Empathic voices in verse

by Dilshan Boange

A review of Sedahamy, Selvakumari and Others

Gratiaen Prize winning poetess Sakuntala Sachithanandan launched her latest contribution to the sphere of Sri Lankan letters on April 18 this year. The book Sedahamy, Selvakumari and Others is a collection of sixty three poems which can be called a versified chronicling of the poet's perceptions on several subjects and themes over a period of time, which is principally a period between 2004 and 2014. The outlooks the poet has over subjects such as the plight of destitute females, the oppressed and exploited in society, and familial bonds and losses are expressed emotively and unpretentiously. Here is a voice that is not bashful to reveal her inner self in language that is accessible to all.

The sorrows of women as caregivers and their dutiful commitment to be caregivers comes out in several poems such as 'Parwathi', 'Sumana', and 'Over the Kelani River with my mother'. What is interesting to note is that in her collection of verse, Sakuntala shows how she has been conscious and affected by various events that made the news and caused much alarm. The poems -'Daughter' and 'Rizana' are two examples. While the latter's subject matter is very much self evident to anyone who has been aware of the shocking execution of the young Sri Lankan girl Rizana Nafeek in Saudi Arabia, the former deals with the Delhi Bus gang rape of Jyoti Singh. It is imaginatively narrated in the fictional voice of the mother of the victim.

The startling revelation made in this poem is how the animalism in a pack of dogs lining up to satisfy their biological urges to mount a female of their species, has more grace and far less brutality compared to what the gang of rapists perpetrated.

Grief

Voices that speak openly of a theme related to personal familial bonds and the grief of loss of a loved one comes out in poems like 'Gone', 'Over the Kelani River with my mother', 'My sister's table'. Through these poems one gauges that the poet although besieged with grief has somehow found the strength to accept the loss and now, in a time and space distant from the immediacy of the loss, presents the voice of a heart seeking equanimity.

To me this theme has an unpronounced yet nevertheless discernible nexus with Sakuntala's poems in this book that are based on themes from Buddhist sutras. 'Kayo Thathayathi Vinasa Bawan', 'Thus have I heard' are two clear examples of how Buddhism holds an important place in forming the perceptions of the poet. Further the epigraphic extracts featured in the book following the Foreword evince how Sakuntala's poetry relates to the Buddha's teachings of impermanence and also compassion.

Taking these factors to account it seems that the poet presents how she has empathised with many subjects of a great emotional nature but has also accepted how certain sorrows and tragedies are a way of the world, and seeks to approach these matters with equanimity. It is in that sense, possibly a statement of her inner reconciliation with matters that she has found herself at odds with.

Expression

The poems included in the title show two very different ends to the poet's expression of imagination and empathy. Sedahamy shows how a spark of inspiration from a somewhat unlikely source as an old land title deed, takes the poet on a journey of imagination.

The landscapes and glimpses of life she imagines, conjurors up, speak of how she seeks to reach life and times of a bygone. Selvakumari glimpses a most tragic life of destitution that has engulfed a woman who now has no 'utility value' in society.

Neither able to work sweeping the streets nor as a prostitute selling her body, her redundancy in the world passing her by is pitiful.

The poet thus shows how people can be banished to the fringes of virtual nonexistence, by society, due to their lack of utility value to the economy. Many, after all are the likes of Selvakumari who yearn for but a minor fraction of some of the most basic comforts that we may tend to take for granted.

Guru

The book has an insightful Foreword by the man who can be called her guru in guiding her craft of poetry-Mr. Haig Karunaratne, the renowned dramatist and theatre practitioner whose reputation as a teacher of English and drama for over twenty five years at my Alma Mater -Wesley College, is nothing short of legendary. Mr. Karunaratne in his Foreword gives an approach to gauge the merits and facets of Sakuntala's poetry for its diction and narrative devices that holds the poems in a 'decolonised' status, thus making her voice one that is not subservient to the archaic rigidities of pre-modern English poetry.

A collection of renderings of empathic voices from introspective awakenings based on observations of facets of Sri Lankan life, and also her own experience of joys, sorrows, and contemplations, Sakuntala's latest work is sure to touch the pulse of readers in many ways.