C.V. Raman as a Science Communicator : A Historical Perspective - G.V. Pavan Kumar

https://youtu.be/-VR5CV2oOcQ

Sir Chandra Sekhara Venkata Raman was one of India's most renowned scientists and Nobel Prize winner.  Moreover, he was an outstanding educator and a captivating public speaker.  Here, in "C.V. Raman as a science communicator : A historical Perspective," G. V. Pavan Kumar, the prominent physicist, explains how Raman's strong dedication to research. Apart from this, he also explores Raman's initiatives to popularize science and make it more exciting through his effective public talks and lectures.

A Day in the Country - Anton Chekhov

 

https://youtu.be/2HV076qTApg

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860-1904) was a renowned Russian dramatist and short story writer.  It was his profound knowledge of human nature and his unique depictions of ordinary life placed him among the great writers.  Actually, Chekhov was a physician by profession.  His well known plays are 'The Seagull' (1896), 'Uncle Vanya' (1897), and 'The Cherry Orchard' (1904).  His most popular short stories are 'The Bet', 'The Lady with a Dog' and 'The Complaints Book'.  In 'A Day in the Country' Chekhov depicts the link between people and their environment in an excellent way.  Though the incidents seem to be ordinary, they are of incredibly insightful experiences in every way.

The Peace of Wild Things - Wendell Berry

 

 

https://youtu.be/tCyCp-xO2Is

Wendell Berry (B.1934) is a renowned writer, committed farmer and environmental Advocate from the United States.  He has authored over 50 books and won T. S. Eliot prize and the National Humanities Medal.  he is of the opinion that humanity must learn to live in harmony with the earth's natural rhythm.  In the poem, "The Peace of Wild Things", he shares a personal journey of finding solace in nature's embrace.

Light on a Dark Lady - Anne Piper

 

https://youtu.be/nxbhWYS0uXI

Roasalind Franklin (1920-1958), who had an untimely death due to cancer in 1958, a forgotten heroine, 'The dark lady of DNA'in the history of science, was a British chemist and an X-ray crystallographer.  She had her substantial contributions to the understanding of the molecular structure of 'DNA (deoxyribonucleic Acid), RNA (Ribonucleic Acid), viruses, coal and graphite.  Anne Piper, a close friend of Rosalind Franklin  and a renowned intellectual, talks about the gender bias that affected Rosalind Franklin's work and recognition in 'Light on a dark lady', especially, how her contributions to the discovery of the structure of DNA were totally unrecognized during her life in the male dominated field.

Science and Dogma - Pushpa. M. Bhargava

 

https://youtu.be/dBAIbZ-_ze4

Dr. Pushpa Mittra Bhargava (1928-2017) who was a visionary, scientist, writer, thinker, institution builder and a strong proponent of scientific temper, was actually a fearless torch bearer of  rationalism and humanism. He was the founder director of Centre for Cellular Molecular Biology (CCMB), Hyderabad. 'Science and Dogma' is an essay by Pushpa. M. Bhargava, featured as the twelfth chapter in the book 'Angels, Devils and Science'.  In this essay, Bhargava highlights the conflict between Scientific understanding and dogmatic beliefs, and talks about the need of questioning the dogmatic beliefs and accepting the scientific understanding for the true progress.

The dangers of climate change - Carl Sagan

 

https://youtu.be/TCb4wJ6QoVo

Carl Edward Sagan (1934-1996) was an American astronomer, planetary scientist and science communicator. His notable works are Cosmos (1994).  'The dangers of climate change', is an excerpt taken from the fourth chapter of 'Cosmos', his famous book with a fine blend of science and Philosophy.  Here, he discusses how both natural and human activities have shaped and will continue to shape the Earth's environment.

Secularism and Scientific Temper - Dr. Pushpa M Bhargava

 

https://youtu.be/vrCCSuwrpPQ 

THE LAST STAND - Peter Von Puttkamer

 

 

https://youtu.be/kOOhLTcox_o

‘The last Stand’ is a documentary film directed by Peter Von Puttkamer, that deals with the environmental issues and the need to save the world’s last remaining ancient forest at Fairy Greek, British Columbia, Canada.  Experts like Wade Davis and Leila Salazar Lopez speak about the impact trees and plants have on our atmosphere.  The film reveals the need to protect the habitat while utilizing the resources in our territories.  It also talks about the solutions like building Carbon retaining technology from Silicon Valley Companies and about the things average citizens can do to save forest and the planet. 

