to hide.
After a repeat of the chorus, the stanza shows a change of heart from the previous ones and seems to be encouraged to fight past the unhappiness. They are going to "leave a mark, set a spark" by showing that they do exist, they aren't alone and they don't have to feel that way. Finally the singer wants to leave completely by "coming up off the ground", and they won't be looking back down to the "ground" where their sad feelings are. They leave those behind.
The song ends on the happy note of the chorus again, letting listeners know that the bad times won't persist. It picks me up when I feel down and I hope it does so for others.
"Seems that I have been held, in some dreaming state
A tourist in the waking world, never quite awake
No kiss, no gentle word could wake me from this slumber
Until I realise that it was you who held me under
Felt it in my fist, in my feet, in the hollows of my eyelids
Shaking through my skull, through my spine and down through my ribs
No more dreaming of the dead as if death itself was undone
No more calling like a crow for a boy, for a body in the garden
No more dreaming like a girl so in love, so in love
No more dreaming like a girl so in love, so in love
No more dreaming like a girl so in love with the wrong world
And I could hear the thunder and see the lightning crack
All around the world was waking, I never could go back
Cos all the walls of dreaming, they were torn right open
And finally it seemed that the spell was broken
And all my bones began to shake, my eyes flew open
And all my bones began to shake, my eyes flew open
No more dreaming of the dead as if death itself was undone
No more calling like a crow for a boy, for a body in the garden
No more dreaming like a girl so in love, so in love
No more dreaming like a girl so in love, so in love
No more dreaming like a girl so in love with the wrong world
Snow White's stitching up the circuitboards
Synapse slipping through the hidden door
Snow White's stitching up the circuitboard
No more dreaming of the dead as if death itself was undone
No more calling like a crow for a boy, for a body in the garden
No more dreaming like a girl so in love, so in love
No more dreaming like a girl so in love, so in love
No more dreaming like a girl so in love with the wrong world
Snow White's stitching up the circuitboards
Synapse slipping through the hidden door
Snow White's stitching up the circuitboard
Synapse slipping through the hidden door"
"Blinding" by Florence and the Machine has quickly become my favorite song in the short time since I first heard it.
It catches a person's attention with the unique beginning of a crow's echoing caw, and a girl's laughter and screaming while gentle music plays in the background. When main singer, Florence starts in, her deep voiced vocals and unusual lyrics make this song truly intriguing.
For an overall summary, I believe this song is about growing up, realizing that one cannot be a little girl when it comes to love. You can't be the princess dreaming for her prince all the time. Eventually the princess needs to help herself and move on past the prince who failed to "rescue her". She is blinded, therefore the song title. The song carries many themes that remind the listener of a fairy tale. The garden, the spell, "no kiss that can wake her from her slumber" alluding to Sleeping Beauty and the mention of Snow White. She likens her experience and herself to a fairy tale. Along with the caw of the crow in the first moments of the song, one hears a girl's laughter. This also has an echo to it, suggesting that it's a part of her dream in which she can laugh.
The first four lines emphasize this fact by demonstrating that the world the singer is in is fake, something fabricated within the subconscious of her mind. She doesn't belong there, as indicated by the word "tourist", her prince won't save her from the unreality and eventually it's revealed to be his fault. He entrapped her there in her dream world by encouraging it.
The next lines about her bones shaking makes me think that she feels the urge to break free from the delusions. Under her eyelids, her eyes begin to move. She is waking up from that dream.
The following chorus about death being undone could possibly mean that she is attempting to put him past her, to "bury" him. She is willing herself not to turn back and dig him back up. There can't be any more of that. Calling for a crow makes the image of her yelling ugly. The crow is definitely no song-bird, she would be "cawing" for him. It's an obnoxious, loud sound. It is out of place and unpleasant. The next lines are pretty self-explanatory, going off of the "getting over him" theme. She describes herself as a girl, not a woman, telling that her love for the boy was immature. She says "wrong world", also indicating that it isn't right. She doesn't belong in that world, nor does her love.
Coming out of that dream was like a storm to her. It was unyielding and undeniable, such as the sound of thunder and the crack of lightning can be. The lyrics are literal from there. She woke up and was unable to regress back to what she had felt.The "dream was torn open" and the "spell was broken". Reality has come crashing down on her.
The next two lines reiterate that the more time passes, the more she wakes up and leaves the dream behind. No longer can she feel it in her eyes, but her eyelids fly open. She is fully awake and aware now. The dream is completely gone.
After a repeat of the chorus, we find a more confusing and abstract couple of lines. Here we have the mention of Snow White, the character from a famous fairy tale. Though there are many interpretations one could make of this, I believe that "Snow White stitching up the circuit boards" refers to her putting her life back together and jump-starting it. It brings up the image of her sewing back pieces of something that will ignite and move things along. "Synapse slipping through the hidden door" could mean that she can't function like she used to. Courtesy of the Merriam Webster Dictionary, a synapse is defined as the point at which a nervous impulse passes from one neuron to another, and this brings the imagery of some discord among her brain. Being forced into reality has put her brain on the fritz as she "slips through the hidden door". The door is hidden, meaning she won't find it again. Not after she has gone through it.
