A journey to Mandai

A personal account of Singapore’s Writers’ Festival - 2009:

by Indeewara THILAKARATHNE and Ranga CHANDRARATHNE in Singapore

Ronny Someck

Prof. Edwin Thumboo

It was an extraordinary journey for us. The occasion and the experience were unique not only because we had an opportunity to attend the Singapore’s Writers Festival (SWF) - 2009, but this journey to Mandai. We were travelling in a car driven by Singapore’s unofficial poet laureate Edwin Thumboo. We were travelling with two other poets. One of them was Ronny Someck who was born in Bagdad and now writes in Hebrew and one of foremost poets in Israel. The other poet was our own, Sunil Govinnage who still writes and publishes poetry in Sinhala in addition to his English writing.

Our quick assessment was that all three of them could write poetry for more than one country at any given time making impacts and waves of different kind at any given moment.

We can’t simply explain what Mandai is or how it looks as many of the Sunday Observer readers may not have heard of this sleepy little place in Singapore. (It is not located in the vicinity of Little India, China Town or famous Orchard Road and or places known to frequent visitors to Singapore).

It is where the home of Edwin Thumboo was; where he grew up and developed his poetic sensibility. For us this journey was in a way Martin Wickramasinghe giving us a ride to Koggola and more because we travelled with two other poets!

Mandai is a kind of a symbol for the diversity and growth and development of the SWF 2009, which drew writers from many continents to this City Country, which once desired to follow Sri Lanka (Ceylon) as a model for its own development.

Thumboo graduated having studied English from the University of Malaya in 1956. After graduation, he worked in the civil service for about nine years joined the University of Singapore. He received a Ph.D. in 1970 completing a thesis on African literature. Thumboo became a full professor in the Department of English Language and Literature, heading the department between 1977 and 1993.

Thumboo’s poetry is inspired by mythical tales and history, and he is often described as Singapore’s unofficial poet laureate.

Thumboo has written and published extensively on his country, its origin and nationhood. A pioneer of Singapore’s English literature, he compiled and edited some of the first anthologies of English poetry and fiction from Singapore and Malaysia.

His own collections of poetry include Rib of Earth (1956), Gods Can Die (1977), Ulysses by the Merlion (1979) and A Third Map (1993). His latest anthology Still Travelling, consisting of almost 50 poems, was published in 2008.

Mandai was Edwin Thumboo’s home. In a poem entitled At Mandai, Professor Thumboo recalls the beginnings of the “village” where he grew up:

Before the War our countryside enveloped You and me, helped stitch prepositions To exponential numbers roaming among Dainty custard apples. For the inquisitive, Slightly disobedient, there were little Infinities in sound in light in the ant’s Unexpurgated sting...or how four fingers moved To make a convenient abacus. Everything Narrated. Syabas! Grandma’s tales were tragically real but where was Swatow Anyway! We dreamt of them as fantasies, As games which adults played.

(Edwin Thumboo, At Mandai)

The Singapore’s Writers’ Festival for two of us was like roaming among not only the “dainty custard apples” but also a platform for meeting many writers from several countries.

The biennial Singapore Writers’ Festival is a major literary event in Singapore and since the turn of the 21st century, has gained prominence in both domestic and regional landscape.

This year’s Festival also focused heavily on Singapore’s neighbour Malaysia. Two prominent writers from Malaysia spoke at featured workshops of the Festival. One of them was K. S. Maniam. His interesting stories have been staged, collected in notable anthologies and presented in fictions (novels) titled The Return, (1981); In a Far County, (1993); and Between Lives (2003). His prose is among the widely acclaimed work of fiction on identity and displacement issues relating to Malaysia.

The other noteworthy Malaysian writer at the SWF was Wong Phui Nam.

Banker-turned poet, Wong Phui Nam examines both his rootedness and his deracination (To displace from one’s native or accustomed environment). Phui Nam’s poems have also appeared in Seven Poets, The Second Tongue, The Flowering Tree, Young Commonwealth Poets ‘65, Poems from India, Sri Lanka, Singapore and Malaya. He was also published by literary journals like Tenggara, Tumasek, South East Asian Review of English. His mature poems are regarded as among the best Malaysian poems in English, unsurpassed in their eloquence and linguistic richness. Most of them are contemplative and draw their images from the local landscape. Wong Phui Nam’s poetry explores the experience of living in multi-cultural Malaysia.