Unfortunately with in a few centuries, one third of the world’s old growth forests have disappeared.  As trees act as biological pumps pulling water from the soil then moving it into the atmosphere, they have a cooling effect.  Thus it controls temperatures allowing animals to survive and sheltering abundance of life from fungi to millions of insects.  Having realized this, a battle was waged in Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada to protect the last precious old growth forests in Fairy Greek water shed, against the logging Company Teal Jones, that was granted permission to cut down the rare old cedars and Douglas Firs there.  However, even after getting a court injunction by the logging company, Steve Andrews, the environmental photographer and other activists continued their protests. 

Similar protest is done by Amazon watch, headed by Laila Salazar Lopez along with Amazonian indigenous people to prevent industry and agri business from destroying Amazon forests.  They have brought to the jungle the celebrities like director James Cameron and Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger and have invited the world attention to help stop rainforest destruction.  The similar tropical jungle destruction is also going on in south east Asia for the wide spread of palm oil plantations there.  Teal Jones logging company and others have replanting programmes.  But as they grow woods with monoculture seeding, it can’t conserve and preserve the integrity of ecosystem.  So, there happens an ecological down grade.  Little brown bat like creatures can’t survive.  Lichen like things have been affected.  Thus, the damages done are beyond healing.  So, prevention is better than cure policy should be followed here. 

According to Herb Hammond, a professional forester, wheat fields are actually grass lands that lack biological diversity but an old growth forest is a self-sustaining eco system. So, they should be preserved.  Moreover the trees that are thousands of years old have gained the power to be resistant and resilient and they have over come the climate changes.  Wild fires in Amazon are unfortunately intentional that are set to make way for agribusiness.  With in 30 years in Brazil alone cattle ranching driven by international meat packing companies has destroyed more than 7,30,000 square kms. of rain-forest.  Soya bean cultivation too, does the same there.  Moreover, the Amazon forest fires are leading to the drought. 

Maddie Hall and Patrick Mellor of Silicon Valley company ‘Living Carbon’ are progressing with their creating genetically engineered trees that will hold more carbon to face the climate change.  The non-pollinating, safe, fast growing trees are capable of having large carbon removal.  In this way technology will find a solution to the problem we face.  But it is up to all of us to do something we can do, to save the tree, to save the forests, to save the nature and thereby save ourselves and our generation.

Thulasidharan V. 

 

 

Above Pate Valley - Gary Snyder

 

https://youtu.be/8KdWPvdBdu0

 Gary Snyder (b:1930) is an American poet, essayist, lecturer and environmental activist.  Snyder is a winner of Pulitzer Prize for poetry and is described as ‘The Poet laureate of Deep ecology’.  As a young man, he spent his summers laying traits in the Sierras, Yosemite, where he began writing his first poems and published.  Yosemite, that includes Pate valley, is a National park in 3027 sq.km that was established in 1890.  This area is said to be occupied 10,000 years ago by the ancestors of Awahnechee tribes.  After the Mariposa war in 1851, the tribes were removed from there.  Yosemite is blessed with incredible rock formations like El Capitan, the world’s tallest granite monolith along with 3000 years old Sequoia trees and the likes. 

In the poem ‘Above Pate Valley’, that is taken from Snyder’s debut Riprap, Snyder describes his working on a trail crew in the mountains. Here, he talks abut the incredible rock formations, the fertility of soil, the magic of animals and his finding an obsidian arrow head flake.  He also talks about the profound insights that he derived from them and its making him realize the archaic values of Earth and his connection with nature. 

The poet and other members in the crew completed the last section of the trail by noon, on the ridge that was 2000 feet above the creek.  Then they began to walk through the Pine groves and reached a green meadow. Though the sun was blazing there, the  air was cool.  There they sat and ate cold fried trouts.  Then the poet found an obsidian, a flake volcanic glass from the ground.  On their moving through the bear grass, they found a lot of flakes, arrow heads.  They might have been used by the tribes, who lived there in the previous centuries, in their weapons and arrows.  Actually, that part of the land was said to be the land of fat summer deers.  By using their trails, they even visited the poets camp too. The poet and the likes with the help of drill, pick, single jack and dynamite made their trails and reached that place.  Similarly, the tribes are said to be reached there ten thousand years ago, through the trails that they had made then.  In this way the Pate valley and Sierra Nevada mountains have been remaining there from the time immemorial and still allow others to invade. 

Thus the poem highlights the grandeur and immensity of nature, the continuity and interconnectedness of human existence with the natural world.  Snyder’s skillful use of imagery that creates a sensory experience in the minds of the readers helps to explore the themes of time, human existence and the interconnectedness of all things. 

