The Emperor’s Clothes
Repost This ArticleDo not question
the numbers
when speaking of
your dead sons
in the field of war.
accept quietly
your death dues.
Hush! Don’t worry!
just in case
you trouble
Our Army Officers.
Gentlemen of the Black Robes,
you who were called traitors,
we know your Glory!
Hush! Shut your ears!
No Legal Action against
The Power Holders now
just in case
you distress
Their Leader.
A billion ends with nine zeros!
war is indeed costly
on what, pray, was it all spent?
Hush! No questions please!
Just in case
you embarrass
Our Rulers.
The liberated are free
in detention camps,
should another
Liberator descend to
free them.
Hush, Make no noise!
just is case
Our Sensitive Parliament
collapses
At such Heavy Questions.
Do not inquire
about the corpses
appearing here and there
of course, once in a way
Disappearances do Happen!
Hush! Don’t worry!
just in case
The Power and Glory
of our King
that rises by the day
Shatters.
Hungry? Just a little patience!
don’t you know?
this is only the effect
of a world wide crisis.
Hush! Shut the Door!
stay Indoors..
Just in case
You expose
Our apprehensive government
shying away
in Stage Fright
from The People
Hear nothing!
See nothing!
Say nothing.!
Until the little child
who saw through
the Emperor’s Clothes
…Into the Nakedness,
Arrives
To
Awaken Us.
Poem by Mahesh Munasinghe, August 2009. Sinhala original can be read here.
“your dead sons in the field of war” are u refering to the LTTE monsters who died? are you tyring to glorfy terrorists?
Just accept your death dues – and let god sort them out!
Very nicely put sir
Like father like son?
Her swollen womb
bounced like a balloon
with water inside.
She wondered if there would be pain
during labor before the first cries of birth
burst forth from between her legs!
Would it be a girl?
Or would it be a boy?
If it was a girl,
would she be like her?
And if it was a boy,
would he be a brute like his father,
who raped her nine months ago,
when they captured her village,
and killed her family?
Nice poem Mahesh, and Kudos to President Bean – a very timely addition, evoking something so common that few Sri Lankans tend to talk about….
Thank you,Mahesh. Hope you will write more. May I respond with a poem of my own.
Mahaweli, Kalani, Walawe, Kalu Ganga
I used to sing
kavi from padyawaliya
Mahaweli, Kalani, Walawe, Kalu gangas
Flowing from the butterfly hill
Heard songs also of ratharan puthun
And charming girls growing in the villages
Then I saw,
bodies floating in rivers
rainwater flowing from mountains
mixed with blood
floating bodies
eaten by kabaragoy
Now I do not like to hear of
Walawe, Kalani and Kalu
Mountains have lost
Mystery or attraction
In the eyes of mothers
I see not tears but distrust
What am I, I ask myself
What is my motherland?
I want to sing those same poems
to that I can’t bring myself.
(Kavi – Poems, Padyawaliya – A school anthology; Ratharan puthun – Golden sons; Kabaragoy – water monitor)
Thank you – superb creativity, Mahesh.
Bean and Basil too.
Thank you Mahesh Munasinghe, President Bean, Basil Fernando for refreshing poems. Very kind of you to share these charming treasures with us.
To whom it concerns,
I’m not sure if this President Bean, who wrote “Like father like son?”, is a man or woman. From the sadistic violence writ all over the poem, it is highly unlikely President Bean is a woman. Most women around the world are victims of some form of rape. It may be that President Bean and the others, who are rooting for this “poem”, have no inkling of the violence perpetrated against women under the banner of a lawfully wedded marriage. Much of the rapes that go on in marriages can be seen as a form of legal rape, as many of these women cannot exert full ownership over their own bodies. Furthermore, in using the term “brute” to describe a child that is the product of rape is yet another form of violence perpetrated against a helpless child. Why so much hatred towards a child?
