Experiment with language

Rewiewed by Sajitha Prematunge

I am no expert at photography. So am more than glad to leave out my criticisms or praise about the photographs included in the book. However I can vouch for the poetic expertise of the poet and the economy of the writer in the prose.

Inclusive of two sections of poetry - Noon Shadows, Secrete Gardens and a section contain two short stories, no two works are the same, save perhaps for one or two love poems. It’s the only book - that I have come across - which accommodates two genres and an appropriate combination of a completely different form of art, that is photography.

The poetry and prose of China Bay Blues deal with themes like love, war, violence, death, living in exile and other more mundane themes. The poem 1983 deals with the theme of war and violence. But it does not directly make use of the gruesome imagery of Black July at the beginning. The manner and tone in which the poem begins

‘There is great sadness
in this July night....’

is an understatement. Although no two poems could be more different, he produces something like cinematic montage in both 1983 and Trincomalee Road skipping from one scene to the next without difficulty, he does so in the case of 1983, probably to throw light on the ruthlessness of the riots, to provide as many snapshots of the violence as economically as possible. Of course in Trincomalee Road he uses the images to give the impression of variety encountered during a drive on Trincomalee road. However in this poem the poet tends to romanticise Sri Lanka, which most expatriates are guilty of.

Earth worm tango is an ironic and sarcastic poem that deal with the theme of death. In this poem Afdhel Aziz attempts to shed light on the impractical and useless rites and rituals that a funeral entails.

‘Where pious men praise you to
the skies with their honest lies’
The lines suggests the poets boldness of sarcasm.

Meditation in Chelsea is about living in exile, an expatriate, nostalgically reminiscing the land he left behind, looking at the post card fastened to the mirror. Old love explores this same theme of nostalgia.

Afdhel Aziz seems to make his poems intensely personal, to the last minute detail. If they are not born out of experience, then he is indeed very creative.

In Patriot - an ironic title in itself -the guilt of a man who would probably not go to the extent of sacrificing his life for the country if circumstances called for it, is realistically portrayed.

Aziz gets his subject matter and themes from mundane occurrences. Untitled (care free and sunburnt); - there is quite a few untitled poems in the collection - Skinsweat; Charlie Parker and Miles Away, which are about saxophone players, are some such examples.

Aziz’s knowledge in music is displayed by the manner he vividly describes the sax players actions and the technical jargon he uses in the poem. He peppers the poems with colloquial and jazz language - such used by musicians - enhancing its realism.

‘blue note heaven, baby’

Formlessness and lack of rhyme is characteristic of China Bay Blues except for the lyrical love poems. The poet simply refuses to conform to the generally accepted norms of poetic form, creating his own version of form through experimenting with language and structure.

He experiments without restraint, while also using different tones and jargon for different subject matter. Radio Song is another successful attempt to experiment with language. It is an intriguing poem where an interesting parallel is drawn between a poem and a radio song.

The language he uses in this particular poem is colloquial, peppered with slang, pauses perfectly placed, making it, indeed, sound like a song. Although, I personally am not too fond of formless poems, I felt that Ella sings deserved my full attention although there wasn’t much to pay attention to.

He not only experiments with language, but also plays with the concentration of the reader, when he breaks the flow of a poem with a lone line like ‘salt water kisses taste so sweet’ or a curt word like ‘slow’.

A flaw in the collection is the lack of poems that deal with the true Sri Lankan culture, in depth. The poems in the collection are mostly introvert, probably born out of personal emotions and impulses.

They depict an international culture and romanticises the local. But this may just be a result of the poets extensive travels and not due to his lack of familiarity with local culture. America to a patriot may seem ‘unpatriotic’

‘I knelt and puckered up on the tarmac’

But at leat the poet was bold enough to admit his allegiance. He is not pretentious and does not attempt to include poems for the sake of ‘cultural justification’.China Bay Blues is most prominent for its lyrical love poetry.