-----Thulasidharan V

Questioning The Universe - Stephen Hawking

 

 

https://youtu.be/_G_zCSqdcOs

Stephen William Hawking (1942-2018) was an English theoretical physicist, cosmologist and the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge.  He authored ‘The universe in a nutshell (2001) and ‘A brief history of Time’(2005). When he was doing his graduation at Cambridge, he was diagnosed with the motor neurone disease that gradually, paralyzed him with in a decade.  After the loss of speech, he communicated through a speech generating device, in the beginning through the use of a handheld switch and at the end by using a single cheek muscle.  Hawking was the first to set out a theory of cosmology explained by a union of the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics. 

Songs and stories of the world - Kaleidoscope - Part - 3 - Module - III - Plays - Module - IV - Prose & Speech

 

https://youtu.be/kRKVsfj8F1M

Module – III – Plays

The Tempest, Act 3, Scene 1 (The log, Scene) William Shakespeare

 

William Shakespeare (1564-1616), the band of Avon, is hailed as the Universal dramatist.  He wrote 154 sonnets, 39 plays and three narrative poems.  He continues to be the most widely read studied and critically analyzed writer of all ages.  His plays are translated to all ‘living languages’ of the world.  His play ‘The Tempest’ is regarded as his swansong.  Prospero, the Duke of Milan was usurped by his brother Antonio, lives in a Mediterranean Island with his only daughter Miranda Prospero using his magical powers creates storms and torments the survivors of the shipwreck.  Among them, Ferdinand, the Prince of Naples, is one who falls in love with Miranda.  It is beautifully visualized in the 1^st scene of the third act of ‘The Tempest’ that is called as the log scene here.

Ferdinand is given the work of piling up the logs by Prospero. Though he is not used to such hard labour of removing thousands of logs, the sweet thoughts of Miranda refresh his labour.  Miranda enters then and says as her father Prospero is at study, he will come only after three hours.  So, she asks him to take rest while she does the work for him.  But Ferdinand refuses and their further talk makes them fall in love with each other.  Ferdinand says as she is so perfect and peerless, at the very moment he saw her, he fell in love with her.  On hearing these words, Miranda weeps and says that she is a fool to weep then. Though she hasn’t seen any men other than her father, she wants only Ferdinand. The couple touches and takes each other’s hands and pledges their love.

Prospero, who is watching all these without their knowing it, prays Heaven to rain grace on the two lovers and leaves. Actually, Prospero is the architect of the love story of Ferdinand and Miranda who has already preplanned all these.  Miranda is a living representation of female virtue blessed with beauty and kindness.  Moreover Prospero believes that he can reverse all that happened twelve years ago by their marriage.  Thus the log scene of ‘The Tempest’ becomes the scene of love and reconciliation.

 

 Module – IV – Prose and Speech

Getting Up on Cold Mornings – Leigh Hunt

 

Leigh Hunt (1784-1859), the contemporary of Charles Lamb and William Hazlitt was a great poet, journalist, critic and essayist. He wrote on a diverse range of topics with epistolary style. His humourous and delightful essays were published in ‘the Indicator, ‘The Traveller’ and ‘The Examiner’. In ‘Getting Up on a Cold Morning’, Hunt describes one’s reluctance to get up on cold mornings as a ‘hellish torture’, in a mock serious way.  As there were no snowy winters before the sinning, Hunt accuses the sinning of Adam and Eve was the reason for this.

Hunt begins his essay ‘Getting up on a Cold Mornings’ with Giulio Cordara, an Italian writer and a Jesuit, who wrote a poem about insects, the troublesome creatures that were created to annoy the humans after the Sinning.  Everyone knows that it is pleasant to life in bed on cold mornings and no one wants to get up early until and otherwise there is a compulsion.  Actually the sudden transition is a hellish torture like the dragging out of the lost soul is by harpy-footed furies from fire and thrusting them into ice.  The reason behind all these is the sin of Adam and Eve.

When Hunt is asked to get up in a cold morning to shave by his servant, he asks him to bring hot water and waits for the hot water to cool down.  Thus he postpones his getting up.  Only slaves and business men who are mad after money would get up in the cold morning.  He remarks the poet Thomson, who used to get up at noon.  He also says as there are no proofs that early rising is good for health and longevity of life, we need not follow it. Really, a sudden change in temperature on our getting up in a cold morning brings shock to the body and thereby affects good health.  Moreover, on talking about the longevity of life, he says that Holborn, the longest street in London is not beautiful.  So, all long things are not beautiful.  In this way he concludes that a short life with joys of late rising is better than a long life with the suffering of early rising of cold mornings.  However, at the end of his essay he says it is up to the readers whether his suggestion is to be accepted or to be rejected. Thus, in an amusing way he concludes his essay ‘Getting up on a Cold Morning’.