The woman described in this “poem” – whether real or imagined – is an example of how her pained, sorrowful existence is exploited in order to score a point against the enemy. This “poem” doesn’t strike one as a condemnation of rape but does the converse: it makes a mockery of the victim. In an attempt to discredit the Sinhala soldiers, the narrator’s sadistic rejoicing at the expense of the two victims (woman and child) tells us that the narrator and his admirers have dehumanized the woman – re-victimizing her in the process.
A good poem has a way of uplifting the human spirit even when it addresses the direst of human conditions. This is the difference between poetry and hate literature.
Dear Atheist…did you ever hear of a girl called Krishanti Kumaraswamy???
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krishanti_Kumaraswamy
…and here is a poem to uplift your human spirit…
Oh You Deadly Cyanide!
(sung to the tune of “Oh My Darling Clementine”)
Round my neck there hangs a chain,
And on it’s end there is a vial,
It is small and looks quite deadly,
And we call it cyanide!
Oh you deadly, oh you deadly,
Oh you deadly cyanide,
You don’t taste good like a toffee,
But for suicide, you’re just fine!
Basil Fernando
What are the legal consequences for holding the Tamils in the internment camps? How long does Sri Lankan law allow to hold anyone in there under PTA ? Can bereaved relatives sue the SL Government for wrongful deaths?
Thank you.
With regret, I need to say that Aethiest’s comment reads like a comment from someone who has completely lost the plot. Apples and oranges, mallun and karavala or whatever – one has to understand the context evoked in a piece of writing (poetry or otherwise), to engage in an in-depth reading of it.
Aethist mixes up the whole thing, and then shows us why he does so…to display his view of the Sinhala soldiers. If, like many Sri Lankans today, you think Sinhala soldiers are the most disciplined and the most perfect of men (and a few women in ‘puppet roles’ in the military establishment), you surely have every right and reason to do so, but I don’t think it’s right to mix things up, mess up your points and crudely criticise someone who has a contrary view.
President Bean’s poem is very timely, and should be translated into Sinhala and Tamil, and many more Sri Lankans (and foreigners) should definitely read it.
“The quantum of cruelty we do to one another is explosive. We are at war with ourselves, and with our most essential habitat of culture and environment. A terrific shock is needed to wake us from the frightening underworlds of our moral sleep.” Wrote the well known Indian poet from Kerala K.G. Sankara Pillai.
To be writing about such cruelty cannot be dismissed as expressions of hate. Creativity that refuse to reflect on the cruelly that surround us, infact flee from such reality, is what is often thought of as poetry in Sri Lanka. However, we need to become capable of reflecting on such cruelty, if we are to regain our real selves.
Dear Kaviya,
Here is one of my favourite passages from Rabindranath Tagore’s Gitanjali:
“He is there where the tiller is tilling the hard ground and where
The path-maker is breaking stone. He is with them in sun and in shower, and his garment is covered with dust. Put off thy
holy mantle and even like him come down on the dusty soil!”
Tagore’s philosophy of the ‘world soul’ – our unity with the human community and with the Eternal – is well encapsulated in these lines. Yes, there is pain, misery and all manner of violence in the world, but a great poet/artist captures this suffering within the wider context of human experience.
Speaking of suffering, the post WW II Jewish poet, Paul Celan, both saw and experienced the darkest side of Germany under Hitler while being imprisoned in Nazi labour camps. Celan’s poems, though often bleak and characterized by images of death, rises above the mere physicality of violence by looking at the Jewish Holocaust, as a tragic period in German history. In addressing the roots of anti-Semitism in German society within the backdrop of human uncertainty and the unknowability of God, no one can accuse him of the type of sensationalism we often see among lesser poets.
As for T.S. Eliot, in “The Waste Land”, he starts with “April is the cruellest month” and ends off with “Shanthi, Shanthi”. In looking at alienation under modernity, Eliot weaves myths and religious/spiritual ideas from diverse traditions – ranging from Ancient Greece to Buddha’s Fire Sermon. Through all this intersubjectivity, I believe, it is our shared experience of suffering that is at the heart of “The Waste Land”.
