Levkadios Hearn
Levkadios Hearn. 1850-1904.
Let’s go back to Japan in 1904. A Buddhist death ceremony has just taken place. Ask the average man in the street, just returning from the ceremony, and he will tell you sadly that the well known poet Mr. Levkadios Hern is dead. Levkadios? Yes it rings a bell doesn’t it? Isn’t there an island of the “eftanissa” called Lefkada? Ah yes my friend that is correct. And what if I told you this “poet” that the man is rambling sorrowfully about is really the child of a woman who’s surname is Kasimati? But, you ask, how did a Kasimati child get to Japan for goodness sake…well it’s a long tale…let’s start a few years before the year of 1850, the year that Hern was bought into the world. On Kythera a young girl named Rose Kasimati has just met a young Irish soldier serving on the island, and finds herself falling in love. His name is Charles Hern. So here we have the parents. Now let us continue to 1850, when, on the island of Levkada, little Levkadios (the name is of course taken from the island) is being born. So now we have established his existence successfully, let us continue with his story.
At the age of six Levkadios finds himself moving with his family to his fathers home country, Ireland. However soon he must witness the break up of his family as his mother leaves his father, and the bereft husband finds a new wife. Young Hern is left at the mercies of very religious roman-catholic aunt, who decides she wants him to become a priest, and sends him to Durham to study.
At the age of eighteen however, Hern takes his first big travelling decision and sets off for America. Poor, and usually redundant, first in NY, the Cincinnati and finally New Orleans working as a reporter, at last he manages to get a job as an editor.
Soon his work, serious or cynical, begins to collect admirers, however Hern feels uncomfortable with the American way of life.
Still working for his newspaper we next find him in India, dedicating time to describing his travels, and exploring various aspects of the country that interest him to great length. No longer is he just a reporter, now Hern has become a travelling philosopher. But India cannot hold him for long, and a voice calls from the east…
In 1890 Hern got his first sight of “The Land of the Rising Sun”, and to that land he offered his life and soul, as one of the first Europeans to take an interest in the country and become beloved to it’s people. Soon Hern becomes hardly distinguishable from an every day Japanese, he wears local clothing, speaks the lingo almost perfectly and is married to a lovely little Japanese lady of the aristocracy. He teaches English in the university of Tokyo, and is much loved by students and people.
Soon Hern adopted Buddhism as his chosen religion and delved deep into it’s philosophies and ways.
Hern based almost all his work around his beloved new home land, Japan. Poems, stories and studies, all dedicated to her. He bought Japan to the world and the world to Japan, and after his death in 1904 the Japanese continue until this day to honour his memory with celebrations, memorials and various dedications.
And all this from a boy born of Kythera…I do believe the island, or at least it’s soul that passes on forever, is entitled to a little of the praise, don’t you agree?