The Festival started in 1986 as “Singapore Writers’ Week” as a component of Singapore Festival of Arts (now knows as Singapore Arts Festival) before striking it on its own to become “Singapore Writers’ Festival” in 1991. The Festival for us is also included a special journey to Mandai to connect with beginning and departures of Singapore’s old and new writings:

Thumboo has captured a similar theme about his place of birth:

Mandai to city connect beginnings departures and

Returns...with no anointing by the sky no Blessing from the earth no healing by wind No bounty except the spirit’s wholeness

Edwin Thumboo drives us through meditative roads. Either side is full of lush green vegetation. We drive through Woodlands; a suburb just before Mandai. Edwin is an excellent driver and a great guide. He is well-known for his hospitality, and strong desire for looking after old and new friends alike.

We feel as if he speaks for more than one generation and landmarks that have disappeared inside a time capsule. Though the physical landscape around Mandai village has changed, this great poet carries all those vanished trails in his mind, a repository of memory, knowledge and wisdom. Thumboo as a senior poet of Singapore has witnessed the genesis, growth and development of his country, similar to his experience of changes to Mandai.

In his most famous and widely discussed poem, Ulysses by the Merlion, Thumboo describes the evolution of his nation:

Peoples settled here, Brought to this island The bounty of these seas, Built towers topless as Ilium’s.

They make, they serve, They buy, they sell.

Despite unequal ways, Together they mutate, Explore the edges of harmony, Search for a centre; Have changed their gods, Kept some memory of their race

(Edwin Thumboo, Ulysses by the Merlion)

In another poem, he described the development of his country from an ordinary fishing village by sea to its current form of a modern metropolis that is amongst the ten richest nations of the world in terms of gross per capita income. (Singapore’s per capita income grew from meager $512 in 1965 to $30,000 in 2008.) Thumboo has captured the development in his Island:

Once there was a quiet island, with a name.

...

There were persons in this place.

Too young to know the sea, Aminah cried; Harun, who followed crab and tide Ambitiously, learnt To keep the spray out of his eyes.

Their father in his bid To make a proper life, Lived the way his father did.

Mangrove and palm Unfold in brittle shades of green.

Houses on stilts, boats drawn up The sand, the makeshift pier, village shop, Smoke from kitchen fires, All frame a picture.

Romantic. Nostalgic.

But images change.

Nearby hills are pushed into the sea.

Tractors roar, lorries thrive Till the ochre of the land Scooped out day and night, Crept upon the sand.

Aminah, Harun now reside in flats, Go to school while father Learns a trade.

(Edwin Thumboo, Island)

During our brief visit, we also learnt about Singapore’s rich history of literature and its multicultural writings. The Festival had several sessions not only in English but also in Chinese, Tamil and Malay languages representing the multi-cultural literary traditions of Singapore. Sunil Govinnage told us that his Australia is yet to achieve this multicultural creative power and those who write on Australia’s multicultural policy should take a very closer look at Singapore’s case.

The landscape of our physical journey changes. Edwin provides explanations.

Sunil interrupts and asks a question as he has taken this journey with Thumboo earlier, perhaps many times. But for both of us and also for Ronny Someck, this is a maiden journey down the memory lanes of one of the world-class poets.

Edwin is indeed a public poet though he has begun to explore his inner self with his spiritual and biblical poems in recent times. Professor Lily Rose Tope of the University of the Philippines earlier gave an excellent paper giving insights into Thumboo’s journey searching for inner peace and spirituality.

Edwin drives with dexterity and there are no pedestrians or bullock carts to manoeuvre like in our roads. He drives calmly and takes us into in to serenity; a wonderful memory lane; a labyrinth engulfed with his memories; the beginning of a wonderful poetic journey.

Edwin slows down the vehicle and shows us a large reservoir, which collects water for his nation. Edwin has seen all these, the beginning and changes of his country, which now draws not only tourists, scientists, politicians, but also prominent writers and artists. The SWF is an additional attraction.

The SWF has featured many writers from around the world and delighted book lovers with literary celebrities’ such as Czech Republic Writer Arnost Lustic, twice Man- Booker Prize nominee David Mitchell and celebrated Chinese Writer, Yu Hua. This year’s distinguished people included Professor Peter Nazareth from the University of Iowa who launched an anthology of contemporary writings from Singapore entitled TUMASIK.