Where a lesser poet blames society/person/group for his or her suffering, I think, a great poet is able to see the interconnectedness of all life through the experience of suffering.
President Bean,
It seems like this is getting to be a habit of yours. Coming up with “poems” that give a very tawdry – even sadistic – depiction of violence against women scares the heck out of me.
Is the Krishanti Kumaraswamy case new to you? How dare you ask this so candidly of me as if you were inquiring about whereabouts of the nearest corner store? The exploitation of the dead and those traumatized by violence does not a poet make.
People walked out on Shekar Kapur’s Bandit Queen as the insightful viewing audience knows the difference between authenticity and sensationalism.
Tough Beans!!!
Shanuki Perera,
First of all, Shanuki Perera, I do not go as “Aethiest”, but as Atheist. Second, calling oneself an Atheist doesn’t automatically make one a “he”. In referring to me as “he”, you’ve shown your lack of knowledge about society at large; boy, it’s scary! Also, on my part, it would be wrong of me to assume you are a Sinhala woman based on your name – you may be anything as far as I’m concerned.
As for “Mallung and karavala” or “Keerai and Karavadu” what is your point? Oh, I see, you’re telling me that I was unable to grasp the deep meaning of this “poem”. You are absolutely right! Anyway, you must be someone who engages in in-depth discussions at poetry readings in literary circles. As for an ordinary person like me, I’ve been grappling with Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” for decades. So you can see how I am not on par with the likes of you folks. Please accept my humble apology.
It’s funny that you’ve come to the conclusion that I consider Sinhala soldiers as the most disciplined and the most perfect of men. Though I am not a hotshot literary type like you, I have to put my foot down here and tell you to “cut the crap”. Shanuki Perera, go over my post carefully.
Shanuki Perera, Why wait for President Bean to come with Sinhala and Tamil translations? I am sure you know both languages (if not, you should start learning them right away). As far as getting it into the foreign market, why not approach HarperCollins? I hear they are looking for a few good third world poets. Again, I apologize for calling you and President Bean third world poets.
Ah…I’m tired of this. Chaucer, I guess I’ll go on that pilgrimage once again!
Dear Gadin Ram,
I saw your questions to me only now. Here are my replies.
Q. What are the legal consequences for holding the Tamils in the internment camps?
A. If your are referring to present day IDP camp, such holding of anyone why wants to leave these camps is illegal. (If the person has consented to stay till they find a place to go to ,that is a different matter).
Q.How long does Sri Lankan law allow to hold anyone in there under PTA ?
A. PTA does not apply to this. IDP’s are not kept under PTA provisions.
QCan bereaved relatives sue the SL Government for wrongful deaths?
A.Yes, purely legally speaking. But, to sue crimi8nally, you require investigations and prosecution has to be done by AG.
It is also possible to sue under violations of fundamental rights. and under civil law for damages.
But, the problem is that there are so many impediments, which are not legal, but are of practical nature- and are of political nature.
Dear Manushi,
I have no problem with much of what you have said. What you say, is true. However it is not the whole truth. Same applies, to what I say and what anyone else may say. There is lot more to literature and art. On that subject Leo Tolstoy’s “what is Art”, is quite a useful guide.
However, the talk about great poets and lesser poets is just cheap talk. Who decides that? K.G. Sangara Pillai, whom I quoted, was recognized by his people, by giving him the national award for poetry in Malayalam, on three occasions.
You have mentioned some writers and books you have read. I can also mention so many others I have read. What has all that to do with the poem of Mahesh Munasinghe and of others who have responded?
Why do we need to classify them as great or lesser writings, except to be sarcastic?
As for human condition you have referred to is concerned, it is a very complex affair. It may be reflected by different persons, in so many different ways. Ideas of suffering are also complex and so are the reflections of them.
As for harmony, that is a theme that is exploited often to justify attacks on the expressions of the oppressed. Indian caste system that created untouchables (now Dalits) has been shown as a system that created a great harmony, for example.
