Song #96. Nine Is The Lucky Number (for Jeff and Emi on their wedding day)

Five hundred years after the war

(The one Thucydides retold)

Or about a hundred since

Julius C. had remade  

What Lucius M. had so well razed

A letter penned in Ephesus

Sailed across a wine-dark sea

180 miles west

To Corinth on the Peloponnese

It’s subject, immorality

And faith and hope and charity

The greatest being charity

But when we stow our children’s things

(Translations by an English King)

Charity is replaced by love

(Very much a marriage thing)

Horns of jealousy are veiled

Women’s teeth are painted black

One thousand and one paper cranes

Sail gold across pacific seas.

From another Island Nation-State

To an Eastern sea-board town

Two families fuse their two

Southwest mile high desert kin

Three times three (san-san-kudo)

Stand with your greatest human flaws

Hate and pride and ignorance

Behind a 14 welders lens

And you can look straight at the sun

And reread Paul’s 1C13

-June 2010

The notes were made on 3/4/2012.  Jeff asked me if I would like to write a song for their wedding.  I gathered ideas slowly and is often the case in these matters I didn’t complete the thing until the morning before the wedding.  In the research about weddings in Japan, I learned that certain traditions were incorporated from the west, particularly Paul’s First Corinthians 13, which is included in so many western weddings as well.  Since this wedding was also a melding of these traditions, Emi from Japan and Jeff from not Japan, this seemed worth exploring. And the references within 1C13 gave access to historical and image references to play on in the song...the reference to the welder's glass compared "through the glass, darkly".

In the photo above Jefff and Emi are perfroming the San-San-Kudo ceremony.  According to web, "Sansankudo no Sakazuki" generally called "sakazuki-goto," is the traditional custom at every wedding performed according to Shinto rites - Long ago in Japan, sake played an important role in tying together the gods and common people. Therefore, one would never drink alone, but always in groups. There are now many old customs which have lost their meaning or popularity, but the drinking of sake at wedding ceremonies, known as "Sansankudo no sakazuki", a major focus of the ceremony, continues to thrive even in modern culture. "Sansankudo no sakazuki" brings the gods in between humans to help them, through the sharing of sake, come closer together and create a bond of friendship.”  “San-san-kudo literally means "three, three, nine times." The cup used at san-san-kudo is a special one called "sakazuki," which is only used to drink sake and no other beverages. The bride and groom take turns taking three sips each of three different bowls of sake, each one larger than the next. One does not drink the sake like a 'shot' but rather tilting the cup up very gradually and sipping lightly. Three is an indivisible number, and it is considered a sacred number in Buddhism. Nine means triple happiness. But just as the san-san-kudo sake sips may not be altogether delicious, the couple's marriage life may not always be delightful, but they will have to overcome their hardships with the co-operative spirit of the san-san-kudo. By exchanging the nuptial sake sips—three times three—husband and wife are united.”  I liked the notion of three times three, and the three words in Paul 1C13, and the two different translations over time.

I have only played this song once at the wedding but hope to relearn it again, although the music will certainly be different than on that day.  I would also love to have this song translated properly into Japanese and then to try to learn it in.

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