This song is very magical in my eyes, with its allusions to fairy tales and it gives me the feeling of being in a forest. I like the theme of growing up and not being caught in an idealized love, all the while putting a dark, dreary spin on the reality that falling in love isn't always good, especially if you have "Prince Charming" expectations. Even if I find another favorite song in the future, this one will forever have a place in my heart.
Who knew that one
could find a ballad inside the story of a manga?
Bleach is the tale
of a fifteen year old boy who receives Death God (or as in the original
Japanese, shinigami) powers from a female Death God named Rukia so that he can protect his family from an evil spirit. She loses all of
her powers and has to teach him how to use them. After spending a lot of time together, the
two become close friends. However, her giving
her Death God powers to an ordinary human is a crime in her world (the Soul
Society), and she is taken back to her home to be executed. She saves him from
being killed by her captors and leaves. Ichigo is not about to let the one
who gave him the powers to protect his loved ones be sentenced to death.
After thinking on
it for a while, I have found that his journey to save the Death God, Rukia, is
very similar to a ballad, whether the author knows it or not, which I will explain.
Ichigo is, first of
all, a male character whose main identity is as a protector. Upon receiving
Death God powers from Rukia, he is able to protect his loved ones from evil
spirits. He is strong and brave and he has high morals. He can't stand seeing someone hurt or crying. Yet he doesn't
perfectly fit the ballad's traditional hero because he is brash and
stubborn. He respects only those who earn his respect, and even then he sometimes
refers to them familiarly. There is no doubt, though, that he is definitely the
hero of the story who must save the girl.
We see her being
arrested and Ichigo is frustrated. He is unhappy that he wasn't able to save
her from being taken. (Important for understanding: In manga, dialogue is read from right to left.)
Later on, he and
his friends infiltrate the Soul Society in order to rescue Rukia. The Soul
Society, as mentioned before, is another spiritual dimension altogether,
therefore fitting the "far far away" classification. His main purpose
is to save her.
Along the way to
saving her, he goes through a difficult type of training that awakens his
darker side, the demonic side of him (the "dragon" of a typical ballad). It is literally another side
of him hidden within his mind. He is forced to fight his other side in order to
live so that he can forge on to regain power to save Rukia.
It is also worth
noting that his inner side has in fact labeled himself as the horse that lends
Ichigo his power, while Ichigo is the king who uses the horse's strength in
battle.
During his journey,
he meets many other antagonists who can also fit the "dragon"
description, but his inner demon is possibly the most significant, being his
own personal dark side that he must defeat (literally).
Ichigo and Rukia
are reunited several times, and forced to part upon interference from enemies and
unfortunate circumstances. Each time, emphasis is put on their interactions with each other. Manga being a visual medium, it shows the significance and importance of the two finding each other and reuniting once more. It makes it seem that much more important for the hero to save the damsel.
Sadly, he doesn't manage to rescue her that time and must fall back to train once more.
Finally the time
comes for Rukia to be executed. This is the moment that time seems to stop as
it looks like all of Ichigo's efforts are wasted and the damsel is sacrificed
without being saved. She mentally thanks her friends and Ichigo for being there
for her as she is nearly killed.
But wait!
What's this?!
It is the cheesy
heroic cliché as Ichigo gets there just in time to save her. He blocks the large, fiery guillotine (remembering this is a supernatural fantasy series, the guillotine is the shape of a large bird that is on fire). Overused and
unmistakable, the hero arrives at the last moment and his image is emphasized
as he takes her from the scaffold she was nearly killed upon.
Note how the author took care in drawing the hero much larger in comparison to the girl he's saving. Though the way he holds her isn't necessarily romantic, the scene and imagery says it all. Hardly any background, a picture that takes up the whole page. It just screams at the reader how majestic this scene is supposed to be.
Many battles ensue,
and the real antagonist is revealed. Ichigo is able make peace with the residents of the Soul Society. He finds
Rukia to tell her that they are leaving.
Here we find an
ironic contradiction to the usual ballad tradition. Instead of the two riding off into the sunset, hero victorious and damsel returning, the damsel is going to stay
in the place she needed to be saved from.
Even the hero is surprised! He was so caught up in saving her, he forgets that the Soul Society is where she belongs.
But of course, it's
her home. Her friends are not against her anymore and it's where she as a Death
God belongs. The two part...
...and are later
reunited once more.
So perhaps it's not
the best description of a ballad, but it follows the clichéd storyline so well
that you can't doubt what the author was going for. Maybe there's another word for it in Japanese, but whatever is used to label it, it is unmistakably a ballad inside of a story. Damsel is taken, hero trains and fights his own personal "dragons", and saves the girl. And even though this time they didn't return home together and end up happily ever after, there is a sense of completeness at the end. It is happy, though not ever after. Yet...