Hi Manusha,
Is not “Uncle Tom’s Cabin; or, Life Among the Lowly” by American author Harriet Beecher Stowe not a great novel? It is a novel that condemns slavery in the harshest possible terms. It also condemns religious hypocrisy- in that instance Christian hypocrisy which justified slavery. Moral condemnations have found expressions by way of creative writings. Unfortunately there are not much Sri Lankan creative writings which condemns of the treatments of those who are considered as lesser humans, for whatever reason.
One of the best known protest poems in Sinhala, is about a mother who is saddened by the miserliness of her son. It is a condemnation of son’s conduct. ( This is a very rough translation)
When I went to my son’s house as I was hungry
He gave me two measures of rice exactly measured
I wondered whether to take it or not
Did I measure the milk when I gave that to you
A song sung by Jayathilaka Bandara, at the event organized to celebrate the award received by journalist Tissinayagam who is now in prison is also a protest song. It is a condemnation of everyone who is responsible for that punishment. ( This is rough translation of the opening part of the song.
Tissa, friend
Eating prison rice for the sake truth
The jungle like court is harsh
Only comedians walking in darkness
Absurd lies are floating
Friend, now there are tears in our eyes
Condemnations and curses are very much part of literature in every country.
Dear Atheist,
Sorry for misspelling your pseudo. Secondly, the arrogance in your response clearly shows a very high level of callousness and pride, and as that’s not my cup of tea. Whether you’re a man or a woman is none of my business, and I referred to you as ‘he’ only by mere instinct. As you’ve done with President Bean in your previous comment, you seem to love to guess the gender of people who comment here, but not me. Whatever you assume about me is none of my business either. I never use pseudos, and if I want to say something in a blog or elsewhere I prefer to use my real name my parents gave me some 24 years ago.
I have no interest in contesting anybody’s knowledge on anything, but I felt that in your previous comment you were deliberately trying to show your smartness, by bringing out something that does not concern Bean’s poem – rape within lawfully wedded marriage. PB is on about the situation of women in the internment camps – and thousands of other Tamil women who, (together with children), are the most vulnerable. PB does not call the child a brute – he is only trying to make a comparison…I thoroughly disagree with the second paragraph of your first comment, where you say that PB makes a mockery of the victim. If you see it that way, that’s your view, but I see it in a completely different way. I see PB’s poem as putting forward a strong message about the situation of the displaced women, and not as a piece of hate literature. Then again, people who love to argue for hours over a piece of writing could go on, but that’s not my thing at all.
Concerning Sinhalese soldiers, it was the first impression I got, and I don’t see the need for you to be so arrogant. On translations, I didn’t say that to PB, it was a general impression. I do not think that going on about other people’s language skills in a forum of this nature is appropriate. I am a far cry from anything like a poet, so no comments on your last sentences.
Dear Kaviya,
I certainly didn’t mean to offend you personally or any of the other poets on GroundViews with my use of the term “lesser poet”. If I have done so, please, accept my apology.
When it comes to poetry and prose fiction we all have our favourite authors and our own unique way of deciding what constitutes “good” writing. This is an ongoing debate that is constantly addressed in every English Department. Though I am not a poet, myself, being a student of literature, I am of the view that a good writer/poet is able to cut through illusion and hypocrisy – revealing a momentary insight into our existence, no matter how fleeting.
I like what Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guittari have to say about literature in their work “A Thousand Plateaus”. Here, Deleuze and Guittari use the terms “Major” and “Minor” as a way of distinguishing between the modes of essentializing and “becoming” in writing. Major literature is constructed upon absolutes and transcendent truth, whereas Minor literature is filled with “possibilities” leading to endless “becoming”. For Deleuze and Guittari, “great” literature offers the readers a world of possibilities without thrusting any notion of “the truth”, “the people”, and “the nation” etc…While Major writing re-affirms a particular identity and set of values, Minor writing offers the freedom to become, or rather, to keep “becoming” that which hasn’t been made standard. In this way, “great” literature – full of possibilities and open-ended – tends to come under ‘Minor writing’. Deleuze and Guittari always site the example of Franz Kafka as a Minor writer – indeed a great writer!