 

 Crediting Poetry – Seamus Heaney

 

Seamus Heaney (1939-2013) who won Nobel Prize in 1995 for literature is a major modernist poet of the 20^th century.  He was born in Northern Ireland in a family of farmers and cattle sellers.  He was a prolific writer and critic and authored over twenty volumes of poetry, including ‘North’(1975) and ‘Seeing Things’(1991), where he reflected the violent political struggles between the catholic republicans and the protestant unionists between 1968 to 1988. ‘Crediting Poetry’ is the lecture he delivered at the Swedish Academy on his getting the Nobel Prize, where he credits poetry that helped him realize the voice of truth and to see the rightness of the world.

Heaney began his speech talking about his three-roomed traditional thatched farmstead in rural Londonderry in 1940s. In their childhood days they used to hear the sounds of the horse in the stable and the sounds of adult conversation from the kitchen.  The aerial wire that came from the chestnut tree to the room brought the news through the voice of the news reader of the Radio Eireann (Irish Radio).  Then he loved Keats’ ode ‘To Autumn’ for its language. In his adulthood he loved Hopkins’s poems for the intensity of exclamation and Robert Frost’s poems for his accuracy and his down-to-earthiness.  Then he began t o love the poems of Wilfred Owen and Patrick Kavanagh. Thus he realized the poetry’s ability and responsibility to say what happens and how they affect the society.

Heaney also mentioned the killing of the Protestant workers who were returning home in a mini bus in 1976 by the Irish Republican Army (IRA).  Similar attacks were done to Catholics by Protestant paramilitaries.  Here, Heaney referred to Homer who compared the tears of a wife on the battle field for the death of her husband to the tears of Odysseus for his men.  As Homer’s image brings the people to their senses, Yeats’s poetry too reveal the contemporary savagery in his words, ‘Come build in the empty house of the stare’.  So, the poetic form is both the ship and the anchor. It helps us to choose the rightness from the wrongness all around. Thus Heaney credits poetry for its poetic form and poetic power.

----Thulasidharan V

 

Songs and stories of the world - Kaleidoscope - Part - 2 (continued - Poetry) - Module - 1 & 2

 

https://youtu.be/Eou2tBjI2qA

Revolving Days – David Malouf - Part – 2 (continued – Poetry)

 

David Malouf (1934) is an acclaimed Australian poet, novelist and short story writer.  His writings convey a lyrical wisdom about human experience with in the Australian landscape. David Malouf’s ‘Revoling Days’ revolves round a romantic affair of his early days that has left an indelible imprint in his mind.  Vivid snap shots of those sensory moments of the past and the way he concludes the poem prove his genuine love.

David Malouf recollects the days when he was in love with a blue eyed girl.  As he had nowhere to go, he fell in love then.  The enduring power of memory still shows in his memory screen the different shirts he had worn to impress her.  One shirt was mint green, another one was pink, the third named ivy-league was tan with darker stripes.  That was actually his first button-down collar shirt.  When he was knotting his tie before a mirror, he had expected her stepping into the room.  Though they had promised many things, they got separated.  The poet doesn’t know where she is now and who is staring into her blue eyes.  Though he mentions about all these in this poem, he says that he won’t appear out of the old time to discomfort her.  Even he is not holding his breath for a reply.

Symbolism has effectively been used in the colour of the shirts.  Alliteration, apostrophe and enjambment beautify the poem.  An underlying melancholy is there in the poem when the poet talks about the transitory nature of the youthful relationships.  But the poet has succeeded to immortalize his genuine love with the help of the enduring power of memory used in this poem.

 

Threshold – Ocean Vuong

 

Ocean Vuong, an eminent Vietnamese-American poet, was born in Saigon, Vietnam in 1988 and his parents immigrated to the United States when he was two years old.  His poetry explores the themes of cultural identity, sexuality, family relationships and displacement.  He has won Whiting Award and T.S. Eliot prize for his poetry collection, ‘Night Sky with exit wounds (2016)’. ‘Threshold’ is the very first poem in that anthology.  It portrays the poet’s secretly observing a man singing in the shower as an important moment of transformation in his life.

As the poet was looking through the keyhole of the door of the shower, he couldn’t clearly see the singing man, most likely his father.  Water was falling on his round shoulder like snapped strings of a guitar.  Then the boy was standing on his knees as a beggar.  The song from the shower filled the boy to the core like a skeleton getting filled with flesh.  Even his name knelt down inside him asking him to be spared.  Actually the boy did not know what price he had to pay for entering the song.  However, then he lost his boyhood and became a grown up when he had his eyes kept wide open.  Something awakened in him and brought about a transformation, a sexual and psychological maturity.

He realized that he was no more a Colt but a horse.  His new understanding changed his perspective.  He lost his boyhood of innocence and curiosity and entered the new realm of Adulthood.