In fact a greater space of the collection is allocated for ‘Secret Gardens’, the section that contain the lyrical love poems. Rather than separate poems they seem to behave as an interconnection of poems.

There is almost no indication that Safecracker and Bloom are two different poems except for the titles that separate them. The poems explore the twists and turns, the bums and rough patches as well as rosy side of a relationship. They depict how a relationship metamorphoses from the honeymoon stage to disillusionment.

At times the poet describes the rough patches with a hint of sadness and melancholy, as in Careless Orbit. At others it is a sort of sentimental love.

He promises the lover the moon and the sun (Surf song). He describes - at the risk of sounding like a cliche - how ‘two become one’. He repeatedly recalls the image of the sleeping lover. In fact the romantic in him seems to be obsessed with watching the sleeping lover, which he alludes to, in many poems.

Although it seems sentimental, the sentimentality is impressive coming from a man. He uses most unusual metaphors in Full moon fox like ‘bee’s knees’, ‘cream on the cat’s’ whiskers and ‘hieroglyphics on my pyramid’, for his lover.

This is obviously a man in his honeymoon stage of the relationship!But even the love poems are not totally melodramatic. Aziz is one of the more bold poets. Whether it is because he is an expatriate or not, he - without restraint - explores avenues normally tabooed by Sri Lankan culture.

Tattoo, which refers to a guys one night stand, is one such example. It’s also one of the more sensuous poems included in the collection. However the language he uses is highly cryptic.

‘I want to make your
rigging creak in the wind....’
and ends it with
‘That’s how I love you baby
so let’s get down to business
time’s a wasting....’
Talk about blunt!

Desire is one of the most blatantly erotic poem I have come across yet. An embarrassed, sly smirk-across-the-face is guaranteed for any one who want to test their tolerance to such a downright expressive form of art. In this poem he describes ‘desire’ in many ways.

‘Desire is....
a moment’s succumbing
a lifetime’s atonement.’

Without quoting extensively I will let the reader be the judge.While he also romanticises ‘love’, he is not completely oblivious to the bleaker side of it, he also focuses on the rough patches and doubts. He draws unusual parallels between the lover and fire/devil, thoroughbred and humming bird.

It is indeed very rare for a literary personality to become equally competent in poetry as well as prose. Although there are only two short stories in the collection, they depict a high level of creativity.

As fiction alone the stories doesn’t amount to much, specially since they are so short. But the writer seems, yet again, not very keen on sticking to standard norms. Rather than the fictional value of the story, Aziz focuses on the moral message - the theme of the story. The house in the corner is a short story in the literal sense.

In fact it is doubtful whether it qualifies as a story at all. It’s just a narrative an essay, made so undoubtedly purposely by the writer. The whole of the story is set within a house. However through a cascade of simple events he approaches a major theme - violence. But until the very end the readers are oblivious to it.

The story takes its time describing the visits of the bothal-paththerey, bombay mottai, and dhobi man and abruptly diverts the plot to the insurgency. It describes how the lives of the people around the house was shattered and the amount of violence the house witnessed.

The only other story of the whole collection although very similar in style to the first, is completely different in tone. The tone of Happiness is nonchalant and detached. There is only one developed character, no dialogue, just a narrative.

The face cream the protagonist applies to stop himself from aging is said to smell ‘reassuringly scientific’, he believes that he can remain forever young by applying the face cream. In this story he rebukes the isolated way of life of citizens of developed countries or city dwellers.

For the lack of conventional poems that depict Sri Lankan culture, China Bay is still a great read, partly for the experiments attempted with language and poetic form and partly for prose that are not judgemental and leaves the reader something to think about.

Book News:

Biography of N.U. Jayawardena Presented to Indian Prime Minister

The first copy of the biography,’ N. U. Jayawardena - The First Five Decades’ was presented to Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh when he visited Colombo for the 15th SAARC Summit. Prime Minister Singh first met N. U. Jayawardena in the early 1950s, when the Prime Minister was a student of Economics at Cambridge University with NU’s eldest son Lal.