This is how I also draw a distinction between “great” poetry and “lesser” poetry – poetry that takes us beyond the periphery of our narrow self-identity as opposed to “lesser” poetry that simply re-affirms this narrow vision of the ‘self’.
A “lesser” poet does not mean that one is a lesser human being. For all we know Shakespeare could have been a “lesser” mathematician.
Hi Thanga,
I am Manushi not Manusha. Uncle Tom’s Cabin has also been criticised by African-Americans and others for stereo typing Blacks. There are many good novels by African American writers like Ralph Ellison, Tony Morrison and James Baldwin (just to name a few) that speak to the Black experience in America.
Getting to the next point, unfortunately, there are people in South Asia who are treated as less than human due to the inhuman caste system. I have read, and heard from certain people who have been at the receiving end of this brutal hierarchy that up until very recently (circa 1980′s in Sri-Lanka) people belonging to oppressed castes were not allowed to draw water from certain wells. The most despicable treatment has been meted out to the toilet cleaners and sweepers. I hear this treatment still continues despite all our talk about equality and human rights.
They should be the chroniclers of their own experiences. For others to appropriate their voice would be highly dishonest.
Kaviya,
Is this real synchronicity or what? You wrote about K.G Sankara Pillai, who is one of my favourite poets, on the 16th on GV. On the 17th I read a write-up in praise of Mr. Basil Fernando in the Lanka Guardian by our same K.G. Sankara Pillai, and he has included the same Mahaweli, Kalani, Walawe, Kalu Ganga on it. People may not believe in synchronicity, and you may call me a weirdo, but I stick to my guns.
ohh, I thought pres bean referred to a LTTE carder by “father”. surely!
what young tamil girls went through with LTTE, none of these poets will defend! they secretly approved of it. momentarily made me want to throw up.
Dear Manushi,
Sorry for misspelling your name.
What ever any body may have said about “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”, I think it is great novel. I do not depend on what other people say in judging why at I read. That there are African writers is no new information either.
The caste issue is not just about cleaners and sweepers. It is not about others. It is the main form of social organization in South Asia, for a very long time. So, it was also in Sri Lanka. It is about all of us in these societies. Much of what had happened in all south Asian countries cannot be understood with out relating it caste problem. Your reference to “others appropriating” reflects an outsiders view. Caste is a collective experience of all of us. It is at the root of our cruelties. It is very much part of “our” minds and hearts. It is as much a problem for Aravind Adigar, who is from an upper caste, as much as it was for Dr. B.R.Ambedkar who was from the untouchable community. It is as much a problem for Sinhalese as also for Tamils.
Dear Manushi,
It is unfortunate that you make some apology for possible feelings of hurt. I think we are all capable of participating in a small exchange of views without being hurt or overjoyed. I thought that apology was a little patronizing. Anyway, just a remark for you.
As for the two writers that you have mentioned, they are among virtually millions of persons who have tried to define what art is. All more or less behave like the blind men who try to describe an elephant. In all literature, Greek and other European literatures, Chinese literature and our own Indian literature, there have been so many, for so many centuries, who have written so much trying to do just that. I have read some of these, and I have read summaries of many views made my prominent critics. I presume that you and many others have done the same.
Many are able to discuss the issue of art and literature without classifying their work as lesser or greater writing. In the same way, we are all able to eat without trying to classify greater or lesser food.
The point in the discussion on the particular poem was simply that oppressed people can also write poetry or create works of art as much as others can do. All kinds of expressions are reflections of our common humanity. Someone else’s pain is also ours. We don’t have to try to appropriate the pain or joy of others, it is just a part of us. Someone’s laughter can make us laugh and someone’s pain can make us also feel sorry or sad. I think that in the ultimate sense this is all that the discussion on art is all about.
