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.
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