The authors of the book, Kumari Jayawardena (NU’s daughter-in-law) and Jennifer Moragoda (his granddaughter-in-law); the wife of the Prime Minister, Gurshran Kaur; and other members of the Jayawardena family were also present.

The biography examines the formative experiences in N. U. Jayawardena’s early life and career, and the role he played, behind the scenes, in shaping some of Sri Lanka’s key financial and economic infrastructure.

His life is set against the backdrop of the political, economic and social upheavals of the first half of the 20th century, such as the Great Depression of the 1930s, the Second World War, and the period of Sri Lanka’s transition into an independent nation.

The biography was published to mark Deshamanya N. U. Jayawardena’s birth centenary (1908-2008). Jayawardena who lived until the age of 94, and who started his career as a Government clerk, rose to become the first Sri Lankan Governor of the Central Bank, and later served as a Senator.

He spent the second half of his career in the private sector as a leading banker, financier and businessman. The book will be available in early September in leading bookstores. All proceeds from the sale of the book will be donated to the N. U. Jayawardena Charitable Trust.

Unique gift

Gift of the Dhamma is a collection of Dhamma talks made by Venerable Panditha Horana Pannasekera Maha Thero during his 20 year stay at the Thames Buddhist Vihara, London as the religious director. It is edited by Dr. Douglas Mulgirigama.

The book contains 32 dhamma discussions the thera made on varied topics such as merits of worship, caring for parents, controlling thoughts, responsibilities of parents, protection from evil spirits, gradual path to the Dhamma, The first Nobble truth, The five aggregates, ways of becoming virtuous, face fun and ridicule mindfully etc.

The thera has contributed immensely to the propagation of the Dhamma throughout Europe. He had concerned mainly on the important task of teaching the Dhamma, either collectively or individually. His much-valued contribution to the spiritual needs and the general wellbeing of everyone, has won him the hearts and minds of Buddhists and non Buddhists alike.

The book has emerged as an attempt to record for the benefit of the future generations, at least in small fraction of the wisdom the thera shared with devotees who came to the temple to listen to him.

The talks reflect Ven. Pannasekera Thera’s in depth knowledge and his ability to explain profound concepts in simple terms and show how they could be incorporated into daily life.

New edition of ‘Kandy Esala Perahera’

Vijitha Yapa Publications has released the new edition of the Kandy Esala Perahera, with beautiful photographs and descriptions ranging from the history of the pageant to details of what happens before the Perahera and the actual Perahera itself brought out in time for the Perahera season.

Written with expertise by Professor Anuradha Seneviratne, the book also contains some rare pictures while the centre spread shows the Dalada Maligawa complex through a British artist’s eyes in 1819 in contrast to a picture taken this year.

The Author who has very close links with the Sacred Temple of the Tooth, the Dalada Maligawa, traces the evolution of the Kandy Esala Perahera since its inception over 1,600 years ago during the reign of King Kirti Sri Meghavarna (Kitsiri Mevan).

He refers to ancient texts, the Dalada Sirita, the Culavamsa, etc, and other descriptions by Robert Knox, Davy, Millawa Disava, C.E. Godakumbura, etc, complementing the text with supporting rare photographs giving an insight into the rituals within the Dalada Maligawa.

He makes the reader fully aware of the pageant of great aesthetic and socio-cultural value in Ceylon (as this country was then called) held annually in the lunar month of Esala (July/August).

The striking photographs are provided by the Diyawadana Nilame, the author and Vijitha and Lalana Yapa. Dr. Anuradha Seneviratna was the Senior Professor of Sinhala Faculty of the Peradeniya University and was conferred the National Award ‘Kalakirti’ by the Government of Sri Lanka.

He has written nearly seventy books in Sinhala and English, and won the State Literary Award thrice and was also the President of the Arts Council of Sri Lanka.