Dear Manushi,
Using Tagore as an example of “greater” poetry while putting down a local poet is an utter absurdity. Firstly, Tagore wrote about the human experience within his country. Secondly, he himself was called a “lesser” poet by Yeats because “Tagore does not know English, no Indian knows English,”.
Also, saying books have been “criticised” is no argument against them – which book has not been criticised?
By the way, what do you mean by this statement?
Where a lesser poet blames society/person/group for his or her suffering, I think, a great poet is able to see the interconnectedness of all life through the experience of suffering.
Are you really saying that referring to ills in our society, including the government, and point out suffering is outside the scope of this “great” poetry you vaguely refer to?
And from your passage on T.S. Eliot, you seem to believe that if poetry does not have enough cultural references, then it is no good. What on earth is the justification for this?
And why are you describing this poem as sensationalist? You use words, yet sometimes it’s difficult to tell if you know what they mean…
Applying random contexts from world poetry, telling everybody that these people are good and that you consider their work is lesser – this is not poetry analysis. You are building illusions of grandeur, yet misrepresenting the poets you talk about by putting them on some classist scale.
Also, who are you to say that the writer of this poem is “appropriating” anybody’s suffering? On what basis? Are you saying that they do no have the emotional capability to write about the suffering of the people of Sri Lanka?
In addition, calling someone a “lesser” poet is derisive. (You also seem to have misunderstood the idea of “major” and “minor” in your own analysis, but this is for you to deal with.) Calling them a “lesser” poet and then not actually pointing out a single argument against what they are saying?
I do not mean to engage in your level of literary debate, which seems to be namedropping and vague analysis, but simply to point out that these poets are not gigantic creatures. They wrote about the human experience. Would you try to tell one of these “great” poets how or what to write, or just “lesser” poets from Sri Lanka?
Kaviya ,
I can’t understand why you waste your valuable time educating other posters on this sight. As I told you before, I believe in synchronicity. I think it’s more than synchronicity; perhaps, you have telepathic powers, otherwise how would you know that there’s going to be a write-up about Mr. Basil Fernando by K.G Sankara Pillai. I’m sure, quite a lot of people got interested in K.G Sankara Pillai after reading your GV comment on the 16th and they read the above mentioned writ-up on Lanka Guardian (17th). I’m into tarot cards, tea-leaf and tumbler talking. Some people call it a hoax and go around saying, “liar, liar pants on fire”. I don’t care what they say, but, I know people like you, Kaviya, understand people like us.
Thank you
This is to all those I have unwittingly angered with my use of the term “lesser poet”,
My feeling is that many of you have taken my personal observations on what constitutes “good” and “bad” poetry as a direct attack on poets like you. Perhaps I’ve done what people commonly refer to in Sinhala as: “Aiyo, mama loku baldiyak peraluva!” (Trans. Alas, I overturned a huge (stinky) bucket.)
I must remember to never say “lesser poet” on GroundViews ever again.
Shanuki Perera,
According to you, you never use a pseudonym; you go by the real name given to you by your parents some 24 years ago, plus you have a blog. I, on the other hand, use a pseudonym, am ancient and do not have a blog. Again, a pseudonym can be the reflection of a person’s inner self, can’t it? Although I have no dispute with your name, I am also not that naive to believe in the authenticity of bloggers who go by their “real names”. One reason why certain members who joined GV with real conviction (and whom I happen to know well) later left GV was because bogus bloggers started to harass them. Okay, Ms. Perera, just because you may not have a problem with someone calling you a “man”, do not expect others to be so forgiving. Going by instinct and first impressions can be highly misleading and prejudicial. One has to learn not to judge and label people based on one’s instincts and first impressions.
What do you mean by saying I was “deliberately trying to show [my] smartness”? If what I wrote came across to you as some form of “smartness”, it is probably because you have no prior awareness of this issue. People well aware of this matter will not think of me as trying to be “smart” because this is common knowledge to most of us. If I have to play by your rules, it would probably mean that I throw in the towel and turn myself into “yes” man, constantly parroting what you like to hear: “Great work! Superb! Send us more great articles!”