The opening line “In the body, where everything has a price’ is the theme of the poem.  Body becomes a site of identity and vulnerability in the poem.  The poet effectively depicts the connection between the body and mind through various images and symbols in this poem. 

 

Module II – Stories -

Uncle Podger Hangs a Picture – Jerome. K. Jerome

 

Jerome Klapka Jerome (1859-1927) was a famous humorist and a writer of comic novels.  His well known works are, ‘Idle thoughts of an idle fellow’, ‘Three Men in a Boat’ and ‘Three men on the Bummel’.  His ‘Uncle Podger hangs a picture’ is a comic portrayal of Uncle Podger, who believes that he was the most suitable person for the job of hanging a picture on the wall, whereas, he messes up everything and at the end hangs the picture in a crooked manner.

Uncle Podger is known for his exaggerated sense of self importance and his tendency to make a simple task into a trouble-some work to all in the family.  One day he decides to hang a picture on the wall of his living room.  He takes off his coat and starts his work.  He sends the maid to buy some nails.  The he sends one of the boys after her to tell her what size to get. He asks Will to get him a hammer.  He tells Tom to get the rule.  He also asks Jim to go to Mr. Boggles and get the spirit level.  Then, when he tries to get the picture from Tom, it slips and somehow the glass comes out from the frame and cuts Uncle Podger’s finger.  He shouts for his coat to get his hand kerchief from the pocket to stop the bleeding.  Actually he is sitting on the coat when all are looking for it.  However, a new glass is brought and when he tries to make a mark on the wall again he falls upon the Piano.  And then, when he tries to hammer, it is dropped on the toe of someone.  Aunt Maria is so unhappy on seeing all these.  Finally about midnight somehow the picture is hung on the wall in a crooked and insecure manner.

Just to hang a picture on the wall, Uncle Podger gets helps from all the people in the house including the charwoman. But he takes all the credit and says with pride at the end, “why, some people would have had a man into do a little thing like that!”  Thus, the story ends with a statement that reveals the character of Uncle Podger in an effective and humorous way. 

 

War – Luigi Pirandello

 

Luigi Pirandello (1867-1936) was an eminent Italian dramatist, novelist, poet and short story writer, who was awarded Nobel Prize in 1934.  His tragic farces are often seen as forerunners of the absurd plays. ‘Six characters in search of an author is one of his best modernist plays.  His ‘War’ written in 1918, focuses its attention on a group of people on a train, who either have their loved ones fight in the war or have lost a loved one due to the war.

A night express train from Rome stopped at the station Fabriona. There were five people in the carriage.  A bulky woman and a tiny man looking shy and uneasy got into the carriage from Fabriona. All the five came to know from them that their only son, a student, was about to be sent to the war front.  So, they were going to see him off.  Having heard this one passenger said that he had two sons and three nephews at the warfront. Thus this discussion moved towards who was sacrificing the most.  If a man with two sons lost one, the other son would be there to comfort him.  He had to live with the pain of the death of his son. But the man with only one son could end his miserable life having had his son dead in the war.  Then a fat man said that dying young and happy spared the young men from boredom and disillusionment of life.  So, they gladly fought and died for the love of their country. Actually, they were not theirs but their country’s children.  That was why he said that he didn’t even mourn the death of his own son.

Having heard this, all passengers agreed with him. The inconsolable wife and husband found strength then.  All congratulated that brave father who could so stoically speak of his child’s death. But, when the woman asked whether his son was really dead, the stoic man took his hand –kerchief and broke into harrowing, heart sending, un-controllable sobs. Thus, Pirandello portrays the nature of loss and how for each individual, their own loss seems more substantial than that of the others, along with the nature and necessity of wars.

 

The Green Leaves – Grace Ogot

 

Grace Ogot (1930-2015) was a well known writer, radio announcer, cabinet minister and a diplomat of Kenya.  Her works like ‘The Promised Land’, ‘Land without Thunder’, ‘The other woman’ and ‘The Island of Tears’ chronicle the folklore and mythologies of Luo people and their cultural conflicts with the colonial rule.  The Green Leaves’ taken from ‘Land without Thunder’ of Ogot, narrates how mankind is inextricably linked to greed, crime and superstitions along with Polygamy’s dominant role in a man’s social status.