The writers we met included Ronny Someck who is one of most influential poets from Israel. Ronny Someck was born in Baghdad in 1951 and migrated to Israel with his parents as a young child.

He still speaks Arabic. Someck studied Hebrew literature and philosophy at Tel Aviv University and drawing at the Avni Academy of Art. He has worked with street gangs, and currently teaches literature and leads creative writing workshops.

He has published ten volumes of poetry and his work has been translated into 39 languages.

(During the festival, Sunil Govinnage translating one of Someck’s poems into Sinhala made Someck’s poetry into 40 languages!).

Sunil Govinnage without any global or local literary prize tags or awards was the only non-Singapore resident poet to read at two very important events at the SWF; An Evening with Edwin Thumboo and Dissecting Merlion Poems, and both of these events were highlights of the Festival. Sunil shared with us how Edwin Thumboo discovered his English writings in Perth and mentored him.

Sunil is unsure of his place in the globalized world roaming between his two homes in Australia and Sri Lanka. He has published four volumes of poetry in both Sinhala and English. His next collection of English poems entitled Perth My Village Down Under is due to be out soon. He claims his only wealth is having poets as friends around the world with no assets or money in his pocket.

We enter Mandai and Thumboo slows down the vehicle at end of the journey to Mandai showing us the entrance to the Singapore Zoo! This is part of the changing landscape of Mandai. What came to our mind were the changes of the landscape of Koggala, Sri Lanka’s foremost writer Martin Wickramasinghe’s village. At least for Wickramasinghe, there is a folk-museum giving visitors a window to his literary achievements. However, in Mandai there is nothing to remember Edwin Thumboo, except his own memory like the reservoir we passed a few minutes ago.

We begin the journey again and Prof. Thumboo directs our attention to a hill site where his childhood memories are still carved into his mind like a rare fossil. A part of the hill is now a mine where granite is taken out to construct new buildings. For Thumboo, Mandai is still a bundle of memory that has now subverted in time. However, it has given him power to create poetry and immortalise vanishing memories through words; the power only a poet could possess:

Daily rhythms gradually subverting into Time into power to compute, arranging The shaded layers of memory, inventing Movement in the mind ...

(Edwin Thumboo, At Mandai).

Thumboo has indeed done that despite not having museums or even an autobiography to tell his wonderful journey. Earlier Sunil Govinnage mentioned the years of research he helped Thumboo with to come out with an autobiography, which is yet to be published.

The Asia’s foremost poet in English language is still busy. He had just finished a teaching assignment in Hong Kong. He came for the opening event of the festival; spoke and took a plane early next morning and came back in two days to participate at events focusing on his works and achievements in Singapore literary scene.

Even at the age of 75 Thumboo has not slowed down. He is still travelling fast and sharing his places of memories with us on this occasion.

We hope to see the launch of his autobiography at the next SWF in 1911, or earlier and presume that we can make another journey to Mandai with the same protagonists to learn about the changes to the landmark!

He has attracted us with his poetry and guided us by sharing his vast knowledge on one of the world’s best writer’s festival.

We will continue this journey to learn a bit more about literary figures, issues and trends of Singapore’s literary scene. Thanks for Professor Thumboo and Sunil Govinnage, we now have a few literary friends in Singapore. Rama Ramachandra, Robert Yeo, Professor Kirpal Sing, Chris Mooney Sing, Alving Pang, and Aron Lee are amongst them. The list is gorwing!

We begin the journey back to Singapore’s Writer’s Festival venue, The Arts House located in the Old Parliament House. It is now a world attraction and a window to Singapore’s world-class arts, drama and many types of literary events.

We are going back with good memories and they cannot be simply written down with words.

We have met some wonderful people, met old friends and made new friends. We had good conversations and received hospitality of many people at SWF. R. Ramachandra, the Chief Executive of the National Library Board, Singapore deserves a special mention.

For two of us, these are not pure memories as articulated by Edwin Thumboo in one of his recent poem entitled *Memories* in a different context:

So these words with you behind. A pure rapture, because I chose our friends and conversation, have them sit. (Edwin Thumboo, Memory)