Though I am an ancient woman, President Bean’s poem revolted me to the very core. Some of the young women, I know, could not even get through the entire poem without feeling sick to the stomach. It could be that we are not as desensitized to violence as some people are nowadays.
I am so glad to hear both you and President Bean care about the women and children in the IDP camps. It would be a bigger relief to know that poetry is not the only link you have with the Tamil people.
I bow my head to all those young men and women who do their bit on behalf of their fellow citizens trapped in those camps without looking for any secondary gains.
Mahesh, beautiful poem, moving, sincere. I read the Sinhala version, which I find even more powerful. Great. thank you.
To the Victor the Spoils….
that my dear,is the name of the game
If the Sun God won,
where would we be?
In a country of lesser
Despots?
Judge not a future,
you have no idea of.
Dear Atheist…i’m a citizen of the world and not a third world poet. I just happened to to be born in a ‘Third World Utopian Paradise.’
“I am neither an Athenian nor a Greek, I am a citizen of the world.”
-Socrates-
Manushi
Sorry to hear that you have turned a stinking bucket on your self. It’s a ironical that a discussion on a poem on Emperor’s Cloths have turned that way. After all the poet has tried to expose hypocrisy. He has succeeded to achieve that . Hope to see more of such poems in the Ground views. Lesser critics may give up. Good Kaviya’s don’t.
Watson, after reading your comment I looked into LG and found the article of KGS. Thanks. I have read that article a few months back when it was first published and am happy to read it again.
Zyklon B was humane?
The landscape is poxed with craters,
Women and children and old people are,
Not gassed to death by Zyklon B but,
Bombed to bits by screaming jets.
The jungle is one big concentration camp,
Auschwitz, Buchenwald, Dachau, Treblinka,
All rolled into a thirty something, square kilometer,
“No Fire Zone”,
3,00,000 Jews of Asia,
On the Idiot Island under India,
Saturated with rockets, shells and cluster bombs,
A crude but effective “Final Solution”,
The brainchild of the Rogerproxy Brothers,
In hindsight Zyklon B seems humane,
But no one cared then,
And no one cares now.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zyklon_B
Dear Athiest,
Today I attempted to watch a documentary about obstetric fistula. It revolted me, and made me feel sick to the stomach, and I couldn’t finish watching it. However, I saw this reaction as a reflection of shortcomings within myself; my inability to handle the harsh realities faced by many women – and not due to insensitivies of the filmmaker.
and apologies for misspelling your name, Atheist.
Dear Atheist,
Thanks for your reply. Primo, I do not have a blog, and the only website with the format of a blog that I’m beginning to like is Groundviews. The rest of the info you share abt the identity of bloggers on GV is news to me, as I only discovered GV for the first time only a few weeks ago.
Concerning the fact that PB’s poem revolted you to the very core, I see this as something worthwhile – I wish more people would feel the same and by shaken by the extent of difficulties undergone by some Sri Lankans in a given part (i.e. the Vanni) of the country, – a place which otherwise appears to be peaceful, especially for non-Sri Lankans.
I do see that you have a better awareness of the issue of the problem evoked in the poem, and I do not contest that. I was only expressing what I felt. Although I’m doing a job in the pure sciences, I am very interested in literature & cinema based on war, nationalism and sepratism – probably a result of schooling in a state where the curriculum devotes a lot of space to the WWI & WWII. Being half Tamil myself, poetry is certainly not the only link I have with Tamils.
Dear Kaviya,
Looks like the bucket it still rolling.
You are right, good poets never give up. Keep chugging along, and perhaps you will get there some day.
End of bucket.
Ayshya,
You said: “Today I attempted to watch a documentary about obstetric fistula. It revolted me, and made me feel sick to the stomach, and I couldn’t finish watching it. However, I saw this reaction as a reflection of shortcomings within myself; my inability to handle the harsh realities faced by many women – and not due to insensitivies of the filmmaker”.