Heavy footsteps and voices outside make Nyagar get up from his bed.  As he can’t find his wife Nyamundhe, he grabs his spear and club and goes outside.  Someone yells out that three men have stolen his cattle.  As the cattle thieves have taken the wrong turn, they miss the bridge that separates the Masala from the Mirogi people.  One escapes and the other stabs Omoro’s shoulder blade and jumps in the fast moving water. Nyagar takes the knife and attempts to stop the bleeding of Omoro.  The villagers beat the third one until the man no longer moves.  Omero says that if the thief dies in front of them, his spirit will rest upon the village of the clan. So, he asks all to go back to their huts after heaping some green leaves on the body.  All leave from that place then.

On his return to the hut, Nyagar takes out his medicine bag and takes some ash from a bamboo container.  He swallows some of it and blows some in the direction of the gate to prevent the ghost of the dead man coming to him.  But as he needs the money of the dead man, he goes and searches the pocket of the dead man and finds nothing.  When he tries to remove a bag from the neck of the dead man, the thief who is not dead drives a thick stick through his eyes and Nyagar dies on the spot.  The thief hides the body with green leaves and escapes.  Thus, the greedy Nyagar who has 3 wives and 12 children dies unexpectedly.

In the next morning, the European Policemen, Olielo, the clan leader, Nyamundhe and all the villagers are shocked to find Nyagar’s body instead of the thief, when they brush the leaves away. The green leaves are actually the symbol of deceits and concealment in the story.  What they conceal is also not what it seems.  Nyamundhe’s song of mourning in the end too sheds light on the multiple levels of oppression faced by African women in the structure of Patriarchy.

----Thulasidharan V

 

 

 

Songs and Stories of the World - Kaleidoscope - Part -1

 

https://youtu.be/rYElTzeyXkU

The Odyssey – Homer (8C. B.C.)

 

Homer is one of the greatest Greek poets, who is revered from ancient times for his two epic poems- Iliad and Odyssey.  They were transmitted through generations as oral poetry for centuries.  The Trojan War between Greeks and Trojans is believed to be taken place around 12^th C. and 13^th C. B.C.  Homer wrote Iliad and Odyssey in 8^th C. B.C.   Iliad describes the ten year war of Greeks with Trojans where as Odyssey deals with the return journey of Odysseus, one of the Greek heroes.  The Odyssey consists of 12,109 lines divided into 24 books.  It has a series of conversations, advice, requests and inquires between the mythical characters, monsters and human beings.  It reveals human nature with all its complexities in simple and subtle ways.  Thus it has stood the test of time reigning as a classic due to its universal appeal to humanity.

Odysseus, the King of Ithaca returns home after the Trojan War.  The poet requests the divine Muse to tell him the adventures of Odysseus and begins ‘The Odyssey’ in the middle of Odysseus’s journey, who is held captive by a nymph, Calypso.  Calypso wants to get Odysseus as her husband.  However, after 7 years of imprisonment at Ogygia, Odysseus escapes from the Island.  Once when he stayed at Thrinacia, the Island of Helios, his men killed a herd of cattle and a flock of sheep.  This made Helios become his enemy.  Moreover, Polyphemus, the one-eyed son of Poseidon held Odysseus and his men captive with the intention of swallowing them.  But Odysseus succeeded in getting Ployphemus drunk and blinded it to escape from that place.  This made him become an enemy to Poseidon. These all prevent him to get a favourable wind to reach Ithaca to get united with his wife Penelope and his son Telemachus.  In Ithaca, as all believe that Odysseus is dead, the suitors who want to marry Penelope trouble her a lot.

Athena, the Greek Goddess of war comes to his rescue all the time.  She tells Telemachas that his father is alive and asks him to kill the suitors who dishonor the State.  Zeus too helps Odysseus by sparing him from the wrath at the Sea-God Poseidon.  God Hermes saves him from Circe, the daughter of Helios and God Aeolus gives him a strong wind to sail home against the rough seas created by Poseidon.  Thus, he gets helps from all Gods for his good nature and qualities.  On his way to Ithaca, Odysseus faces so many difficulties and he does his best to save his life as well as the lives of his men.  However, he returns home only after 20 years to get united with his wife and son. Thus Odyssey narrates the adventures of Odysseus and his victory at the end.

In Kyoto’ and ‘The Old Pond – Basho

 

Matsuo Kinsaku (1644-1694), whose pen name is Basho, is a well-known Japanese poet and traveller.  He was a master of ‘haiku’ and ‘haibun’ poems.  His poems influenced Ezra Pound and the poets of the Beat generation greatly.  Haiku is a traditional Japanese poem of seventeen syllables arranged in three short un-rhymingliness.  It contains kigo, a seasonal reference and is separated by Kireji (a cut) two complementary or contrasting images. Basho’s ‘In Kyoto’ highlights the sense of yearning for something that is lost.  He uses an auditory image of the cuckoo’s song that evokes a longing for home in the minds of travellers who hear it.  Though the poet is already in Kyoto, the cuckoo’s call evokes a sense of nostalgia for home.  Apart from this the bird’s song is also symbolic of the passing of pleasant season and arrival of harsher one.

