"Cinco Cartas de um Império do Oriente" por Alasdair Gray (escritor e artista escocês) ? Provavelmente leia em sua coleção Histórias improváveis, na maioria das vezes .
Em Goodreads :
This set of five letters by Alasdair Gray forms a breathtaking satire on absolutism, showing how absolute power can corrupt absolutely. The writer of the first four is Bohu, who has been trained from an early age to become the emperor's premier tragic poet. His keen eye at first reports ecstatically about the emperor's achievements, but reality bites and his eyes open slowly but surely. His great poem is discussed in the final letter. This is a powerful introduction to Gray's work: surely a lot of pleasant discoveries like this await!
De um artigo sobre um programa individual adaptação da história;
The gist of it is that he's been taken away from his parents at the age of five to be trained as a tragic poet for the Emperor, in anticipation of the order to write a great poem. The first four letters in question are Bohu's dictated letters to home which tell his life story and his experiences to alleviate his lonliness in the palace (with the order to write being around the corner) despite his entourage or chef, servant, etc etc. When he finally he got it, only to write about the destruction of the old capital, which he refused to because the emperor had everyone living there killed as they were "unnecessary people", which (might) included his parents; after which he asked to die because
"While the old city and my parents lived my childhood lived too. But the emperor's justice has destroyed my past, irrevocably. I am like a land with history. I am now too shallow to write".
Towards the end of his death, he finally wrote his great poem despite not wanting to. Here's the last dialog of the play:
“To sum up,” declares Gigadib, “The Emperor’s Injustice will delight our friends, depress our enemies, and fill middling people with nameless awe. The only change required is the elimination of the first syllable of the last word of the title”.
Descrição mais detalhada: link