This is why you are not a surgeon, Ayshya. Perhaps the glorification of violence is more your thing! Since you’ve admitted to being unable to differentiate between nature and common vulgarity, the medical community has one less psychopath to worry about. As for misspelling “Atheist”, I am not surprised you and the crew have such a hard time with this world. Doesn’t sit too well in your little world, does it?
Dear Shanuki Perera,
I didn’t mean to say you were one of the bloggers devoted to harassing members of the GV. Why do you take this upon yourself?
Ms. Perera, I am really not interested in either your educational background or your ethnic origins. However, I must say that dishonouring one’s own parents just to fulfill a petty agenda is pretty sad. Having said that, if you claim your origins are, indeed, half-Tamil and half-Sinhala, I have no choice but to take your word.
The pure sciences aside, hope your interest in Cinema and Literature does not begin and end with Rambo.
But, seriously, in looking at the depiction of violence in both Cinema and Literature, I would like to consider two examples. “American Psycho”, originally a novel by Brett Easton Ellis – later turned into a Hollywood movie – portrays the culture of violence and greed in such a way that we are all seen as both the victim and the perpetrator. In contrast, Tobe Hooper’s “Texas Chain Saw Massacre” paints an infantile picture of life by caricaturing and glorifying violence. If you can stomach the latter, good for you! I don’t consider it poetry.
“Who the cap fit, let them wear it!” (Bob Marley)
Nanri Vanakkam !!!
Late M.I. Kuruwilla, who was a reputed teacher of literature,a critic, translator and a author of a book on world literature wrote the following in an Article to “Navasilu”, which was a well known publication then: His words I thought is very relevant for this discussion:
“The major problem confronting the poets whose mother tongue is not English is the language itself. It is easy for a Sri Lankan or Indian poet to slip into an academic literary affecting Eliot and Auden, Stevens and Pound. In fact, this kind of academic approach to the writing of poetry bred in the Universities and sponsored by prestigious literary journals is the besetting vice in the writing of English poetry today.”
Hi there, Mr. Basil Fernando,
Mr. Fernando, Kaviya is probably your number one fan; and that’s the reason Kaviya wrote about Sankara Pillai. Mr. Fernando I’m not a writer and know nothing ‘bout politics. I like hanging around my coven and playing “got cha!” with crystal gazing. Though we are still amateurs at our hobby, time to time, we capture things that are unfathomable. We’ve seen how some so called good Samaritans are trying to dupe people like us. That’s okay; we in the coven get together and have a good laugh. As they say, the more you laugh, the healthier you become.
This week on Lanka Guardian there was another article glorifying Mr. Fernando by Kaviya’s friend Sankara P. I certainly don’t understand big poets like you and T.S. Eliot; however, when we were crystal ball gazing the other day, a sudden warning came on advising us to take immediate cover from a gang of “good Samaritans” with these telling lyrics from Chris de Burgh’s “Don’t Pay the Ferryman”:
Whatever you do,
Don’t pay the Ferryman,
Don’t even fix a price,
Don’t pay the Ferryman,
Until he gets you to the other side.
By the way, Mr. Basil Fernando, could you please explain your quotation of the late M.I. Kuruwilla? As the coven is busy most of the time with brews, we don’t have time to untangle great poetry.
Atheist,
I do not condone your callouness, and comments of this nature can only show how arrogantly frustrated one is. I see a desperate willingness to demonstrate your smartness, and if you feel relieved doing so, fair enough. I simply derive no pleasure by discussing anything with arrogant, struck-up folks, as one simply CANNOT have a worthy discussion with such individuals.
Shanuki Perera,
Ms. Perera, what were my “callous” comments? You see, I cannot answer to sweeping generalizations. It would be more of a help if you could pinpoint to some of my comments that has got you so riled up.
[Edited out]
Please, spare me the name calling and cut to the chase.
Nanri, Vanakkam
Absolutely fabulous.