‘The old Pond’ of Basho is actually the most celebrated haiku poem that has been translated into English.  The poem ‘The Old Pond’ opens with the image of an old ancient pond, representing the continuity of tradition.  The Frog’s jumping into the pond and its disrupting the peace of the pond indicates a break in tradition in its metaphorical sense.  It is the water that becomes the source of the sound that disrupts the quiet.  The translation of the poem is done by Robert Hass, the American poet, translator and critic.  Thus, these two poems reveal Basho’s mastery of the haiku form and his ability to convey complex emotions and ideas in just a few words.

I have a Broom – Zhai Yongming

 

Zhai Yongming was a prominent figure in Chinese literature during the 1980’s, a period that brought literary renaissance and cultural reform to china.  The American poets, Sylvia Plath and Emily Dickinson influenced her a lot.  Her work shows the influence of literary breakthroughs in the Post-Mao Era.  She is always against the Chinese distinction between Yin and Yang.  Yin represents the feminine, the shadowy side of the mountains whereas Yang, that represents the masculine the sunny side of the mountains.  She stands for women and captures the contemporary experiences of Chinese women in her poems.

Zhai Youngmin’s poem ‘I have a Broom’ explores the theme of identity and power.  Michael M Day has translated this poem into English. The broom is a tool to clean the filth and a tool of empowerment.  A woman’s work is her identity and it helps her claim control of her own life and defends against ridicule of others.  She finds courage and draws strength from her familial roots, especially from her mother.

The Broom in the hands of Zhai Yongming, who narrates the poem is actually the work that provides her a colourful life, fresh air and a path and so sweeps away the rubbish of today and yesterday.  She puts on work cloths.  She puts on new work cloths. When she looks into the mirror she finds the mildness of her mother in her eyes.  She decides not to have worried looks on the colours of billboards kept at the corner of the streets.  She says that she will move on greeting the morning breeze behind her with the broom in her hand and also clean the street ahead her.

Thus the poem ends with a note of determination that helps her sweep the fears, gets strength from her roots and finds a new sense of clarity and purpose towards a bright future.

Won’t you celebrate with me – Lucille Clifton

 

Lucille Clifton (1936-2010), an African American poet, served as the State of Maryland’s Poet Laureate from 1974 to 1985.  In addition to her numerous poetry collections, she wrote many children’s books. Clifton’s poem “Won’t you celebrate with me” that talks about making of a self was written on her getting inspired by Walt Whitman’s poem “Song of myself”.  In the 1960s, when this poem was written, the struggles of the civil rights movement awakened a new sense of self-awareness for African Americans.  They actually experienced both a historical exile from Africa, as they had their roots in Africa and a metaphorical exile from the so-called American dream.  Clifton, through this poem celebrates her hard earned sense of identity and her place in the world.  As ‘race’ and ‘gender’ become points of difference and defiance in the poem, she defines herself as both ‘non white’ (not ‘black’) and ‘woman’ (not character).

As Clifton was a non white American, she had to live amidst racial discrimination from whites and as she was a woman, she had to suffer gender discrimination too.  By saying ‘born in Babylon’ she compares the non whites in America to the Jews who were exiled to Babylon from Zion, referred in the book of Genesis.  By saying ‘Star shine and Clay’ there is a reference to the origin of the universe and the creation of Adam.  Though her race and gender make others feel that she is smaller, she has made her life up with which she is quite satisfied.  Though something wants to kill her, it fails and she has won. By 'something', she refers racism and patriarchy. Though they tried to silence her, they couldn't, she is still very much alive and active.  So, she wants to celebrate her victory.  That is how the poem moves from rhetoric to image, argument to resolution.  So, this poem can be considered as a modern sonnet.  The under statements used through the usage of ‘non-white’ and ‘something has tried to kill me and has failed’ add beauty to this poem.  The apt use of the lower case ‘i’ instead of ‘I’ is another attraction.  Thus this poem of resistance and self assertion written by Clifton is undoubtedly a poem to be celebrated in every sense.

To see him again – Gabriela Mistral

 

Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957) is a Chilean poet, educator and diplomat, who was the first Latin American poet to receive the Nobel Prize in 1945.  Her real name was Lucila Godoy Alcayaga.  She coined her name from her favorite poets Gabriela D’ Annunzio and Fredric Mistral. Celebrated Chilean author Pablo Neruda was deeply influenced by her.  Her love for the downtrodden and poor as well as personal sorrows is well reflected in her poetry.  The suicide of her first lover had a traumatic impact on her life.

