Analysis of the Poem Roots by Jean Arasanayagam

 

A poetry and fiction writer, Arasanayagam was born Jean Solomons, in Kandy, on December 2, 1931, passed away at the age of 87 in August 2019. Jean had had a very academic and disciplined background in her family and later, after her graduation she had to experience rigid and alien treatment in her career platform as a teacher. Her parents had given her freedom of choice, she chose a fellow writer Thyagaraja Arasanayagam as her life partner, a Tamil from North. Her mother-in-law was very rigid in her views as she said. This tension between her experiences of identity and culture informed her writing, providing her with the perspective from which to critique complex society through poetry and prose. In 1983, Arasanayagam and her husband ‘Arasa’ were forced to hide from the marauding mobs that were burning the houses belonging to Tamils, and were eventually relocated to a refugee camp. That incident made her an alien in her own country, questioning where to be ‘belong.’

The poem Root might be a reflection of her self-recognition about her lost roots. Though she is a native Sri Lankan, the treatment given must have made her feel alien, puzzled about the belongingness to the country. Once you have been uprooted and planted in another pot, it is not the same soil you have to grow; the emotional bond attached to the root ground is not the same.  

In the poem, roots are a metaphorical reference to the environment where you were born and brought up. There is always a bond, feeling of security there as there are people around you to take care of you when you feel vulnerable.

  

Roots

Stanza i part i

I learn how important it is to have roots

Just when it is too late and earth eroded

Grows shallower, I watch it washing away beneath rain

The frail field crabs scuttling under rock among

The little fishes, the water gushing through the runnels

 

Poem starts with first person point of view hinting this poem related to a personal experience. Poet or the speaker reveals her realization of the necessity of firm roots in a chaotic situation. Poet confesses that it is too late for her when she realized it: ‘just when it is too late and earth eroded.’ The imagery created by the earth is being eroded and crabs seeking shelter under rocks and water gushing harshly create a kind of violent picture. Her use of words ‘frail’, ‘little’ suggests about the vulnerability and insecurity of victims who have lost their roots. The idea might be related to the poets own life experience.    

 

Stanza i part ii

And women wading knee deep, thigh deep, flinging

The bunches of paddy hither and thither, plop, plop,

The roots tangled in earth dripping mud and moisture,

Women bent over like feeding cranes singing their wild

Shrill pel-kavi among the shrieking green parakeets and

Field sparrows, they painstakingly weave patterns

Embroidering the field with fine green wavering stalks

Of paddy, in their midst the grey crane with

White sing preens and stalks the titthayas and

Long stretched leaping dogs

 

The scene changes into a paddy field where women farmers uprooting paddy plants from a bed of paddy and bind them into bunches and other women taking plants one by one or two by two and plant them in separate beds. This had been a common sight in earlier paddy cultivation in Sri Lanka which has now been changed with the advancement of methods. The plants are uprooted from their place where they used to grow and are planted in separate beds according to a pattern. The incident might be one of the poet’s happy memories in her birthplace and, on the other hand, she might have tried to draw parallels with the situation to her life.

The last three lines are interesting though it is the real thing happens during the planting session. Cranes usually walk around and find their food in troubled water. The ‘grey and white’ crane hunting vulnerable small fishes and frogs in mud water can have a deep parallel implication to the incidents related to incidents happened in 1983.

 

-how can my roots grow deep

Seed planted in drought desiccated by heat

My eyes looking into yours tell me that I

Cannot belong, even the buffaloes wallowing and the snakes

Gliding through silver mound and rustling through thickets

Of sun flower have come wholly from this land.

 

The poet questions from an unknown person, may be the reader about her identity. She admits that it is hard to feel ‘belong’ to a place where there is no favorable condition to sustain: ‘seed planted in drought desiccated by heat.’ She claims that even the setting is quite familiar, she does not feel it home anymore. The kinesthetic imagery given related to an agricultural setting probably show the features of the background where she was grown up.   

 

Out of the blindness of the sea where those unknown

Voyages began I was drawn through sea nets

And flung among the coffee berries and cinnamon,

My skin is green with the verdigris of age

My insignia rubbed off, the coin useful for

Neither barter nor trade.

 

The first three lines might be related to her ancestry. In the history of Sri Lanka, the Tamil workers were brought from India by the Europeans who governed the country for cheap labour at plantation industry. She points out that it was not her choice to be a part of the community but still they were forced to be a part of the community. She might question the morality of the people who try to cast them away after scraping off their sweat and tears for the economy. In the last three lines she sees herself as an old, worthless brass coin, rusted-green, the value is faded which has no facial value to be used for any purchase. She shows that once you are old, the importance of root values become less important. Is it really the truth? the old are the ones who carry the value of the root to the next generation. Her bitter experiences might have made her feel worthless.

 

Soon, the sail unfurled of that ghost ship

Of my ancestors will curl

Round me and flip me over into the sea of darkness

Where it is no longer important to have roots.

 

‘The sail unfurled of that ghost ship/ of my ancestors’ is a metaphorical statement about impending death suggesting that the speaker is at her twilight age of life. She understands that it does not matter worrying about roots after death has taken you into ‘the sea of darkness.’ The poem ends with a mood of realization of the emptiness of life where we linger onto things dear; but at the end of the life nothing will remain, you have to leave everything behind and embrace the death.

The mood created by the poem is quite gloomy and nostalgic. The reader can understand about the feeling of loss and remorsefulness of the speaker about her lost roots. Have you ever felt that feeling of rootlessness? Have you ever felt homesickness? the poet, Jean Arasanayagam through her poem roots seems to showcase her own feeling of loss. However, with the maturity she realizes that no roots will be permanent as life is a transient one.   

What is your idea about the poem and the poet? Kindly leave a comment in the comment section. Share the post if you feel the nostalgic feeling of rootlessness.