78. Military Pride

Dare you not, my enemies, to stand against my monarch!
Many who did now stand as stone monuments.

It is more gratifying to carry a lance that missed an elephant
than to hold an arrow that hit a thicket-dwelling rabbit. 

Intrepid courage is what they call valor, 
and clemency toward the defeated is its sharp edge. 

Having hurled his spear at a battlefield elephant,
the hero found another piercing his side and grasped it with glee.

Is it not a disgraceful defeat to the courageous warrior 
if his defiant eyes so much as blink when a lance is hurled at him? 

When recounting his days, the heroic soldier regards all those
on which no battle scars were sustained as squandered.

To fasten the warrior's anklet on one who desires glory 
more than life is to decorate heroism with distinction.

Men of courage who do not fear for their lives in battle do not 
forfeit soldierly ardor, even if the king prohibits their fighting. 

Who would dare deride as defeated
men who die fulfilling valor's vow?

Heroic death that fills the sovereign's eyes with tears 
worth begging for and then dying for.