Gabriela Mistral’s ‘To see him again’ depicted the intense grief and trauma fallowing the loss of her lover.  She realizes that she can’t see him at night packed with a few stars, in the morning and in the afternoons.  Neither at the edge off a pale road that encircles the fields nor upon the rim of a trembling fountain.  Never beneath the forests’ luxuriant Poplar trees, where she yelled at him once.  Not in the grotto that returned the echo of her words.  Just to see him again she is ready to go even to heaven’s dead water and inside the boiling hole of hell.  She wants to get united with him again and embrace him putting her hands around his neck.  Here the ‘painted knot around his bloody neck’ also has a reference to the suicide of the lover by hanging himself.  It happened on the day when she yelled at him beneath the poplar tree one night.  Now she is ready even to die to meet her lover.  Thus Mistral has broken heartedly conveyed her emotions of her grief and loss towards her dead lover.  Thus this poem that is translated into English by Mariela Griffor ascends from the personal melancholic stage to a stage of a eulogy that speaks of the universal experience of grief and loss at the end.  The effective imagery used in this poem appeals to the senses of sight and sound.  Repletion is another literary device that portrays the intense emotions of desire and longing of the poet.

A century later – Imtiaz Dharker

 

Imtiaz Dharker (born in 1954) is a renowned poet, artist and film maker.  Though she was born in Lahore, Pakistan, as her family migrated to Glasgow, she spent her formative years in U.K. She describes herself as a "Scottish Muslim Calvinist".  She was appointed as the chancellor of New Castle University from 2020.  She has six collections of poetry to her credit.  With ‘Poetry Live’, an organization formed by her deceased husband Simon Powell, she reads poetry to thousands of students every year travelling across counties along with celebrated poets.  Apart from exhibiting her paintings, she has directed near around 300 films. Gender Justice, Identity, geographical and cultural displacements and communal conflicts are the recurring theme in her poetry.

Imtiaz Dharker’s ‘A century later’, written in 2014 alludes to Wilfred Owen’s a century old celebrated war poem, ‘Anthem for Doomed Youth’.  It draws a comparison between school going firls and soldiers in the warfront.  The school ground is also compared to battle ground.  The school girls in the poem are striving for education and to attain their egalitarian rights.  They are all denied by those in power. The poem specifically alludes the schooling of Malala Yousafzai in 2012.  A girl who is from her school is the target of the gunmen, when they shoot. So, she continues to walk.  The bullet cuts a pathway in her mind.  She reaches an orchard full of puppies.  Now the girl has won the right to be ordinary.  Now she can wear bangles, paint her finger nails and go to school.  So, she tells now that the bullet is stupid and so it has failed.  It can’t kill a book or the knowledge and wisdom in it.  There is a swarm coming, the school girls take their places on the front line to get their education and rights.

Malala Yousafzai, who survived the bullet continued her education in England and was awarded Nobel Peace Prize in 2014 for her fight for right of education to all girls.  Through this poem Imtiaz Dharker urges girls to assert their identity and be proud of their women-hood.  They have to line up in the fight and win the battle.  Moreover the symbols and imagery in the poem and the Onomatopoeic words like ‘buzzing’, ‘murmur’ and ‘humming’, echo the rising awakening of a revolution.

Text – Card Ann Duffy

 

Carol Ann Duffy (born in 1955) was the first poet laureate of the U.K. in 2009 and a queer.  Duffy’s writings offer compassionate insight into over looked female and marginalized view points.  Her works delve into both personal conflicts and larger social issues. Duffy’s ‘Text’ is a short 8 – line poem that offers a sad perspective on how over-reliance on technology for communicating can remove authentic human connection from romance.  Here she talks about the over analyzing of the romantic text messages from the partners and the limitations of the digital-only communication.

Though the poetess uses mobile phone for texting messages, she only treats it as an injured bird.  As the messages are in broken chord they are not strong and deep. A text message misses the warmth and affection that one can find in a face to face talk. They can only be felt in the tone, voice, physical closeness and in the touch.  Though the small ‘xx’ represent kisses in a text message, it lacks the real warmth of the beloved.  So, the love and affection that are sent through the ‘blurred’ text will never be heard.  Thus the poet concludes the poem with a sobering note regarding the over reliance on technology.  The 14 lines of this poem are divided into 7 couplets.  The poet has used simile, repetition, asyndeton, and epigram to make this poem a memorable one.  Her comparing the phone to ‘an injured bird’ and the repetition of the word ‘text’, attract us. Similarly, omission of conjunction in reading of first, second, third and the paradoxical usage of ‘heard’ towards the end make the poem remember worthy. 

---- Thulasidharan V