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| Wednesday, 10 March 2004 |
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Poetry penetrates language barrier Ocean of Compassion Author: Claudia Weeraperuma This anthology of English poems by a German speaking Swiss now living in France is unusual for a number of reasons. Firstly her attempt to write in a langauge foreign to her, even though she had studied English as a subject at university level. Secondly the adequacy of her command of the foreign tongue to enable her to express her feelings with some confidence. Also the content of most of the poems stems from her pre-occupation with the ultimate values of life that have found expression in Buddhism and Hinduism. However, they are not religious in an explicit sense nor metaphysical in the sense that we consider the 17th century metaphysical English poets. She is also an artist who has attempted to add meaning to her verbal creations with drawings, some of which appear very ironical and laconic. This habit of presenting drawings with stories and poems is an old one both in the East and the West. They illustrated some dramatic aspect, and in recent times some of the best drawings appeared with Dickens work. But of late very rarely does one come across such work in fiction or in poetry, or even in drama. And if they are present they are the work of a special artist, and not that of the author. Claudia, however has re-introduced this pictorial element to great effect sometimes, and she herself has drawn them. If an author possesses that talent why not use it to embellish the text? This anthology of 15 poems of varying length range from an uninhibited tribute to her husband, (who is still living) and to another Mata Amritanandayi, to whom the book is dedicated and who had a strong spiritual influence on the author, to some fairly long meditative poems like 'Song of an Autumnal Leaf', and the 'People of the night'. While the shorter ones are fairly easy to understand, probably her earliest attempts at versification, the two longest ones are in parts very obscure. While one appreciates the complex nature of religious or spiritual feelings, one is persuaded to read them several times before the core of the meaning is revealed slowly. 'Song of the autumnal leaf' is representative of the meditative poems, and have been written in the second phase of her poetical development. Here the symbolism is straightforward, and her thoughts on impermanence and change are brought out in terms of the change of weather "And still the winds are playing their cruel Games with me. They toss and turn to - And-fro, to dry up all my veins... The 'Divine Musician' is highly contemplative as most of the other poems, and tends to be metaphysical at the end. "I am not a person, please Very close to Donne in feeling, though in another context. The same mood dominates the next poem 'The Stream', where Claudia brings in the figure of Siddhartha, and the concept of enlightenment. In the next poem she refers to the Buddha, showing the author's strong preference for Buddhist imagery. She has a drawing of a Bo leaf on this page suggestive of Buddhism, and then she goes on to elaborate some themes of "An Autumnal Leaf'. "Oh dearest leaf if only you turned round: Turn round, dear leaf, if truth and peace you seek"... The poem 'Screen' is illustrated on a side with drawings of a cannon, a fearful mask of a devil, a hut enveloped in flames, the sneering face of a man wearing a top hat with a feather sticking out, a pair of legs of a young slim woman in the act of walking through tall grass, a pair of half open eyes drowned in tears, and a top hat pierced with a sword cutting it open from the top to the brim. The imagery is weird, to say the least, and carry no integrated meaning. People of the night' is one of the longer poems, and obviously deal with a dream situation, the imagery and allusions being often recondite. Tilak. A. Gunawardhana **** Back **** |
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