Whether in English or another language, poems are able to convey the most touching emotions and feelings just in the way they are written. My favorite poems are the ones that delve into the mind of someone to reveal their innermost thoughts they wouldn't speak aloud. These kinds of poems can be found in manga.
Manga is a type of graphic novel/comic book originating from Japan and available in many different genres, similar to regular comic books. There can be as few as five volumes, or as many as fifty-plus volumes to a series.
I have found the most excellent examples of mind-searching poems in my favorite manga series, Bleach. The author, Tite Kubo, will put a short verse on the first page behind the cover of every volume. These verses reveal the innermost thoughts and purposes of the one character featured on the cover of the volume while relating to the storyline portrayed in that particular volume. One of my absolute favorite poems comes from volume forty from the mind one of the antagonists, Ulquiorra Schiffer.
This poem is one of my favorites ever written, and I will analyze it's meaning and what makes it so deep.
His poem is as follows:
"I envy because of the heart
I glutton because of the heart
I covet because of the heart
I am prideful because of the heart
I sloth because of the heart
I rage because of the heart
Because of the heart
I lust for everything about you."
Now, without story context, one could come up with the simple solution that this man's heart is full of negative emotion for someone. It even ends up sounding romantic towards the end. It almost emits a sort of "forbidden love" feeling. That's not far from the conclusion I, and many others who read the series, have gotten to. I will provide a brief backstory and why the "heart" is so significant in this poem.
To summarize, Ulquiorra is nihilistic. He finds no meaning in the world. He does not feel emotion. He eventually meets the bright and pure hearted character, Orihime Inoue.
Ulquiorra was ordered by his leader to kidnap Orihime in order to distract the main heroes of the story from the destruction of their home town. Later on, the evil leader announces his true motive and dismisses Orihime from her use. Once this happens, Ulquiorra questions Orihime if she is afraid that she will die alone, without her friends. She answers him with a clear no. She tells him that she is happy that her friends came to save her, and her heart is with them. This confuses Ulquiorra, who does not understand.
He tells her, "Heart? You humans toss around that word like it's nothing...as if it's something you can hold in the palm of your hand. This eye of mine reflects everything. There is nothing it can't penetrate. What cannot be seen simply does not exist. That's what I've always believed. What is a heart? Can it be seen if I rip open this chest of yours? If I crush your skull? Will I find it there?"
He isn't speaking about the physical heart per se, but philosophically. Being nihilistic, he simply does not understand. As a reader can see, the "heart" subject is very significant to Ulquiorra's character.
Several chapters later in volume forty, after a huge battle with the main protagonist, Ulquiorra is dying and crumbling into ashes. He turns to Orihime, who is present in the remains of the battlefield, and says, "And to think I was starting to become interested in you people." He then asks her if she is afraid of him specifically. She again tells him no, and he reaches for her. She reaches back, but his fingers dissipate right as her hand meets his. While he begins to fade, he thinks, "Ah, this in my hand...is the...heart."
It's the epic conclusion. Mister Big-and-Bad, Mister Emotionless has gained a philosophical heart through reaching towards the girl he interacted with most.
Remembering the poem, each line, save for the second to last one, features the word "heart". Knowing the story context, the meaning is understood.
The reader should also recognize Kubo's use of the Seven Deadly Sins. These are all emotions, something Ulquiorra claims not to have, and sinful ones portrayed negatively. Judging from the wording of the poem, he has accessed these emotions through gaining the "heart". I believe that it plays on the "forbidden love" theme through the use of these not-so-innocent emotions. However, it needs to be clarified that in the original Japanese characters, the word "lust" doesn't carry the sinful connotations it would in English. Instead, the characters used are translated as "desire" or "longing", yet it's still obvious, even to Japanese readers, that he is playing upon the Seven Deadly Sins.
You may ask, "But is it really her he's speaking about?" This is a common question in the Bleach fandom. The answer is yes, and this can be proven with the original Japanese text.
"I lust for everything about you":
お前のすべてを欲する
The same characters used in the word "you" in the original Japanese kanji is the same he uses when speaking to Orihime in the main storyline.
In conclusion, Ulquiorra's deepest thoughts are a longing for the person who was so opposite of him. This poem, though simple and not all that complex, conveys a lot of emotion. Since this is my favorite manga series, this poem is special and more beautiful to me, being familiar with the characters. I was awed at how Ulquiorra changed as a person only to fade into the air after finally experiencing something so climactic. He is the antagonist, the character who is stereotypically "bad" or "evil". It is very meaningful for him to have developed such a contradiction to his original personality and purpose, all because of one other character. His poem heavily implies the "forbidden love" theme, reflecting on how he selfishly wants what he can't have. More emphasis is put on this in the way that his feelings are expressed through sins. He is evil and dark, she is good and light. Stereotypically two things that aren't meant to mix.
Even if it wasn't featured in Bleach, it is still a beautiful poem. Romantic or not, I find the use of the Seven Deadly Sins incredibly intriguing and clever, while the theme of "forbidden love" adds a heart-melting feeling to it. It is one of my very favorite poems ever written, and I thoroughly enjoy analyzing it and the background behind it.
