Epitaph(SATB)

Digital Score ONLY (currently this is only for participants of the 6th Tokyo International Choir Competition)

Composer：Rikuya Terashima

Words from composer

Tamiki Hara (1905-1951) was exposed to the atomic bomb near the hypocenter in Hiroshima, but fortunately survived. He is a rare literary person who has observed in detail and sublimated those devastations into a literary work. His representative works include “Summer Flower” and “The Land of Heart’s Desire” in novels, “Scenes of Hiroshima” and “A Time of Suffering” in poetry, and Swift’s “Gulliver’s Travels” in translation. Before the atomic bombing, he had lost his beloved wife and had been suffering from the hardships of life. After the bombing, his pain became even greater and he took his own life, leaving behind such gems as the aforementioned. The “epitaph” is a poem written by Tamiki in his suicide note. It may be his own epitaph. The monument now stands near the Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park.